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" I can't believe it," Edwina said. "You mean to tell me that an heir actually has appeared after all this time?"

"That's right," Victoria said heavily, wrapping both hands around her cup of tea. "And I don't know what I'm going to do. He's so unpleasant. He doesn't listen to a word I say."

"You can always come back and stay with me," Cressida told her sister.

"How can I do that? This is the very first place he would look for me," Victoria said.

"And it's not as if he simply wants me out of the house, you know.

He wants to tend to my reputation. He's told me that it's unacceptable what people say about me—that it's tainting his reputation.

That's why he wants me to marry, I think.

He believes that it will prove something about who I really am if there's a gentleman who wants me. "

"And you don't think that's true?"

"I don't care! Why would I? I know I didn't kill my husband, and if people want to gossip about it then that is their problem, not mine.

I'm certainly not interested in a marital arrangement with a gentleman I don't even know to prove my innocence.

You remember what happened the last time I agreed to marry someone I hardly knew," she added darkly.

"I certainly can't count on a death under mysterious circumstances saving me for a second time. "

"Well, if that did happen, it would hardly help your argument that you're innocent of murder."

"I don't care about that. People will think what they want to think. But if I agree to marry again, I'll probably find myself stuck in an unhappy situation forever. I can't have that."

"There may not be anything you can do about it," Lavinia spoke up gently. "After all, it is the duke's right to arrange for your future."

"I just can't believe that," Victoria sighed. "I can't believe there's nothing that can be done. There must be something. It's impossible to believe that I'm stuck with whatever he decides—that I have no freedom and no recourse. Can that really be the way the world works?"

"You know that it is," Cressida said quietly. "I don't like to see you so unhappy, Victoria, truly, but perhaps you ought to try to make the best of it. You had a bad experience last time, but getting married doesn't have to be a bad thing."

"Well, that's easy for you to say. You married a man you loved."

"But I didn't love him when I married him," Cressida reminded her. "I married him because you didn't want to. Don't you remember that?"

Victoria nodded. It was true that when Matthew had come in search of a husband, her father had offered her to him first. It was only Victoria's desire to avoid a marriage to Matthew that had spurred Cressida to step forward and marry him in her stead.

And it had all turned out for the best, of course.

Cressida was now deeply in love with her husband and grateful to have found him.

But that didn't mean the same thing would happen to Victoria if she were to marry a stranger.

In fact, Cressida's happiness made it seem even less likely that Victoria might find the same thing.

Surely lightning couldn't strike twice like that.

"This new duke," Edwina said. "Who is he? Do we know him?"

"His name is James Wentworth. I was given his name by my solicitor after the late duke's death—I had forgotten all about it. His papers prove that he is who he claims to be, but that doesn't make me feel any more sure of him."

"Oh," Edwina said, surprise evident in her voice. "I have heard of that man."

"You have?"

"Allan has mentioned him to me," Edwina explained.

"I've heard of him too," Lavinia spoke up."

"Have you?" Cressida asked. "I haven't. You must tell us everything you know, and quickly."

"He's a cold sort," Edwina said. "A ruthless businessman—that's what Allan says. It's made him very successful, as you might expect, but he's also not the type of man to care very much for anyone or anything."

"That matches what Seth has told me," Lavinia said. "All his passion in life is for his business deals."

"Well, that makes sense," Victoria said bitterly. "That explains why he's so eager to marry me off in spite of what I might want for myself. All he cares about is how my reputation is impacting his business—my happiness is of no concern to him."

"Yes, that sounds like the man Allan has described," Edwina agreed.

"He's told me stories about Wentworth making deals.

How he never considers what would be best for anyone else involved—he single-mindedly pursues what he wants.

It does seem to me as though that's what he's doing with you, Victoria.

He's so intent on what he wants and what's important to him that he's not willing to consider what you want. "

"I have a bad feeling about this," Cressida said, her brow creasing. "I would have liked to think it would be all right, but from what you're describing, it sounds as if this isn't someone we should trust with Victoria's future."

"No," Lavinia agreed. "I wouldn't imagine that he cares very much about who she marries or whether she's happy.

His primary concern is probably the simple fact of getting her married at all.

If he can do that, he'll turn the gossip away from her previous marriage and toward the next one.

And when your next husband doesn't die mysteriously, Victoria, people will stop speculating that you're someone who kills the men she marries just to lay claim to their fortunes. "

"He must know that she's not a murderer if he's so confident that she wouldn't kill again," Cressida said.

