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Chapter One

“ N o, no, no. You cannot leave it like that. The mantel is bare. We are to receive the new Duke. Everything must be perfect!”

Selina was unsure who exactly her mother was speaking to. The woman had run from room to room like a frantic mother hen, and at present, the servants had not caught up with her. Selina rolled her eyes as her mother changed directions again , forcing Selina’s hackles to rise all the further.

“Mother, you have not listened to me for even a moment. Please could you desist with your constant flitting about.”

The new Duke of Soulden would be arriving soon, yes. Selina was more than aware, but the level to which her mother had decided to “prepare” the estate was even more outlandish than when Selina had been wed.

“You know she won’t be satisfied until everything in the entire house and outside it is to her liking, Selina. Should you wish to speak to her, simply do it.”

Myra eyed Selina from her perch on the small settee.

She’d been reclining there with her book all morning, and just the sight of her was enough to get Selina missing Ethel all the more.

They were both cut from the same cloth, and Selina could see Myra becoming an unlucky bluestocking spinster just like Ethel certainly would.

Trying in vain to adjust herself within her corset, convinced the thing had been laced too tightly, Selina sighed and stepped in front of her mother, who was studying a drape like she was moments from tearing it down and demanding that it be replaced.

This is precisely why I am the way I am. How is it that I can see the cause of my situation and still not be able to change a thing about it?

“Bridget,” Selina called out, at last snatching her mother’s attention from the curtains, “you are doing too much. I insist that you calm yourself. We do not need to be doing all this for the Duke.”

Her mother froze, gaping at her like Selina had cursed something foul in her presence instead of simply using her given name to seize the woman’s focus.

“Selina! Do not call me that.” Her mother shook away the glare pinned to her face and swept her hand down the front of her informal dress, a habit of hers.

“Furthermore, I am seeing fit that the Duke holds us in the best possible regard. You should be grateful for my care at the least or better yet, assisting me to ready the estate.”

Lasting no more than a minute in stillness, her mother was hurried back into her state of perpetual straightening and calling out to the servants, who’d now reached the parlor where they were all gathered, shouting orders at them.

“Mother, over the course of the few weeks that you’ve been living here, I had thought I had made it perfectly clear that I am not looking to impress the Duke.

” Selina was forced to turn around as her mother circled the room and then began to leave it altogether for the drawing room across the hall.

“Would you please hold still for even a few minutes!”

Lydia giggled as she tagged along with their mother, her light, jovial expression grating on Selina’s nerves as much as the girl’s typical melodramatic sobbing.

“Well, come on then!” Lydia called out. “I want to see how this plays out.”

Selina pinched the bridge of her nose, sighing as she dragged herself from the parlor to the drawing room where her mother was still appraising everything in sight.

Myra didn’t bother getting up from her seat, her nose still buried between the pages of her latest read.

For a moment, Selina was envious of Myra’s ability to block out everything around her, focusing instead on the fantastical worlds in those novels she read.

Still, Selina did not have that option. She was the eldest of the three of them and the Dowager of the very estate in which they all lived now.

There was too much expected of her, and as much as Selina had been able to free herself of a few of those chains—by marriage to the previous Duke of this estate and his unfortunate though expected passing—the arrival of the heir to the duchy had secured fresh links around her neck.

Her solicitor had already informed her that the new Duke of Soulden expected her near-immediate remarriage, despite the fact that Selina had not been looking for another husband since Easton and was in fact quite content to remain an unwed widow for the foreseeable future.

It didn’t matter, however. Selina’s wishes for her life rarely did.

Perhaps that was why she sought out every moment where she could bring joy or levity to a situation.

Perhaps that was hy she took such happiness from manipulating the ton and her own reputation into armor that shielded her from prying eyes and those looking for a proper wife.

Selina had fulfilled that duty already, and she wasn’t looking to do so again.

Now in the drawing room, Lydia watched as their mother scurried through the space, inspecting every last detail. Selina stepped in front of Bridget, blocking her path.

