Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

APRIL 20TH, 1815

H anna looked at herself in the mirror and pursed her lips. The salve she’d just applied to her lips had done nothing to make them stand out more. How was it that when her sisters applied lip salve, it made them look more glamorous, but with her, it changed nothing whatsoever?

“What does that look of disapproval on your face mean?” her sister Emma said, looking up from the jewelry box she was rifling through. “Do not tell me that you want to change your hair again,” she said. “You have already done it twice. My fingers will be stiff boards if you make me take all those pins out of your hair.”

Hanna smiled at her younger sister, who radiated grace and elegance in her evening primrose-colored gown, which complemented her deep brown hair. Along with her sparkling personality, Emma brightened every room she entered. Hanna could never quite find herself so enticing.

She looked at herself. Her auburn hair shimmered in the sunlight, which she found pleasing, but in the dim light of her bedchamber, it looked dull. It was afternoon still, only five o’clock, but the weather outside was dreary, with dark clouds hanging in the sky—which meant her chamber was cast in darkness. They had doubled the candles to even be able to apply their makeup properly.

Hanna turned to her sister, her gown swishing as she did so. “No. It is as good as it will be,” she said with a sigh.

Emma rolled her eyes. “Oh, Hanna, since Lord Stow broke off your courtship, you have been a heap of misery. Do not let the man take away all of your joy and hope.”

“You are one to talk,” Hanna snorted. “You have been single for months now, and you complain about it constantly.”

Emma rolled her eyes again. “I can do nothing but complain. It has been two years since Lady Morley promised she would find us husbands, and none of the courtships have worked out. Lord Hennessy was the most promising, but his constant tardiness and changeability were a chore. I should not have remained in the courtship for a year. I am now ruined.”

“It is not as bad as all that. At least you were the one to end the courtship. I was left for a governess,” Hanna said.

Her courtship with Lord Stow—a man who’d on paper appeared the ideal match for her—had lasted all of two months before he’d left to marry his sister’s governess. Since then, Hanna entered into one other brief courtship which had not lasted long either. She knew that her father’s ill-temper and poor reputation were in part to blame for all of this, but she could not help but wonder if perhaps it was her quiet personality as well.

“I truly thought that Lady Morley was going to be the answer to all of our prayers. She is, after all, the premier matchmaker in London. And Harry was so kind to arrange for her to work with us. Truly, I believed that all would be well. Of course, the silly goose had to go and break her leg!”

Hanna sighed. “Emma, that is unkind of you to say such things. She hardly did it on purpose.”

Emma made her way to the door. “The woman is five-and-fifty and decided to go ice dancing on the Serpentine! Who does such a thing at such an age, if not someone who is befogged? And now, look at the results—you and I have no courtship, no matchmaker, and with Arabella and Harry out of town for who knows how long, our chances are slim at best. Our best chance is a ball at the home of a questionable host.”

Hanna could not deny Emma was right. It was mid-February, the Christmastide excitement and the many masquerade balls that came with it lay behind them, and the Season would not properly start until April, meaning most gentlemen and their families were at their country seats for the time being, leaving little social activity.

Their sister Arabella, the Duchess of Sheffield, had many connections in the London social scene, but she and her husband Harry had gone to Ireland to visit their brother Alexander and Harry’s cousin, who lived on his estate. They would not be back for several weeks, thus, Emma and Hanna had been compelled to accept an invitation this night to the home of the Duke of Ashford—a name that usually made Hanna shudder because while she had never met the man in person, she knew of his reputation.

Everyone did.

“I cannot believe we are going to the Ashford estate,” she muttered as they made their way down the stairs. “I cannot believe anyone is going.”

“Yes, everyone who is in town is going. He is a duke, after all. He might also be a murderer though, so we best be on our guard.” Emma chuckled.

“Do not jest. It may all be true. The scandal sheets say he murdered his brother for the title,” Hanna said, feeling queasy at the thought of going to the Duke’s home.

“Do not be a sapskull, Hanna. The scandal sheets write all manner of lies about all sorts of people,” Emma pointed out. “We can’t believe everything. Besides, if he was a murderer, do you not think he would have been thrown into Newgate Prison by now? Even the nobility cannot go around murdering anyone who looks at them funny without getting caught. Besides, you know Benjamin Banfield almost ruined Father’s business, and many others. So, if the Duke killed him, maybe he deserved it.”

“Emma, you are impossible. Nobody deserves such a fate,” Hanna protested.