"I don't know if that's true," Victoria countered.

"He was very clear about the fact that he didn't care whether I had done it or not—that reputation was what mattered to him.

And if he's as cunning as you all say he is, it must be the case that he's thought about what will happen after I marry.

He must realize that I'm not likely to kill my next husband regardless of what might have happened in the past, because to do so would be far too suspicious.

He isn't a good man and I don't like him, but he's not a fool, and he knows that I'm not one either.

He knows I wouldn't commit the same crime twice.

You would have to be foolhardy in the extreme to do such a thing. "

"I hope he's as smart as you're giving him credit for," Cressida said.

"Well, I rather hope he isn't," Victoria said. "If he's a smart man, he'll already know where I am, and he'll be on his way to get me and to drag me back home."

"Perhaps not," Lavinia said. "Perhaps he's decided that allowing you to spend time here is a good thing, Victoria. It may be that he's able to see that time with your sister is what you need."

"We've just established that he doesn't care what I need," Victoria reminded Lavinia.

"Oh, I don't mean to suggest that he cares about it for your sake," Lavinia clarified. "I only meant to say that he might hope giving you some time here would make you more docile. That if you were in better spirits, you would be more willing to bend to his will."

Cressida laughed. "He's fooling himself if he believes that Victoria would ever bend to anyone's will," she said fondly. "That isn't who Victoria is."

"No, it's not," Victoria agreed. "And it's not what I intend on doing. He's about to find out that he started trouble with the wrong person."

Edwina's eyes widened eagerly. Of all of Victoria's friends, she was the one who was always the most eager for a little mischief. "What do you intend to do?"

"I'm going to do all I can to make him leave Stormwell," Victoria said. "He thinks I'm a murderer? Very well, I can use that to my advantage. I can make him fear me. I can make him run screaming from me. Maybe I can make him believe that the house is haunted by the ghosts of my victims!"

"Victoria!" Cressida sounded scandalized. "If you do that, he really will believe you killed your husband."

"Cressida, I don't care what he believes.

None of this is happening because of what he believes.

It's entirely because he can't stand gossip.

He doesn't appear to understand that gossip will afflict people no matter what they do, and no matter how good they are.

It can't be avoided. And if you can't avoid something, to my mind, the best thing to do is to embrace it. "

"You're saying he ought to embrace the fact that people think you are guilty of murder?"

"I'm saying I ought to embrace it. It might be useful at a time like this, to help me scare an unwanted man away from my house.

If he thinks I do harm to people who bother me, he may not want to bother me.

" She smiled. "At any rate, I can certainly bother him .

He had better get ready to hear the pianoforte at all hours of the night.

Of course, he'll tell me that it's his pianoforte and that I mustn't play it, but I can't see how he's going to stop me.

He has a lot of power over me, to be sure, but we haven't yet reached the point where he can control my actions. "

"You're playing a dangerous game," Cressida cautioned her.

"It's right there in the words you just said.

You haven't yet reached the point where he can control your actions.

If he feels you're too far outside his control, he may become frustrated with you and act to bring you further within his rule.

You're hoping that what you do will drive him off—maybe it will.

But you need to be aware that it could also have the opposite effect, Victoria.

You might find yourself in over your head. "

"I just don't see how things could get any worse," Victoria said.

"Right now he doesn't care who you marry. What if he decides that, in addition to wanting to marry you off, he wants to punish you for your willful behavior? You might find yourself in a truly abominable situation, and what would you do then?"

"She's right, Victoria," Lavinia chimed in. "James Wentworth is a man who will stop at nothing to get what he wants. You need to be cautious."

"I'm cautious," Victoria protested.

Everyone else in the room exchanged glances, and Victoria could imagine what they were thinking. The truth was that they were right. Caution had never been her strong suit. That had been the problem in her debut season, and it was the problem she faced now.

But caution wouldn't serve her in this situation. That wasn't what was going to make the duke go away, and all she wanted was to see him gone.

"Don't worry about me," she told her friends. "I'm determined to make this situation go away, and I'll do whatever it takes for that to happen."

"Victoria," Cressida said uncomfortably, "that's exactly why we are worried."

But Victoria was no longer paying her sister any attention. She was too busy lost in thoughts about her plan—a plan that she hoped would irritate the new duke so much that he would give up on the idea of Stormwell entirely and go back to wherever he had been for the past two years.

And then Victoria would be free to return to the life that had made her happy.

She could think of nothing she wanted more.