He could be a rake if you think he only wishes to touch your hand but tries to touch your heart as well.
MISS HONORA TRUTH’S WORDS OF WISDOM AND WARNING ABOUT RAKES, SCOUNDRELS, ROGUES, AND LIBERTINES
“No, Eugenia, no,” Marlena said hurriedly. “Of course you aren’t interrupting anything. Don’t be silly. The duke was helping me with, with my hat.” As soon as she spoke the words she looked around and saw, to her horror, that the hat was on the floor quite a distance from where she and the duke were standing.
What she told Eugenia was true but, somehow, she felt she was guilty of much more than just allowing the duke to help her with the ribbon. She had to thank her lucky stars, if she had any above, it was her petite friend from next door and not her cousin who had caught her standing so close to the duke their noses were almost touching.
How had she let that happen anyway?
Because he’s a scoundrel and knows all about seducing innocent young ladies!
She should have been outraged that he’d been so bold, so free with her. Yet despite reason and common sense, she had stood like a spineless ninny and let him help her.
Because the feelings he created inside me are so new and exciting, I want them.
“Did you say he’s a duke?” Eugenia questioned softly, her anxious, light-blue gaze shifting from Marlena to the handsome man standing so quietly, watching her grip the evidence of Marlena’s secret writings increasingly closer to her bosom.
As if realizing he wasn’t going to get a pat on the head from Eugenia, Tut ran over to the duke and landed his front paws on the duke’s shiny boots, his nails scraping the fine leather. The duke didn’t seem to notice Marlena’s furry friend, either.
“Yes,” Marlena said, her hand going to the base of her throat and rubbing the place the duke had touched her so intimately she thought her heart might race out of her chest. “You see there was a problem with the ribbon on my hat. It became tangled, knotted really, around my neck, and I couldn’t untie it. I tried countless times, pulling this way and that to no avail. You would think it would be such a simple thing, I know, but it was getting tighter and tighter. It was irritating my skin right here, and I was unable to pull it loose, and—”
“Miss Fast,” the duke interjected when she paused for a quick and much-needed breath.
Marlena swung around to him, hoping he would have the prudence to help her and not make this matter worse. He bent down, picked up the straw headpiece, and laid it on the table beside the unopened envelope from Mr. Olingworth. “Why don’t you save the long explanation for a later time and introduce us?”
Thankful for the respite, she gave the duke a grateful smile and answered, “Of course, Your Grace, may I present Miss Eugenia Everard, my neighbor and close friend. Eugenia, the Duke of Rathburne.”
Eugenia managed a very slight, wobbly curtsy, and took a step back before dropping all the books to the floor with a series of plops, thuds, and thumps. Her eyes rolled back in her head, and she quietly crumpled to the floor.
Tut barked and scampered toward her.
Marlena gulped.
The duke hissed an oath.
They exchanged shocked glances and then bumped elbows and shoulders in their haste to get to her stricken friend. Tut made it there before both of them and stood near Eugenia’s head alternating between a bark and a whimper.
“Eugenia!” Marlena exclaimed, dropping to her knees on one side of Eugenia while the duke knelt on the other.
“Miss Everard,” he said, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder and giving it a little shake. “Are you all right?”
“Quiet, Tut,” Marlena scolded. “You are making matters worse. We are trying to help her. Sit.”
Tut obeyed after giving another whimper.
Marlena looked down at her pale confidante. With her head moving, her lashes fluttering, Eugenia mumbled something that sounded very much like, “He finally came for us. Please don’t let him take us away.”
At that moment Marlena realized that, as she had first thought, Eugenia must be assuming the duke was there to confront them about the identity of Miss Honora Truth and the scandal sheet. Convinced the duke knew nothing about that part of their lives, Marlena had to do something quickly to make sure Eugenia didn’t unintentionally give away their secret.
“You are fine, Eugenia,” Marlena said softly. “Can you hear me? Everything is all right. Nothing is wrong and there is no need to worry. The duke’s not here to harm you.”
The duke’s head jerked up. He scowled in displeasure. “What did you say? Of course I won’t harm her.”
“I know,” Marlena insisted, making it a point to meet his stare as steadily as she was capable of doing at the moment. “I’m sure of that, but it appeared to me that hearing your name frightened her and I wanted to reassure her.”
“Well, it shouldn’t have done anything to her,” he objected. “Why would she have cause to think I’d harm her?”
“Perhaps I’m being overly cautious. I didn’t want to cause her more anxiety should that be the case.”
