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again, though he must not encourage himself to think of her in those terms. Guilt gnawed at him for a
moment. She wasnotresponsible. The blame was his.
"You are awed by titles and fashionable dress and manners," he said. "It is understandable, but they are
all superficial, you know. People are people when all is said and done."
"I think," she said, half smiling again, "you really believe that. You are wrong. You would not like having
me as your duchess, Your Grace. And I would not like being a duchess. It would be foolish, then, to
press on with this betrothal merely because at the time it seemed to you the honorable thing to do to offer
for me. And because I was weak enough to consent."
Her eyelashes, he noticed when she lowered her eyes to look at her hands, were darker than her hair.
They were thick and long.
"The betrothal has been announced," he said. "The notice was in this morning's papers."
"Yes, I know." She looked up at him again. "And so another notice must be sent correcting the first."
"There would be scandal," he said.
"I care nothing for scandal," she said. "Andyouwill not be touched deeply by it. Your rank will protect
you. I shall return to Sindon and be far enough away. I shall see if Mr. Watkins can find another husband
for me within the next three months or so one whose rank will not intimidate me."
"No one," he said softly, "will marry a woman who has just scandalized society with a broken betrothal."
She bit her lip. It was quite apparent to him that she had not known that. "Then I shall go back to my old
life," she said. "I shall take another governess's post."
"Do you think," he asked, "that your former employers will give you a character when you walked out of
their house early one morning without even giving notice?"
Her face was pale again. The shadows beneath her eyes were noticeable. Her eyes were fixed on his.
Why was he so diligently dissuading her from doing what she so clearly wanted to do?he wondered. He
had felt the impossibility of it just as powerfully as she especially since yesterday afternoon. Was it
because he dreaded the scandal the breaking of the betrothal would bring on him? Or was it because, as
he had just explained to her, she was in an impossible situation? He couldnotlet her go.
She got to her feet suddenly and hurried across the room to stand facing one of the windows, where he
had stood the day before watching for her arrival. He stayed where he was and watched her. She looked
even more slender than she had during those three days. He wondered if she had been unable to eat as
well as to sleep during the past week and a half. He remembered the trembling eagerness though she
had tried hard to hide it with which she had eaten her soup on that first day.
He wondered briefly how innocence would feel beneath him on a bed on his wedding night. He had only
ever known experienced women. And he remembered his assumption that she was very experienced
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indeed. If all had been as he had thought it was, she would have been his mistress now for almost two
weeks. He would have been almost as familiar with that tall, lithe body as he was with his own. Well, in
one month's time he would begin the lifelong acquirement of familiarity.
It was not by any means an unpleasant thought. If only that were all that was involved in his marriage!
"You will adjust to your new life," he said. "You have a lady's birth and education, after all. And my
mother will be a good teacher. You can learn everything you need to know from her. She has not been&
harsh with you today, I trust?"
"No," she said quickly, without turning. "No, of course she has not. She has been very kind. This must
not be easy for her. She mustbe hating every moment. She must have had high hopes for her elder son."
He got to his feet and walked toward her. "She will be proud of you," he said, "and she will grow to love
you. Over the coming week she will help you be fitted for clothes suited to your new station and she will
help you learn some of the basic facts of a duchess's life. After that we will introduce you to Society
between us. I look forward to it. You will take well. You are very lovely."
She lowered her head for a moment, but she did not immediately respond in words.
"Very well, then," she said at last. "I will learn how to dress and how to behave so that I will not shame
you as I did yesterday, Your Grace. I will learn how to be a duchess."
He grimaced. "You did not shame me," he said. "I and my mother and sisters understood that you were
somewhat overwhelmed by the occasion. It was thoughtless of me to have allowed it. I should have
waited on you first at the Pul-teney. I should have presented you first to my mother alone."
"You were not to know how it would be," she said, hunching her shoulders briefly. "Any lady from your
world would have known what to expect and how to behave. She would not have been overwhelmed by
the occasion."
He set his hands lightly against her upper arms. "You did not shame me," he said again. "And you will
quickly learn to feel more comfortable in your new world. We will all help you my mother and I, Jane,
Louise& " He hesitated, but did not addElizabeth's name.
She laughed and hunched her shoulders again. "Jane, Louise," she said. "I do not even know who they
are. I do not even remember their titles or their other names. I am not even sure I would recognize them if
I saw them again. I "
"Giveyourself time," he said.
She stood very still, her head down before nodding and turning to face him. "A week," she said. "We
will have to hope that I am an apt pupil. We will have to hope that at the end of the week, when I leave
this house to appear in Society, I will have learned enough not to disgrace you."
His hands had returned to her upper arms after she had turned. They were almost thin. "Promise me
something," he said, looking into her eyes.
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