Page 37 of Her Duke By Accident
“I’m glad.”
“And I believe I know enough to plan and prepare a ball at the townhouse in Mayfair. We have gone over finances and the labor, and discussing ideas with your skilled cook. I would like to go into the city and have a new dress tailored for Lucy, as I have already confided in her about?—”
“Youwhat?”
Alicia froze and her face flushed into a porcelain pale. When she spoke again, it was slow and methodical. “I spoke with Lucy?—”
“Without my inclusion?”
She furrowed her brow at him. “Are you saying I need your permission to talk to her?”
“No!” Matthew angrily snapped, feeling the pressure rise in his throat. “You need permission to hold a ball. You need permission to discuss such matters with my sister. You need permission to decide something that affects me. You need permission?—”
“I understand, Your Grace!”
“You clearly don’t,” Matthew barked as he took a step closer to her till he looked directly down upon her. “What gave you the idea to hold a ball?”
Alicia refused to meet his gaze. “Lucy struggles to adapt to societal life without actually seeing it.”
“That is why she has a governess.”
“Miss Ayles is not?—”
“Do you now want to have a say in who I hire?”
She scoffed at him. “No, Your Grace, but I amhere.”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“How can you possibly know what good that governess does if you don’t put in any effort to talk to Lucy? To see what she is learning?”
Matthew glared down at her. “If I remember correctly,” he snarled through clenched teeth, “you were talking of aball, not how I treat my sister.”
Alicia exhaled deeply, closing her eyes as if to contain herself. “Your Grace,” she said, her voice still and calm, “I wish you might consider having a ball at the townhouse. There is no need for anything lavish, anything like what Lady Tollock might offer in London. What I ask is for an evening to show the ton that I am the Duchess of Garvey; for Lucy to have something to look forward to, to work towards!”
“Lucy spends enough time at the Mayfair townhouse to see all London has to offer,” Matthew said.
“Not London, Your Grace,” she argued. “The ton.”
“Why does it matter? She will have her debut when she is ready.”
“You know her better than me,” Alicia said, “but even in my limited time alongside Lucy, I know how hard it will be for her to be entered into society.”
“Why,” he sneered, “because of your feral sister? Do your fears of your sister’s debut now taint the future of my sister?”
She stepped back. “Feral?”
“With her hounds and such,” he said with a shrug.
Alicia shut her eyes once more. “That was unkind, Your Grace.”
Matthew did not need her to say it for him to know. He lashed out with his venom tongue to get her to stop, to turn away from him and give up. “You do not need to press your fears of your sister upon my own. If it worries you so much, go to Egerton and arrange a ball for Lady Penelope.”
“That is not what I meant at all, Your Grace,” she whispered, looking exhausted.
“Is it wrong for me to not want the ton in my home?” he snapped.
Alicia met his gaze. “Are you against it so much just for that reason?”