“She needs a sachet or smelling salts,” he offered, looking around the room as if he expected to spot some sitting on a table. “That usually brings most ladies around to their senses after they’ve fainted.”
“I’m afraid we don’t have any. If you can help me get her to the settee, I’m sure she’ll be fine.”
He nodded.
Marlena thought the duke would help Eugenia to stand up and then walk her over to the settee. But no. Instead of assisting her to her feet, he gently slid one arm under Eugenia’s slim shoulders and scooped the other under her knees. He then rose to his full height as if he were lifting nothing more than an empty wicker flower basket.
Eugenia’s lashes fluttered again. Her eyes opened. She looked around before her muddled gaze settled on the duke’s handsome face. Obviously realizing she was being carried in the man’s strong arms, she promptly fainted again.
“By the devil,” he rasped, gently placing her on the small settee.
Tut immediately jumped up beside her, curled near her hip, and barked once.
Marlena was worried. Eugenia was taking the duke’s presence hard. Thank goodness her friend wasn’t coherent enough to be asking questions about the duke or saying anything that might give away the fact that Marlena was Miss Honora Truth.
“What’s wrong with her?” His Grace asked, after straightening. “Does she faint often?”
“No, of course not. I mean, I don’t think so. She may not be as strong as some young ladies I’m acquainted with, but I’ve never known her to be this overcome by anything.”
Eugenia mumbled again. Dreading what her friend might say when she came fully awake, Marlena moved to stand between the settee and the duke. Squaring her shoulders, and with as much aplomb as she could muster, she said, “Perhaps it would be best if you left me to attend to her, Your Grace.”
He peered around Marlena and looked down at Eugenia with concern again. “No matter what she thinks, I’m not going to do anything that will hurt her.”
“Of course not. Her fainting may not have had anything to do with you at all. I shouldn’t have even suggested it.”
“I don’t want to leave you alone with her, Miss Fast. If she’s unwell, I should stay.”
“Nonsense,” Marlena insisted, trying not to sound rushed but wanting to hurry him on his way. “Mrs. Doddle is here to help me should I need it, and surely my cousin will be down shortly. Really, I can handle Eugenia quite ably on my own now that she’s off the floor. Thank you for that. I’m quite grateful to you.”
“Then perhaps it would be best if I go so she can recover. She does seem uncommonly fragile. I’ve never seen a young lady faint twice in the same minute.”
Marlena hadn’t, either, but she understood fully why Eugenia had. Her friend had never had a strong constitution. The possibility that the duke had come for her was more than she could accept.
“I’m sure it’s just that she’s never met a duke before and she is still quite young. Just passed her eighteenth year. I don’t fear for her well-being. If I did, of course, I’d ask you to remain here with her until I could summon someone.”
He seemed to study Marlena’s face for a moment or two. She thought he was going to refuse her yet again, but finally he said, “In that case, please tell your cousin I’m sorry I couldn’t stay any longer and meet her. I’ll return another afternoon to do that.”
“Yes, that would be best. I’ll walk you out.”
“No, Miss Fast. Don’t leave your friend unattended. I’d rather you stay with her.” He nodded.
Marlena watched the duke walk along the settee and turn to leave, but he stopped abruptly. She followed his gaze and saw he was staring at the pile of books scattered on the floor before him. Marlena’s books. He strode over, bent down, and started picking them up.
“No, please, Your Grace.” She rushed over and knelt much closer to his side than she should have, but she felt too awkward to move once she realized it. “It’s not your place to do this. I can take care of them.”
She reached for the books already in his hands, and her fingers covered his. A wave of something delicious washed over her. Their eyes met. Her heartbeat surged. Marlena jerked her hand away, held it to her stomach, and covered it with her other hand as if she could hide the delicious but unsettling feelings that rushed through her. A flush of heat crept into her cheeks and slid warmly down to her neck.
“I don’t mind doing it, Miss Fast. My father would say that I was seldom a gentleman, and he was right. On this occasion I will be and pick up the books.”
The duke gave her the few he had in his hands and continued to gather the rest. “Did Miss Everard have to buy so many,” he groused, piling more onto the stack in Marlena’s hands.
“Ah—for our reading society,” she said, thinking quickly. But in truth, she had no idea why Eugenia’s arms had been full. She knew Mr. Trout, the owner of the publishing company, was going to give them free copies of the book but she’d thought it would be two or three at the most. Not more than half a dozen.
When the duke grabbed up the last book he held on to it and turned it over, glancing at the back cover as if expecting something to be written there before saying, “I would have thought a reading society would have chosen something a little more challenging for the mind than this kind of easy-reading fluff.”
