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  What an odd thing to say! Lady Helena had made an advantageous marriage recently. Why would her mother resent that? And she clearly did, from her frosty words as she skipped over one daughter and right to another.

  The duchess’s unmarried daughter was ten years younger than he, perhaps more since she had barely been out a year. While others might not balk at the age difference and some would welcome it, Oliver needed a mature female, someone of sense and gravity. Perhaps he should set his sights lower. A vicar’s widow or a young woman of genteel family might prove a better duchess, if only because she was closer to the realities of life. She would have a lot of reality to manage. He had no intention of keeping secrets from his bride.

  With a tug to set his waistcoat to rights, his invariable habit when making a decision, he bowed to his hostess and strode forward into the ballroom.

  * * * *

  “Just look at him,” Livia murmured.

  “Who?” Dru peered around the magnificent room.

  “Mountsorrel.”

  “Mmm?” Not wanting to appear anxious and doing her best to forget the brief but memorable encounter, Dru shrugged. “Is he upsetting people?”

  “No, he’s dancing nonstop. Paying attention to all the young ladies. The unmarried ones, anyway.”

  Dru caught sight of the duke whirling a girl in pink around until she breathlessly laughed into his face. “She wants him to take her into supper. Or more likely, out into the garden for some air. Our sainted aunt ensures all parts of the garden are well lit. She’ll have to work hard to find a dim spot.”

  Livia laughed. “But I’ll wager you could discover one.”

  Dru shrugged. “I’ve visited this house many times. You could find a secluded spot too. Don’t even pretend you could not.”

  She won another laugh for that. But Livia had drawn her attention to the one person she had wanted to ignore, and now she could not look away.

  The vigorous country dance left the participants tousled and out of breath. All, that was, except the duke, who bowed calmly to his partner and took her back to her parents. After exchanging a few words with them, he moved on, leaving the girl staring after him wide-eyed. Until her mother delivered a sharp jab to her ribs. Now back with her parents, the girl seemed even younger than when she was on the floor. She was, Dru noted, possessed of a particularly fine bosom. Unlike herself. It took clever lacing to give her the cleavage she was sporting tonight. Another reason Dru tolerated Forde’s behavior. The woman could tight-lace so well, she could force breasts up where there were none.

  But on the one cavorting around the floor with yet another schoolroom miss? From their brief contact, she knew how little of his appearance owed to clever padding. His chest had not given way, not a bit of it. His arms, while clad in blue-twilled silk, had revealed nothing but firm, well-exercised muscle.

  She shivered. What could a man do with all that power? Men often made the mistaken assumption that women were innocent merely because they had little practical experience. Dru read a lot, and not all the books would have been approved by her mother. Had she known her daughter had read the full version of Fanny Hill, for example, she might have tried to regulate every book her daughter read. “Tried to” being the important words.

  She knew what men and women did in the bedroom. She had even anticipated it with some eagerness, but these days, she’d stopped torturing herself and tried not to think about it. She cursed Mountsorrel for bringing that feeling back to her.

  He appeared not to notice her at all. Once, when he was stripping the willow, separating from his partner to skip down the outside of the central column of dancers, he glanced up and caught her staring. Dru flipped her fan open and lifted it to cool her heated cheeks, lowering her eyelids in an expression of icy disdain.

  He laughed.

  She must stop looking at him. He danced with one young woman after another. He was hunting for a bride.

  Dru curled her lip and turned away. The set was coming to a close. She had no desire to see another young woman make a fool of herself over this man. “When are they serving supper?” she asked Livia. “I swear I am famished.” Flicking her fan before her face, she turned abruptly, with the aim of heading to the back of the room. Only to almost collide with her aunt, the hostess of this benighted ball.

  Dru sank into her accustomed curtsy. She had of course made her obeisance on arrival, but her aunt enjoyed the attention, and it cost her nothing to give it again.

  “Drusilla, is it not?” the duchess said.

