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B efore Evelyn could come to grips with what was about to happen, her father flew through the front door, marching past the startled butler who blinked with confusion.

Rain droplets still clung to his traveling coat.

His boots left muddy prints across the Persian carpet as if he owned the very ground beneath his feet.

Evelyn’s stomach dropped. How long had it been since she last saw him? Months, not weeks.

She had known this moment would come, but seeing him here—in the flesh—made her feel suddenly, sickeningly vulnerable.

“Evelyn,” he said, his voice carrying that familiar tone of paternal disappointment mixed with iron authority. “Gather your belongings. We are leaving. Immediately.”

She remained exactly where she stood, though her hands trembled at her sides. Behind her, she felt Nathaniel step closer, his breath on her neck.

“Father,” she said, surprised by how level her voice sounded. “How… unexpected.”

“Unexpected?” His pale eyes flashed with anger. “What is unexpected is finding my daughter living in such circumstances. The entire ton is talking, Evelyn. The scandal you have brought upon our family name is?—”

“The scandal I have brought? I did exactly as you requested. I married the old man you chose. I fulfilled my duty.”

“Your duty,” he sneered, “was to provide your husband with an heir. Instead, you managed to be widowed within hours, in record time. And now, rather than returning home like you should have, you have taken up residence with another man entirely.”

“That man,” Nathaniel’s voice rose, “is standing right here. And I would appreciate being addressed directly rather than spoken of as though I were not present in my own home.”

Her father turned, and for the first time, seemed to notice Nathaniel.

“Your Grace,” he said with a bow that managed to be both technically correct and dismissive. “I trust you understand my position. A father must look after his daughter’s reputation.”

“A father,” Nathaniel replied, “should have considered his daughter’s reputation before selling her to a seventy-two-year-old man to settle his debts.”

The silence that followed was deafening. Evelyn watched her father’s face cycle through several shades of red before settling on a mottled purple.

“How dare you?—”

“How dare I speak the truth?” Nathaniel stepped forward. “Tell me, Lord Lowey, where exactly were you on your daughter’s wedding day? Off pursuing another ‘business opportunity,’ I believe?”

“My business affairs are not your concern, aside from the one concerning her jointure, which I demand as well. Your solicitors have kept me waiting long enough. My daughter deserves her just reward.”

“They become my concern when they involve the well-being of a young woman under my protection,” Nathaniel said. “And they especially become my concern when you appear at my door demanding money that does not belong to you.”

Lord Lowey’s mask slipped. “That money is mine by right. She is unmarried, living in scandal?—”

“She is a widow,” Nathaniel corrected. “And she is hardly living in scandal. She has been treated with every courtesy befitting her station.”

“Living under your roof! Unchaperoned! The scandal sheets are full of your sordid misadventures day after day!”

“Then perhaps,” Evelyn said quietly, “you should have thought of that before you disappeared immediately after arranging my marriage and left me to face the consequences alone. And if they are full of scandal day after day, why have you only come now?”

Her father whirled on her. “You ungrateful girl! Do you think I wanted any of this? Do you think I had a choice?”

“You had choices,” she replied. “You could have lived within your means. You could have stopped spending not only your money, but also your mother’s and Aunt Eugenia’s.

You could have put your family’s well-being before your own desires.

Instead, you chose to gamble away everything until nothing was left but my virtue! ”

“That’s enough!” he roared. “I am your father! You will show me respect!”

“Respect is earned,” Nathaniel said. “And from what I can see, yours was spent long ago.”

Her father turned on him with fury. “You self-righteous—you think because you inherited a title that makes you better than me? You are only heir by chance anyhow, because others passed before you.”

“Is that not how anyone comes into their titles? Through the misfortune of others? Only some of us manage better than others, my lord,” Nathaniel replied with a small smile.

“Do you not think it immoral, shacking up with your dead uncle’s bride?”