Affronted, Marlena frowned and leaned away from him. Her shoulders stiffened. She would have loved to tell him it had been quite an endeavor to write that book of quips and quotes about such men. What did she know about rakes, libertines, and all the rest of their kind who had no regard for a young lady’s tender feelings? Or any kind of gentlemen, for that matter? Nothing.
She’d talked with Veronica, Justine, and most of the ladies in her sewing and reading societies to get their ideas on what constituted a rake and took their comments under advisement. Still, there were many nights she’d lain awake for hours trying to come up with things a rake shouldn’t say or do concerning a young lady. And most of them had come directly from Marlena’s mind.
She also wished she could let him know the book would have been twice as thick if she’d met him before she wrote it. There was no doubt that after a few more hours in his presence, she would have enough quotes to fill a second volume of words and wisdom! And she knew the first one she would write: He could be a rake if every time he looks at you your heart starts fluttering.
However, she had to put all that aside and only say, “If anyone needs to know the folly in accepting the attention of a known scoundrel or like man, it’s an innocent young lady who has not yet given her hand to a gentleman. We need to be enlightened as well as educated so we don’t find ourselves in ruinous circumstances.”
“So I’m assuming you read penny dreadfuls, too?” he asked, with a spark of humor glinting in his eyes.
“Occasionally,” she admitted awkwardly. “As well as books on poetry, history, astrology. There are simply too many other subjects to name that interest us. We have diverse tastes in our reading group.”
“So it seems.”
“I believe it is merely another form of entertainment for the people of London. We have plays, the opera, carnivals in the park, and gossip.”
“I suppose you’re right. Some people are entertained by it. They wouldn’t read it if they weren’t.”
He kept staring at the book, so therefore she did, too. The title and her name had been beautifully scripted and stamped into the light-brown leather. It seemed to be well bound, stitched seamlessly on the edges, and not much larger than the size of his hand. A feeling of pleasure and accomplishment settled over her, and she smiled. She was quite pleased with the look of it.
And that it was hers.
Yet as the duke continued to eye it, curiosity got the better of her and she asked, “Do you know anything about the book?”
“I can’t say I do. Though someone mentioned it to me just yesterday. It’s a new publication, I believe.”
Marlena nodded.
“I haven’t read it,” he offered, thumbing through the pages with what seemed a fair amount of interest. “But I think I will.”
“Why would you?” she asked cautiously. And quickly added, “Read something so unchallenging to your mind.”
He gave her that easy smile again. The one that made her heart beat as fast as rain splattering against a windowpane during a storm.
“I wouldn’t think you needed any words of wisdom or warning about such men,” she advised.
The sparkle of amusement stayed in his eyes, and he shrugged. “You never can tell, Miss Fast. I might need to know how to spot a rake someday.”
“Then may I suggest all you have to do is look in the mirror, Your Grace.”
He laughed. “Your wit is charming, Miss Fast.”
She couldn’t help but return his smile, because he was genuinely pleased with her bold comment. She welcomed the humor in the duke’s eyes. It softened him and made her look at him differently. Not as a commanding man but an understanding man. But she wouldn’t let him know that.
“I suppose you thought you were an exception to the men in the book.”
“If Society has indeed failed to make me aware of that after all these years of being the center of gossip, Miss Fast, I believe you have just set me straight on the matter. However, I’m thinking it might be helpful for me to know what a woman thinks makes a man a rake.”
He thumbed through the book again, stopped on a random page, and read aloud from it: “He could be a rake if he goes for an afternoon horseback ride with his friends instead of a carriage ride with you.” The duke glanced over the top of the book to her and grimaced. “All young men enjoy their horses, their friends, and the young ladies. I don’t see any reason why a man can’t manage to do it all in the same afternoon.”
“Hence the reason he is a rake, Your Grace. I’m sure the author only meant that if a gentleman is wooing a lady, his attention should be only on her and not divided with horseback riding, hunting, card playing, and those sorts of pleasures gentlemen usually enjoy. If his attention is elsewhere, he could be a rake.”
The duke’s expression was curious. “Hmm,” he finally answered. “And he could be a gentleman who doesn’t have his appointments under proper control.” He held up the book. “May I?”
Marlena stayed very still but felt as if all her senses were clamoring for attention. He was asking for a copy of her book from her? The book she’d written with him and his two friends in mind. What could she say other than, “Yes. Yes, by all means, take one. As you can see, I have plenty left for my reading group.”
