Page 43 of Wedded to the Cruel Duke
“Truer words have never been spoken,” Lady Townsend laughed. She bent down and pressed a soft kiss to Phoebe’s cheek. “It is so good to see you again, my dear. I do wish you had sent word earlier to let us know you were coming.”
Phoebe shot Minerva a look to warn her sister against divulging the nature of how she came about to visit. The middle Townsend sister nodded subtly in acknowledgment.
“I missed you, too, Mother,” she murmured instead, and seeing the beginnings of Daphne’s pout, “And my sisters, too, of course.”
“If you missed us as much as you claim to, you could have told me!” she complained.
“Very well then,” Phoebe teased her. “Perhaps I should just leave and send word of my next visit—”
“Don’t you dare, Phoebe Townsend!”
“Montgomery,” she corrected her youngest sister.
“Indeed,” Lady Townsend agreed, with a loving smile aimed at her eldest daughter. “But…you are sure that everything is all right with you, my dear? Your husband is not giving you much difficulty, is he?”
Phoebehadthought about confiding in her mother, but then she shook her head and with a smile, she told her mother, “The Marquess is a good man, Mama. I am quite fortunate to have married him.”
Daphne let out a giggle. “See how proud she is of that fact?”
“And why should I not be?”
“Indeed,” Daphne nodded sagely. “The Marquess of Wentworth was considered quite the catch before—well, before youcaughthim.”
“Why do you make him sound as if he was some fish in the river?”
Lady Townsend could only shake her head at their antics. As soon as Phoebe reassured her that all was well with her at Wentworth Park, her mother finally left her with her younger sisters.
“Fi!” Daphne burst out laughing as soon as their mother had left. “Onlyyoucould ever put it that way. Imagine that—the fearful Marquess of Wentworth compared to a fish! In any case, where is that husband of yours anyway? I had thought that with his marriage to you, we would finally see more of him…”
Phoebe pursed her lips. “Well, that is one of the reasons I actually came by.”
“Oh?” Daphne pursed her lips and leaned forward. “I sense you are about to say something absolutely shocking…”
“Shocking? Nothing of that sort, I assure you.” Phoebe waved her hands in front of her defensively. “I only thought that since, well, since you have had such success with your coming out,I was wondering if…ah…if you could teach me how to, um, interact with my husband.”
She looked towards Minerva, who just sipped at her tea with a neutral expression that begged to be left out of this particular conversation.
Daphne, however, smiled with an arched eyebrow. “Oh? I never thought we would be having this conversationever, sister dear.”
“And here we are now,” Phoebe muttered wryly. “But if you are only going to laugh at me about it, then I will have to go back to Wentworth—”
She sat up as if to leave when her youngest sister burst out laughing.
“Oh, do sit down! I was merely jesting!” Daphne giggled. “Of course, I will help you—well, to the best of my meager abilities, that is…”
“What meager abilities? Minnie tells me that your suitors have all lined up from Father’s study to the front door!”
“Minerva,” Daphne informed her primly. “Was exaggerating, of course.”
“Well, in any case, you have been the Townsend sister with the most success to date…”
Daphne shook her head, tutting. “Flattery will get you nowhere, Fi.”
“It will with Daph,” Minerva muttered, to which their youngest sister shot her a brief glare.
“I will pretend not to have heard that,” she told Minerva. She turned towards Phoebe. “Well, I cannot say that I am an expert, but these are the things that have worked for me…”
As her sister’s voice dropped to a low whisper, both Phoebe and Minerva drew closer to hear from Daphne and her words of wisdom. Phoebe, in particular, made note of all the things her sister said, committing them to memory.