Chapter 5

“You and Rosalind were quite fiery with one another today,” Isabella said to Felicity.

The two of them had decided to eat their dinner in Isabella’s bedroom. Their father had permitted this tonight. He wasn’t very predictable when it came to whether he would allow it. Sometimes, he seemed to like having the opportunity to eat with Rosalind alone, and at other times, he seemed to feel that the proper thing was for the whole family to be at the table together.

Perhaps it was the impending wedding that had led him to loosen his usual rules. Whatever the reason, Isabella was glad for it. She didn’t have much appetite tonight, though. The circumstances of her life were about to change, and it was difficult to put that fact out of her mind.

“I felt as if I must speak up,” Felicity said.

“Because I won’t be here much longer to do it for you? I do feel guilty about that,” Isabella said with a frown. “A part of me wishes that I could stay.”

“But of course, you mustn’t think like that,” Felicity said. “This marriage is the very best thing I could have imagined for you, Isabella. I always worried about you, sitting here alone in this house after I’d left and after Rosalind had left. You and Father hardly talk, which I can’t blame you for, but I know you never placed any value on the prospect of a marriage for yourself. It does put my mind at ease to know that you’ll have one now.”

“I’m glad to hear it,” Isabella said. “Of course, the only reason I’m doing it is to secure your future. I don’t care a whit for the Duke of Windhill.”

“And that’s the part that worries me,” Felicity said.

“What do you mean? I didn’t know you were worried at all. You didn’t seem to be very worried when we were down there talking to Father and Rosalind. You seemed very confident—more so than I think I’ve ever seen you before, in fact. I was very proud of you, speaking up for yourself the way you did.”

“Thank you,” Felicity said. “But the truth of the matter is that I do worry, Isabella. I worry about you perhaps as much as you worry about me. I know you don’t believe it because you’re the eldest and because you’ve always felt that it’s your responsibility to take care of me.

“It is my responsibility to take care of you,” Isabella said firmly. “It’s the duty our mother left me with—and it’s something I would have done on my own anyway because I care for you. You’re my younger sister. This is a part of that.”

“It’s not just a part of being an elder sister,” Felicity corrected her. “It’s a part of being a sister. You don’t really think I don’t worry about you every bit as much as you worry about me, I’m sure?”

“Well, there’s no need to. I’m perfectly all right.”

“Isabella, we don’t know this man,” Felicity argued. “Nobody does. You’ve had no courtship with him. You’ve met him one time. For all you know, he came here to claim you as his wife as a way of exacting revenge for the lie you told about him.”

“I don’t think he would do that,” Isabella replied.

“But you don’t know what he would do. That’s just it. You don’t know him at all.”

“I’m not saying that I think he wouldn’t do that because he’s too good or noble,” Isabella clarified. “I’m saying that I don’t think it makes very much sense for him to do such a thing. Why would he marry me if he didn’t want to on some level? Why would it be worth sacrificing so much of his own life just to punish me?”

“People were talking about him at the ball when you were spreading that false rumor about being engaged to him,” Felicity said. “Before it was true, I mean. And everyone said the same thing—that he was a mystery.”

“There’s nothing wrong with being a mystery,” Isabella replied.

For the most part, she was trying to reassure her sister. The truth was that this line of discussion did make her feel ever so slightly uneasy. Felicity was right. She knew nothing about the Duke, and what if the things she didn’t know turned out to be unpleasant? What if the mystery turned out to be something she wouldn’t want to discover about someone?

“Everyone says that he keeps to himself,” Felicity observed. “They describe him as a recluse. He never comes to parties. Never socializes. Sometimes people run across him in town, so they say, but he always makes excuses and parts ways with them as quickly as he can. He never invited anyone to Windhill. He has no friends. No one knows anything about him.”

“People love to gossip,” Isabella said dismissively. “You know how they gossip about us, Felicity, and is half of what they say about us the truth?”

“Isabella, most of what they say about us is the truth. You know that as well as I. The things that are wrong are only the judgments they make. They’re wrong to say that we’re unworthy people or that we don’t belong in society. Those things are just cruel. But there’s nothing incorrect about the facts they share. When they whisper about who our mother was, or when they say that Father didn’t really want us but that he took us in because she wanted him to, because it was her dying wish—those things are all the truth. The gossips have it right.”

Isabella didn’t know what to say. Her sister was right.