Eugenia mumbled again. Marlena started to rise with her armload of books, and the duke reached out and took hold of her elbow to help her stand. A sensuous warmth of tingles spread throughout her body again. She felt strength in his hand and a strange sense of comfort and security in his grip. She should have recoiled or at the very least shied away from his touch, but it was simply too pleasing to withdraw from him.
“I’ll return the book.”
“It’s not necessary to trouble yourself with doing that, Your Grace.”
“It won’t be any trouble. As I said earlier, I’ll return at another time to meet your cousin, and I’ll be stopping by from time to time to see how you’re doing. Go to your friend. I’ll see myself out.”
Marlena watched the duke leave the room. She had no idea why she was so affected by him unless it was because she’d written about him and the other two Rakes of St. James for so long. After hearing the front door open and close, she hurried over to a chair, dumped the load of books, and then flung herself down on the settee beside Eugenia.
“What happened?” Eugenia asked, lifting her head to look around the room.
“No, don’t try to rise. You may be dizzy. You fainted.” There was no need to further stress her by mentioning that she’d actually done it twice. “How are you now?”
“Fine, I think.” Eugenia put her trembling hand to her forehead. “I really don’t know as I’m feeling quite odd. The way I felt when Papa died and I knew I’d have to come live with Veronica. It was eight years ago but I still remember.”
“Did you faint when you heard about your father’s death?”
“No, but I’ll never forget the feeling of thinking it can’t be true. Papa can’t be gone.” She looked around the room. “Just as now, I could have sworn there was a gentleman here and you said he was the Duke of Rathburne, but it can’t be true. No one is here.”
“I wish I could tell you that he wasn’t, but the duke was here.”
Eugenia bolted up on her elbows. “Where is he? Has he gone for guards?”
“Lie back and stay calm, dear friend, please,” Marlena urged after hearing fear in Eugenia’s voice. “He left, and all is well.”
“Then what was he doing here? Does he know about us? Are we in trouble? Did he come to take us away? Is he coming back?” She plopped her head back on the settee in frustration.
“No. No. We are fine.” For today, anyway. “Please don’t worry yourself. I’m sure he doesn’t know anything about what we do.”
“When you said his name, I thought for sure I was about to be shackled inside a prison cart and carried away.”
“I must admit that was my first thought, too, when he told me who he was. But believe me, the duke would have mentioned it if he’d known that I am Miss Honora Truth and that you conspire with me to see that the column gets to Mr. Trout to publish each week.”
Eugenia placed the back of her hand onto her forehead again and expelled a loud breath of angst. “Oh, I knew I’d never be any good at this secrecy and deceit.”
“Nonsense,” Marlena reprimanded. “What are you talking about? We’ve been doing this almost three years now, and we’ve never had anyone come close to knowing I’m Honora Truth.”
Her friend seemed to think on that for a moment and then said, “We have been lucky no one has figured it out.” She paused again before saying, “The duke is more handsome than I expected him to be.”
Indeed!
“But we must continue to see him as one of the men who is at the root of your sister’s marriage and unhappiness, and the cause for her recurring attacks of despair.”
“That’s something else I’ll never forget. Why was the duke here?”
“For a completely different matter, which I’ll explain later. But tell me, first, why Mr. Trout sent us so many copies of my book? I almost fainted myself when I saw you walking in carrying them in your arms.”
“I don’t know,” she said, rising on her elbows again. “It’s what my maid brought in her sewing basket when she came in this morning. She had no explanation from her sister as to the amount, and there was no letter from Mr. Trout explaining.”
“I suppose it could be that he wants us to give them away. Which we’ll do; we can give them to our reading society. That will be good. I suppose I need to know what people think of the book.”
“Do you think he gave us so many because the book’s not selling very well?”
“It’s only been out a little over a week, Eugenia. We must give it time. You know Mr. Trout has told us the scandal sheet is quite popular. He thought the book was a good idea and that surely everyone who reads the sheet will want a copy of the book.”
Eugenia smiled, swung her feet to the floor, and sat up. “You’re right. I don’t know why I worry so.”
“It’s human nature. But let’s give people time to purchase a copy of it before we get concerned.”
“I promise I will. Now tell me why the Duke of Rathburne was here if not to have us arrested for writing about him.” She stopped, her eyes rounded. “You don’t suppose he found out about Mr. Bramwell, do you? That he and—”
“No, no, you must stop this. Do not work yourself into a faint again. The duke is not a shy man. If he knew about that he would have questioned me, and he wouldn’t have left until he had the answers he wanted. Besides, he couldn’t possibly have found out what Mr. Bramwell did for us. How could the duke possibly know that?”