  Dru concentrated on lifting her head at exactly the perfect angle as she rose, but to no avail. Her stumble nearly overbalanced her completely. For standing next to the duchess was the duke. The Duke of Mountsorrel, not her aunt’s husband. She regained her equilibrium, hopping from one foot to the other, making her hoops wobble, feeling like a complete beginner. Anyone meeting her would imagine she had been dragged up by careless servants, not nurtured by loving parents to become the best person she could be.

  Perhaps that was as well. After all, she didn’t wish to become further acquainted with his grace. Did she? She gave a tiny shake of her head. She should not indulge herself. He had no interest in any woman over twenty. That was for sure. If he danced with her, it would be a pity dance.

  Heedless of anything but her own interests, the duchess plowed on, making the formal introduction. At least she could curtsy properly this time, but she did not make it as low. When she lifted her head she met his dark gaze directly. Let him be the first to look away.

  He bowed over her hand. At his touch, skin to skin, she had to fight to repress her shudder. Only one word described the way she felt—recognition. Of what, she did not know. Nor did she care to find out.

  Unfortunately, he stared back. A smile curved his lips. Had he noticed her reaction? He behaved as if he did, as if they shared a private joke. She refused to give in, absolutely refused to. “Lady Drusilla, I’m delighted to meet you…formally. May I request the honor of your company for the next dance?”

  She could hardly say no. That would entail more touching, but she couldn’t help that. At least she knew what contact with him meant. The sensation would wear off in time. She absolutely knew it. Gazing at him, she caught sight of a defect. A thin white scar cut across his lower jaw, leaving a clean line where the incipient stubble of his beard should be. Another smaller scar bisected his left eyebrow. Not noticeable at first, but once seen, never forgotten. The upper scar gave him a devilish look, as if he were perpetually quirking his brow. Her imagination went off on its own happy journey, as it often did.

  When he led her on the dance floor, she was careful to keep her hand on his sleeve, needing all the armor she could find. The duchess had employed an eight-piece orchestra. They made an unholy amount of noise. That meant she did not have to converse. Except that he led her to the far end of the large room, away from the musicians. And to make matters worse, they were to dance a minuet. Partners did not change in this dance that required elegance and confidence for its effect. Neither of which she had right at this moment.

  But she wasn’t a marquess’s daughter for nothing. Steeling her spine and schooling her face into immobility, she prepared for her ordeal. Unfortunately, immediately after she rose from her initial curtsy, she said, “You are very kind, spending time with the old maids.”

  He tilted his head to one side and offered his hand to help her up and display her as she paraded around him. “I have not seen any yet.”

  “Truly? Allow me to take you over to meet them.”

  “That, my lady, would not be proper. A single lady should not put herself forward, you know.”

  Was he goading her? Undoubtedly. Sadly, the slow simmer of annoyance burned her stomach and made itself known to her fevered mind. “I am sure my aunt would be delighted to introduce you. My sister and cousin are over there with the others. We have quite a society
underway.”

  “Interesting. What do you talk about?” As she moved past him, her powdered hair grazed his mouth. “Eligible gentlemen? The latest fashions? Or patterns for knitted stockings?” He pointedly fixed his gaze on her sleeve. “Or how to get ink stains out of lace.”

  She pulled in a breath, trying very hard to control her outrage. She absolutely refused to rise to his bait. Except that she did. “The abolition of slavery and the utter ignorance of some menfolk.”

  His laugh told her she’d hit a mark. “Touché, Lady Drusilla. I stand corrected. Such women can change the world, can they not?”

  “Indeed. And they are often possessors of the best family secrets. Together, we probably know every dirty little secret the highest in society are doing their best to conceal. We know how to keep secrets, too.”

  She danced a perfect round and lifted her chin.