“Do not be such a bore—I jest. I am certain the Duke of Ashford did not murder his brother. It was an accident. He probably drove his curricle too fast and crashed. Too bad, he was handsome,” Emma said.

“And married . The poor woman, so young and so…”

“Dead.” Emma grimaced. “It is terrible, indeed. Well, let us not think about such things tonight. We must take our chance. And in any case, I think there will be so many people we will not even see the Duke for longer than it will take to greet him in the receiving line.”

“Emma? Hanna?” Their father’s voice drifted out of the drawing room, and Hanna grabbed her sister’s hand. Bracing themselves, they stopped when they were on the bottom step as their father stumbled out of the drawing room.

Hanna could tell from his bloodshot eyes and unsteady gait that he had already been drinking again.

Their father had been a dreadful drunkard ever since their mother passed away when Hanna, Emma, and Arabella were just children. So appalling had his behavior been that he had driven their older brother, Alexander, the heir to the earldom, into exile in Ireland. Their lives following his departure had been dreadful, full of terror, as their father could be rather horrid when drunk. The constant strain had caused the sisters to often squabble with one another, as it was the only way they had known how to behave.

It wasn’t until Arabella had married the Duke of Sheffield that things had improved slightly.

As it turned out, having a duke for a brother-in-law meant that their father’s reputation was not everything Society judged them by anymore. However, despite their brother-in-law’s best efforts, they had to make matches of their own and were still trapped in their father’s home—at least whenever Arabella and Harry were out of town.

“You look pretty,” their father said—a rare compliment from him. “You are going to the Ashford ball tonight?” he asked.

Hanna was positively shocked that their father would even remember where they were going.

“We are,” Emma replied. “And we will be late if we do not leave now.”

“It is still early. Only… let me see…” their father trailed off as he fiddled with his pocket watch, almost dropped it to the ground, and then gave up. “It is early.”

“The ball begins at seven,” Hanna said. “It is a thirty-minute carriage ride, and we wish to stop on the way to pick up sweetmeats and take a stroll in Hyde Park,” she added.

“Sweetmeats! Always wasting my money,” the Earl scoffed. “All four of you. I should kick you all out and have you live with Arabella and her husband full-time,” he muttered. “Or perhaps you can stay with the Marquess in Ireland,” he sneered.

The fact that his only son, whom he’d deemed too useless to pay any mind to, had earned himself the title of Marquess of Howe on his military merit stung the old man so much that he could not bring himself to say it properly.

While their father’s treatment of them had improved slightly since Harry had taken them under his wing, sometimes his cruel words still slipped out. However, Hanna found that his cruelty didn’t bother her as much as it once did. Not now that they had Arabella’s home to seek refuge in, as well as their brother Alexander back in their life, even if only through occasional letters.

“Did you ask my permission before you accepted the invitation?” the Earl asked.

“Of course, you insisted that we do,” Emma said quickly, leaving out the fact that he had been deep in his cups already.

“Ah, well. I should have said no. You know that man is a horror. I did business with his brother, you know. Rotten bastard he was. And the Duke is even worse. The only decent thing he ever did was get rid of his brother once and for all after he ruined me and half the ton.” He let out a rippling laugh that made the hairs on Hanna’s arms stand on end.

Thankfully, just then, the carriage arrived, and she quickly used it as an excuse to escape.

“We must go, Father.”

“Wait!” he called. “I will come with you.”

Emma and Hanna looked at one another and then at their father. He hadn’t accompanied them to any balls in a very long time. Not since Arabella had married. Since then, their sister had always served as chaperone. Which was ironic, given that Arabella was the youngest of the three. Still, as a married woman, and a duchess, she served such a role.

Whenever she was away, they took one of their governesses or lady’s maid with them, as they were planning to do tonight. Their father never volunteered to come with them. And they didn’t want him to either.

“Father, you are not dressed,” Hanna pointed out.

“Did you not tell me you were going to purchase sweetmeats first? Go take the carriage. I will get dressed and join you. I will not have it. I will not have the ton talking about Graham Hayward and the fact that I let you go to that wretched Duke’s home on your own.”

With that, he waved his hand as if dismissing a bothersome fly.

Hanna and Emma stepped outside into the air.

“Well,” Emma said, “that’s our night ruined.” She sighed deeply, and the two sisters got into the carriage.

Hanna was convinced that whatever chance she might have had to find a gentleman that night had just flown out the window. Her reputation and her father’s habit of drowning in his cups meant that no gentleman in his right mind would have anything to do with her.