Page 11 of Three Rules to Wed a Duke

“I see. Well, I’m sure you are very grateful to them for raising you in the city where you could get to know all the best families. And then for them to send you to school at such a great cost… I know you show them the proper thanks.”

“Of course,” Frances said, suddenly feeling like she’d been chastised for being naughty.

Thankfully, Emma arrived at that moment and hurried in. She threw her arms around Frances and squealed with delight at seeing her.

“Come on, let’s go to the park! I’m desperate to get outdoors!” she said, already taking her bonnet from a maid who’d followed her.

Emma linked her arm through Frances’ and led the way. As soon as the front door closed behind them, she apologized.

“My mother can be a bit forceful when it comes to meeting people and forging allies,” she said lightly. “I hope she wasn’t too forward.”

“I must admit, it was actually refreshing to speak to someone who was quite open about their intentions,” Frances replied,waving off Emma’s concern. “She did seem to be overly preoccupied with who the best families are.”

“Good heavens, that’s all she ever speaks of! You’d think she was amassing a loyal army to wage war on the Continent instead of trying to marry off a daughter. But somehow, Father is even worse.”

“How so?” Frances asked, worried by Emma’s unusually dark demeanor.

Emma sighed woefully. “I have little doubt I shall be married to whichever man will put Father in the best stead. It has always troubled him that he’s merely a baron… as if—pardon my saying something so untoward—as if his fortune doesn’t command enough respect on its own!”

“I had no idea your family was in such a profitable position,” Frances conceded. “You certainly didn’t make any of the other girls feel like they were beneath you for it.”

“There are many who think money earned is not money at all. They have this unthinkable notion that a man who works for his fortune and is able to provide life’s luxuries because of it is somehow not a true gentleman,” Emma explained, rolling her eyes. “I’d rather they thought I had nothing than think my father to be some sort of cheat who stumbled into his barony instead of being from a proud titled family. Besides, a good many of our friends really were quite impoverished, and there was no sense in making them feel as though my father’s circumstances should put a wall between us.”

Frances smiled. That was just like Emma to always be thinking of others and how she would feel in their positions.

“Still, I worry that Father will scrounge up some elderly duke with foul breath, bunions that need rubbing, and boils that need tending, then force me to marry him just to improve his own standing in theton,” Emma cried, actually beginning to tremble with fear and fury.

A duke! That’s what I came to talk to her about!Frances remembered.

“Well, I happen to know an eligible duke who didn’t have a boil in sight nor a bunion to his name, at least judging from the way he walked. But I’m not sure he would be any great improvement for you. At least an elderly duke might not be long for this world!” Frances teased.

“Which one do you mean?” Emma asked, coming to stand before her.

“Do you remember the man from the ball yesterday evening? The one who behaved so strangely?”

“The one who asked you to dance and did not speak to you at all while you danced?”

“That’s the one. He came to call this morning!”

Emma’s eyes went wide, and she was struck speechless for several moments. Finally, she looked around and spied a bench beneath some overhanging trees. She dragged Frances by the elbow and bid her sit, then hurried to take a seat beside her.

“Tell me everything!” she demanded, her excited smile erasing her earlier forlorn mood.

“Well, I’m not sure where to start,” Frances began, thinking back to the events of that morning. She knew she did not wish to discuss her aunt’s hateful accusations, though. “We were all having breakfast when the butler announced a visitor. I received him, and then almost immediately, he asked me to marry him.”

“I beg your pardon?” Emma asked, sitting up straighter and shaking her head slightly.

“Yes.”

“Marriage?”

“Yes.”

“Marriage, you said.”

“Precisely.” Frances waited while Emma pondered the news in silence. When her friend frowned and opened her mouth once more, Frances added, “Yes, I said marriage.”

“I heard you, silly. I was going to ask you what you said to him in reply!”

---