  His silence came as a surprise. Tension ratcheted up between them. Dru could hardly hear the music over the thudding of her heart. What had she said? “There is no obligation to share your secret with me, sir. I fear, however, that I will probably know it shortly. I can hardly help it. Let me speculate.” She couldn’t stop. Considering the angry stares he shot at her, she should be dead of shock and awe, but Dru had never given in. She decided on a few light sallies until he regained his temper. “Perhaps you have a secret sister, or your parents were never married officially. Or you keep a killer locked up in the attic of your remote house in Scotland.” She didn’t even know if he had a remote house in Scotland, but it sounded good. She had taken to reading Gothic romances recently, like the one written by Horace Walpole. Ridiculous things happened, enough to tickle her fancy and far removed from the world she lived in. Walpole poked fun at the stories while he dived in, and that appealed to Dru’s sense of the ridiculous. She recalled the plot of the story she was working on. “Or maybe you are sheltering a secret heir, one who is so oppressed he dare not think for himself. He is kept hidden from society—”

  Releasing her hand—positively throwing it at her—the Duke of Mountsorrel turned his back on her and strode away, leaving her stranded in the middle of the floor.

  Rigid with shock, Dru stared after him. He didn’t look back. Not that she expected him to, because she’d caught the expression on his face before he left. He was incandescent with fury. His eyes had flashed wide open before his mouth thinned into a hard line and the creases at the sides deepened. He’d spun on one heel, executing a perfect turn. She admired it even as she went hot and cold, the chill running down her spine turning her into ice.

  And still the orchestra played the minuet.

  She didn’t imagine the lull in conversation or the way all eyes turned in her direction.

  Then, as if by magic, her cousin Julius, the son of the house, slid into view. He held out his hand, his blue eyes telegraphing a message. She took his hand.

  Julius resumed where Mountsorrel had left off, turning her once more before leading her forward. A polite smile touched his mouth. “We must do our best to ensure the riff-raff is denied entry in future.”

  Alarm touched Dru, together with a sense of justice. “No, please don’t. I must have said something to upset him. I was trying to exchange conversation, but I hit on something that upset him, and he left.”

  Julius arched a slim brow. His immaculate attire and graceful demeanor were as typical of him as his appearing in exactly the right place. However, his icy formality had eased of late, ever since his shocking second marriage to a country governess. Because the woman had an excellent pedigree, society had reluctantly accepted her. If Eve had married into a different family, she might not have been so lucky, but Dru doubted she cared about that. She adored Julius and as far as Dru could tell, the feeling was entirely reciprocated. “What did you say, exactly?” He steered her into a curtsy.

  “I don’t know,” Dru confessed, thinking back to before that abrupt exit had frozen her into a block of ice. “Just nonsense about a story I…read.”

  Julius didn’t reply immediately. When they had traversed to the opposite side of the ballroom to the one where she’d suffered her worst humiliation, he said, “Which book?”

  “I don’t remember,” she confessed, although she perfectly recalled passing on to her own less polished, but more scurrilous effort.

  “He will repair his mistake,” Julius said mildly, “Or he will pay. You do not have to concern yourself with keeping me informed. I will do that myself.”

  How could he possibly repair what he’d done? “I… I don’t think there’s any need.”

  “There is every need. You are an Emperor, and we are not treated with contempt. Ever.” The glance Julius shot her told her he meant every word. If the Duke of Mountsorrel did not at least send her a letter of apology, he would find himself in trouble. The Emperors’ reach spread past fashionable London to the City, the merchants and bankers there, and beyond. Duke or not, Mountsorrel would not find anything easy.

  Dru would not help him. Although she suspected more lay behind the story than she knew, she did not care. He had better have left the building, or her cousins would waylay him, and she felt too vulnerable to face any consequences now. The man was insufferable, and one way or another, she would make him pay.

  Her story needed a villain, a man who would torment and torture her heroine. Before tonight, she had not the faintest idea what he looked like or why he behaved as he did.

  Now she knew.