“I think that a man who would sell his nineteen-year-old daughter to the highest bidder has no right to lecture anyone about morality,” Nathaniel replied.

“I think that a man who abandons his family, then returns only to demand money, has forfeited any claim to respect or obedience. And most certainly has no claim to his daughter’s fortune. ”

“I need those funds,” Lord Lowey said, and suddenly his voice cracked with desperation. “You don’t understand the pressures I face, the debts?—”

“Then you should have considered those pressures before you accrued them,” Nathaniel said. “The money stays where it is.”

“You cannot refuse me indefinitely. I have legal rights?—”

“And I have excellent solicitors,” Nathaniel replied. “Who informed me that releasing the funds will require considerable time and paperwork. Weeks, at minimum. Possibly months.”

Evelyn watched her father’s face crumble as he realized he was being outmaneuvered.

“Fine,” he said. “Then Evelyn will return home with me. She can hardly remain here while?—”

“While what?” Nathaniel asked. “While she makes a respectable marriage to a man of her choosing? Which, I might add, is already in progress.”

“I—what?” both Evelyn and her father said simultaneously.

“Her Grace has more than one willing suitor who would gladly marry her and show her the respect she is due,” Nathaniel continued, his tone betraying nothing of the lie.

“Is that so?” Lord Lowey’s eyes narrowed as he looked between them. “And which of these worthy gentlemen has captured my daughter’s interest?”

Evelyn’s mind raced. She could feel the trap closing in around her, could see her father’s suspicion growing. But she also saw her escape.

“I am considering multiple offers,” she said, lifting her chin. “All of them are from gentlemen who see me as more than a commodity to be traded.”

“How convenient,” her father sneered. “And yet none of these eager suitors are here to meet me.”

“Because they are gentlemen,” Evelyn replied. “They understand that a lady in mourning requires discretion.”

“This is preposterous?—”

“What is preposterous,” Nathaniel interrupted, “is your assumption that you can simply appear here and make demands. Your daughter is not leaving. Her funds are not being released. And if you think to turn your attention to your younger daughters as alternative sources of income, you will find yourself sadly mistaken.”

“You cannot stop me from managing my own family affairs.”

“I can, and I will,” Nathaniel said. “Make no mistake, Lord Lowey—I outrank you by several rungs. And suppose I hear so much as a whisper that you are attempting to arrange inappropriate marriages for Lady Charlotte or Lady Marianne. In that case, I will ensure that every gentleman’s club in London, as well as every peer in the realm, knows exactly what sort of man you are.

Your credit will be worthless, your name will be mud. Do try me.”

The threat hung in the air like a cloud of smoke. Lord Lowey’s hands clenched and unclenched at his sides.

“This is not over,” he said finally. “Evelyn, you are my daughter. You will come to your senses.”

“I am exactly where I belong,” she replied. “And I am making my own decisions now.”

“We shall see about that.” He turned toward the door, then paused. “When this all falls apart—and it will—do not come crying to me.”

The door slammed behind him with such force that the crystal decanters on the sideboard rattled.

In the silence that followed, Evelyn became aware of her rapid heartbeat. She had done it. She had stood up to him.

“Thank you,” she said. “For everything you said. For protecting Charlotte and Marianne. I could not have?—”

“You realize,” he said, “that you have talked yourself into quite a corner, don’t you?”

She blinked. “What do you mean?”

“You just told your father multiple gentlemen are courting you. That an engagement is imminent.” His eyes met hers, and she saw something unreadable there. “Which means you’ll need to actually accept one of them now. Soon.”

The words hit her like cold water. Of course. In her desperation to escape her father’s demands, she had trapped herself more thoroughly than he ever could have.

“I—” she began, but Nathaniel was already turning away.

“I’ll make the arrangements,” he said without looking back. “The ball, additional introductions. Whatever it takes.”

And then he was gone, leaving her standing alone in the drawing room with the sudden, terrible understanding that she had just signed away the very freedom she had fought so hard to protect.