“It is more than adequate, Mother. Let the estate be. You’ve already gone above and beyond by planning a ball to receive the Duke.”

“Selina!” Her mother threw up her arms and dropped them just as quickly, staring at Selina as if she’d purposefully torn the hem of her mother’s dress. “I have work that must be done. You certainly aren’t doing it.”

Lydia snorted through her nose as she held back a laugh, and both Selina and their mother glared at her.

“I am not, as it is not necessary,” Selina replied. “He is coming merely to settle things, and I have planned to discuss the future with him privately. I’m not looking to bend over backward to impress the man who’s begrudgingly taking up his title.”

“Need I remind you, Selina,” her mother folded her arms, her ample curves rounding out over the top of her stays, “the man has not afforded me the same allowance that was provided by the late Duke. Without his financial support, I have limited resources to care for your sisters and myself.”

The two of them were stuck in a match of wills, their stares blazing as Lydia stood by watching them as if she were at the theater.

“That is precisely why we should not be affording him any extravagant care.”

Still, it was clear that her mother did not agree with her. Selina clenched her jaw, a pounding headache building with each pump of her blood through her temples.

“Mother, his lack of care for you and the girls, the way he has been so flippant about his duties, and the utter lack of concern he has over what had been established under Easton show this new Duke’s character.

He is not a man to hold in high regard. Clearly.

Why are you going out of your way to impress him? ”

Stepping around her, Selina watched her mother speed down the hall toward the study.

The staff practically ran to keep up with her, and Selina herself was forced to weave in and out of the bodies to keep her mother in eyesight.

As they all pushed into the next room, Bridget complained about the insignificant amount of dust on the shelves, which was practically nonexistent, and the way the chandelier in the hall hung slightly crooked to her eyes.

It was going to take an entire bottle of wine to ease Selina’s nerves at this rate.

“Mother! You can’t even be bothered to answer me?” She huffed, the woman not even facing her, but the collection of Selina’s late husband’s books.

“These are so terribly dull in color. Could we perhaps move these tomes to a more suitable space and replace them with lighter ones? They all clog up the room with darkness and drab tones.”

When she reached out for one, Selina was quick to yank her mother’s hand away from the books, putting herself between the shelves and the woman who sought to disrupt them.

“You will not touch these. They were Easton’s prized possessions. I will not allow them to be moved.”

Her mother rolled her eyes, turning on her heel to wreak havoc in some other location. Selina rushed up to her, taking her mother’s arm so that she might actually listen to her.

“Mother, please. The man is demanding that I wed. Does that not concern you in the slightest? I have expressed that I do not wish to marry again.”

“Selina,” her mother slipped past her, carrying on with this endless assessment of the estate, which was entirely unnecessary, “whether you like it or not, and trust me, I am aware that you don’t, the new Duke of Soulden, the man coming to see us who will arrive any moment, is the head of this household now. ”

She froze, the words both unexpected and unsurprising.

Bridget Figgins, Dowager Viscountess of Hickling, was a practical woman and not romantic or fanciful in the least. It was a wonder that Lydia was related to her at all, and even Myra was not as clinically single-minded.

Selina’s stomach churned, the pressure of her overly tight corset squeezing down on her all the more.

“The man may have been from the lower middle class. He may be a self-made man of business, not accustomed to a title or what it is to be an aristocrat by birth. However, he has achieved success, rising from humble beginnings to become one of the wealthiest men in England. If you wish to continue living the life you are used to…”

Selina felt her skin prickle under her mother’s stare, the way her similar brown eyes blazed with purpose. She was familiar with how stubborn her mother could be, how concerned with perfection and duty. Right now, it felt as if those concerns were multiplied to an incredible magnitude.

“…the life that affords you the opportunity to live with a certain level of freedom not usually seen among the ton, one that also benefits your sisters, particularly when it comes to choosing matches, and me, then you will need to learn to get along with the man. Dare I say, impress him.”

“Mother, I?—”

“Selina, sacrifices are necessary in every part of life, and this time is no different. It will be expected of you to secure our futures.”