  Chapter 2

  Dru almost tossed the offending ruffle at her maid when Forde helped her to divest herself of her finery. “See what you can do with this,” she said, gaining some satisfaction when Forde’s eyes opened wide in shock.

  Every maid present tonight would have marked that. Forde would find herself the butt of jokes in the morning. Well, at least Dru would have company. She expected caricatures and gossip sheets to be full of the story and braced herself to ignore them gracefully. And to stay at home.

  As Forde was helping her into her dressing robe, her mother appeared at her bedroom door. Lady Strenshall was similarly attired in a loose gown, more lace than pink silk, and an equally frivolous cap was tied over her curls. Waving impatiently, she dismissed the maid. “Lady Drusilla is not completely helpless. I’m sure she can finish her toilet for herself.”

  Forde’s small “humph” was hardly audible.

  Lady Strenshall let it go. Finding a chair, she dragged it up to sit by Dru, where she was staring at herself in the mirror. “I will not pretend that nobody noticed tonight’s appalling incident,” she said. “But I want to hear the event from your lips. What on earth happened, Drusilla?”

  Dru put down the cloth she’d been using to wipe her cheeks and turned to face her mother, hands in her lap. She would have lowered her head, except she suspected her mother would know she was merely avoiding a difficult conversation. Then she would face a series of closer questions.

  Best to confront this head-on. Marshaling her thoughts, she told her mother what she wanted to know. Mostly. “I admit I attempted to flirt with him, but in a crowded ballroom. He noticed a stain on my lace, but he did not seem too put out.”

  Lady Strenshall clicked her tongue. “Drusilla, how could you! Did you know your lace was stained before we set out?”

  Never had she wished for a lecture, but she found herself doing it now. “Yes, Mama.” With any luck, her confession would distract her mother enough for her to forget why she came here.

  No such luck. “What was it stained with?”

  Dru bit her lip. “Ink.”

  Her mother’s mouth flattened and a double crease marked the skin between her brows. “I have told you to use the protectors. Better still, do not go near your desk when you are in full dress. Your pastime is becoming difficult to manage.”

  Dru would have lied, claimed an accident, but her mother would know. “I regret what I did. But nobo
dy else noticed.”

  A slim brow rose. “Do you truly believe that? I would wager most people who attended that ball saw the mark. They miss nothing. And then to make a spectacle of yourself on the dance floor…” She lifted her hands in a gesture of despair. “Drusilla, I hate to remind you my dear, but you are twenty-six and unwed.”

  “I am aware of that, Mama.”

  “You girls begged for the privilege of making your own arrangements. We are fortunate. As Shaws, and as Emperors, we hold a position in society that is close to unassailable. We have enough resources to ensure you will never starve. However, you can destroy it. Your father and I want to see you happy, my dear.”

  Dru would have done anything to avoid this moment. Her mother was about to express her disappointment.

  Her tone had softened, dropped into a gentle sweetness. “A single woman is at a considerable disadvantage. As a spinster, she is one level below the married ones. Her social status is deeply compromised, and she does not have the freedom a married woman can command.”

  When Dru opened her mouth to object, her mother plowed on.

  “You know that is the truth. Respect, command, and a good family can be the best a woman can have. It breaks my heart when I think you and Livia will never know that.”

  Oh, dear. Dru had no ambition to become a great lady, a society hostess, political or otherwise. And a husband would be an inconvenience. He would most likely ban her from her favorite occupations. Insist she paid him attention. Maybe she would find a husband content to leave her in the country. Many couples held separate lives, only coming together to make heirs. Dru knew of at least two cases where the heir was produced when the husband was elsewhere, but he had not demurred and accepted the child as his. Nothing short of Immaculate Conception.

  Even as she recalled those arrangements, she repudiated them. She did not want to be a symbol, a cog in the clockwork of a family timepiece. She picked up the hairbrush and passed it through her wet locks. She hated going to bed in hair powder.