Page 67 of The Duke's Ultimatum

Eleanor’s eyes rounded, and relief flooded through her system. That was until what her sister said finally registered.

“What?! Sarah! What were you thinking?”

Sarah moaned into her pillow. “You sound just like him.”

“Who?”

Sarah sniffled again. “The Duke. He’s a tyrant, Eleanor. I’m sorry I ever sided with him and not you. You were right to be wary of him. He is a pompous, arrogant man who just wants to control us. He doesn’t care about what we want.” She cried into her pillow.

Eleanor sat helplessly as her highly emotional and very passionate younger sister mourned the loss of her first love. She rubbed Sarah’s back, hoping the sensation would help calm her.

“Sarah, look at me.”

Sarah peeked out from her pillow, her eyes red and her cheeks tear- stained.

“I do believe the Duke means well.”

Sarah laughed. “Ha!” she spat. “You do not. You’re constantly fighting with him. You and he never agree on anything. And I was the fool that said you should give him a chance. Well, I did, and look what happened. Byron will never want to speak to me again.”

Eleanor chewed her bottom lip. Dealing with her sister during one of her emotional outbursts was exhausting in daylight; navigating one in the early morning after a fitful night’s sleep was downright daunting.

“I won’t lie and say that I agree with how His Grace chooses to approach certain things, but he is a great businessman, and I do believe he got that way by being able to read people. Maybe he knows something about Bryon’s family, and he wants to protect you from it. Or maybe it’s that he doesn’t know Byron’s family, and he wants to before anything happens.”

Eleanor took a deep breath. She knew her sister was going to hate the next thing she was going to say, but it had to be said.

“The other possibility for the Duke stopping you could be… your age.”

Sarah jumped up. Eleanor dropped her head.Yes, that would be the one she reacts to.

“I am so sick of people telling me I’m too young to do things. Since when does love have an age limit?”

It was Eleanor’s time to laugh. “Love? Sarah! Do you hear yourself? You’ve met with this boy a handful of times, and it’s love?” Eleanor rolled her eyes. “Sarah, I think your books are going to your head. Maybe you should pick up one of Beatrice’s books for a change. Romance and love don’t work the way your books say it does.”

Sarah leaped from the bed and began to pace the room. “Says who? You? I’m sorry, Eleanor, but I do not think you should be the one to lecture me on how love works. You’re in your third year, and you’re being forced to settle with the Viscount, who, let’s face it, is not a great catch.”

Eleanor swallowed and looked down in at her hands in her lap. Her sister’s words stung. Not because they were hurtful but because they were true. What did she know of love? She was a step away from being engaged to a man with whom she felt nothing but friendship.

Sarah’s words hung between them.

“I’m sorry, Eleanor.” Sarah rushed to kneel in front of Eleanor. “I shouldn’t have said that; it was unkind of me.”

Eleanor gave a slight smile and willed back the tears that threatened to fall. “No. You’re right. What do I know of love? I don’t think I’ve ever felt it or anything close to it to be honest.”

Sarah sat back on her heels and groaned. “It’s not fun.”

Eleanor’s smile grew. “All right then, wise one. Tell me what love is. If it’s not fun, why are we pushed to find it?”

Sarah pursed her lips and furrowed her brow. “Well. I can say that the feelings I feel when I’m with Bryon are like I can walk on air.” Sarah stood up and started dancing around the room. “I have so much energy that I feel like I could run for days and days and never tire!

“And when heaccidentallytouches my hand, I feel shocks run up my arm straight into my heart and…” Sarah collapsed onto the bed, next to Eleanor. “… it feels like my heart explodes.”

Eleanor chuckled. “It sounds dangerous.”

“Just the opposite. It’s lovely,” Sarah said, sighing. “But that brute of a duke said it was nonsense, and the feelings will fade, but he’s wrong.” She pouted. “Our feelings for each other will never fade.”

Eleanor took in her sister, her face flushed from recounting her idea of love. “If that’s the case, then why the rush?”

Sarah looked up at her sister. “Huh?”

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