“So, if they’ve got us right, I have to think that they must have the Duke right as well,” Felicity considered. “The things they say about him must be based in truth. That he’s reclusive, for instance. That he hasn’t been out among society since the deaths of his parents, and that he’s never shown any interest in finding a marriage. And if he’s never taken an interest in that before, what could make him suddenly show an interest now? What’s changed? He hadn’t even met you before coming to our house that day, so we know it wasn’t that he was taken with you. The only difference was that he heard you had started a rumor about the pair of you, and why would that make a man who had never wanted a wife before suddenly want one?”

“I don’t know,” Isabella admitted.

“That’s why I find it suspicious,” Felicity said. “I think it could be dangerous.”

Isabella thought of the Duke, of the way it had felt to exchange barbs with him. He had been exciting, certainly, but not dangerous. No, she didn’t fear him—if anything, she felt rather thrilled about the fact that she would certainly get to spend more time with him. It was an unexpected feeling and not an altogether unpleasant one.

“You seem to be in two minds about this,” Isabella told her sister. “I thought you were happy that I had found a marriage for myself. Didn’t you say that?”

“I did,” Felicity agreed. “And I am happy, Isabella, truly. If I could have any wish granted, it would be to see you happily married! And that’s what I hope will happen for you now—but can you blame me for worrying? Knowing all that I do—and lacking everything I don’t know—about the Duke, I think anyone would worry. I think you would worry if I was the one who was marrying him.”

Well, that was certainly true, and Isabella knew that there was no point in denying it. She reached out and put a hand on top of her sister’s.

“You have nothing to worry about,” she said gently.

“How can you sound so sure of that? You don’t know.”

“I do know,” Isabella said firmly. “You know that I’m strong, Felicity. Haven’t I always been? Haven’t I always gotten the two of us through every hardship we’ve faced?”

Felicity bit her lip and nodded. Isabella was sure they were both thinking about those years right after their mother had died when the two of them had struggled to find their place in the Viscount’s home. When Rosalind had discovered for the very first time that she would have to regard the maid’s daughters as her own sisters and had spent every day raging at them for daring to intrude upon her perfect life. When Rosalind’s mother, who had still been alive then, had looked upon the two of them as evidence of a love her husband had had besides her and had despised them and sought to punish them for it. Those days had been difficult and painful, and though eventually they had come to learn how to live in the world they’d been thrown into, they both knew it was Isabella’s strength that had gotten them both through those hard times.

“You can do anything,” Felicity told her. “I know you can. None of this is about a lack of confidence in you.”

“I understand,” Isabella said gently. “You’re afraid of what might happen.”

“Of course, I am.

“But I have to try,” Isabella said. “You know that you and I have to marry. Even more than Rosalind has to, we have to. There will be no pretty lives for us as spinsters growing old alone in our father’s house. Rosalind was right when she suggested that we would have to return to lives as maids or that Father might marry us off to whomever would have us. He promised Mother that he would raise us, but he never promised that he would keep us for the rest of our lives. It’s the reason I’m so determined to secure your future. That’s why I’m willing to marry the Duke, even though I don’t know what to expect. I know that by doing so, I’ll be able to help advance your position. That’s what matters to me—seeing you married. Seeing your future set.”

“And I want the same for you,” Felicity replied.

“Of course, it’s a risk,” Isabella continued. “This time in our lives is a risk for both of us. But think of it this way. We know for certain what will happen if we stay here—or rather, we know for certain that it won’t be anything good. We know that we’ll lose what little protection our lives have offered us thus far and that we’ll have to start over in new places where we won’t be together, where we won’t be protected by our station in society. And I know that you worry the Duke might be a dangerous man, but there’s no reason to believe that Father would choose to marry us to anyone less dangerous. He has never cared about us. The Duke has promised to help see to it that you find a match, and whatever else he may be, I do believe he was telling the truth about that.”

“I hope you’re right,” Felicity said. “Not for my own sake but because I would like you to be married to a good and honest man.”

“I’d like that for both of us.” Isabella sighed. “Whatever happens, Felicity, you and I will still have one another, all right? Remember that.”

“Will we?” Felicity asked. “When we’re both married—if that day comes, I mean?—”

“It will.”

“We won’t see each other every day the way we do now. I’ll miss you.”

Isabella took Felicity’s hand in hers. “I’ll miss you too,” she said. “But we’ll have so much more power over our own lives than we have right now. We’ll be free to visit each other all the time. Our lives will be much better when we’re free of Father and Rosalind. And who knows, maybe the Duke will be lovely.”

And she resolved, no matter what it took, to make certain that the gentleman they found for Felicity would be the best available. Even if the Duke turned out to be less than ideal, Felicity would have nothing but the very best.