“Perhaps someone finally recognized Mr. Bramwell as the man who started the rumor in White’s.”
“I don’t think that’s possible. Mr. Bramwell hasn’t been back to White’s. He’d tell us. And since your brother-in-law hasn’t paid his account at White’s in over two years, he’ll probably never be allowed back even when he does.”
“If he does,” Eugenia echoed.
Marlena agreed that possibility wasn’t looking good with all the money Mr. Portington was spending on his extravagances. “You don’t think Mr. Bramwell would tell on himself, do you?”
A calmness seemed to settle over Eugenia. “No, of course not. He wouldn’t indict himself like that.”
“And he wouldn’t want to see us in trouble, either.”
“Never. He’s a very thoughtful and intelligent man and always so kind to me.” Eugenia’s eyes turned dreamy, and a sad smile eased across her lips for a moment. “He would like to call on me, but Veronica would never allow it.”
Eugenia had mentioned that almost every time she came over for the past couple of months. Marlena never knew what to say. Eugenia was right. Veronica would never agree. “She is only trying to take care of you the best way she knows how. She has been your mother as well as your sister for many years now.”
“I wish she would just be a sister.”
Marlena could have said to Eugenia that she wished she’d had a sister to care about her. Or that she wished her aunt Imogene and uncle Fergus hadn’t decided to take their boys and move to America, leaving her behind with Mr. Olingworth, or when Mr. Olingworth suddenly told her she must go to London and live with a cousin she’d never met. But not wanting her friend to feel ashamed for her innocent comment, Marlena stayed silent about the feelings of abandonment that sometimes swept over her. She had managed. She’d always survived and learned how to adjust to wherever she was and accept whoever was in charge of her.
Eugenia sighed softly as if suddenly consenting to her plight as well. “It is simply too unbelievable to comprehend that the duke was here in your house.” She rose from the sofa and looked down at Marlena. “If he doesn’t know you are Miss Honora Truth, why was he here?”
Marlena cupped her hands together in her lap. “That is something I’ve yet come to terms with myself, but know I must. He is my new guardian.”
Eugenia fell back onto the settee with a plop beside Marlena. “Guardian? How can this be? Did Mr. Olingworth—”
“No,” Marlena said quickly. “He’s alive, but still ill. I assume he feels it’s time to give the responsibility of seeing me enter Society to someone else. The duke’s father knew Mr. Olingworth. Apparently very well. His Grace felt duty-bound to take over when Mr. Olingworth asked him.”
Marlena thought about the kindly old gentleman who’d been good to her and allowed her to continue the independent life she’d had when she lived with her aunt and uncle and their boys. But he’d seen to it she was educated, too. He’d put few restrictions on her when she’d arrived at his house. The few rules he’d given her were easy to follow. She had to finish her studies, embroidery, pianoforte practice, and any other lessons before she could go outside. When dusk settled across the sky she had to come in and dress properly for the evening meal. Every night before she went up to bed, she had to play chess with him or read for an hour. All his rules were things she enjoyed anyway.
She swallowed a sudden lump that formed in her throat. Shortly after she was born a fever swept through her father’s estate and almost everyone succumbed to it, including her parents. Marlena was told she was spared because her father had the forethought to have Marlena’s nurse take her to his brother’s house, where she lived until he wed his second wife. At that time her aunt Imogene and uncle Fergus took her to live with them and their boys. She would never forget her time with them or how following the boys around had shaped who she was today.
Much to her disappointment, when she was ten her uncle told her she must go live with Mr. Olingworth, because the family was going to America. They didn’t feel it was right to take her from her homeland. She needed to be properly schooled and brought up so that when the time came for her to wed, she could make a good match with a suitable young man. Marlena hadn’t understood them not wanting her to go with them, why her remaining in England was important, but after a time she’d accepted it. She’d had no choice.
When Mr. Olingworth’s health started to fail, he had contacted one of Marlena’s older cousins. It wasn’t unusual that Marlena had never heard of Mrs. Justine Abernathy. One of her father’s brothers had nine children by three different wives. Marlena had many other cousins from both sides of her family, though she knew little, if anything, about most of them. Having recently been widowed, Justine was agreeable for Marlena to move to London with her so she would be ready to prepare for her debut Season as soon as Mr. Olingworth was well enough to join her.
That hadn’t happened. Mr. Olingworth’s health continued to decline and Marlena’s Season had been put on hold for the past two years. That was perfectly fine with Marlena. The only thing that distressed her was that Mr. Olingworth hadn’t allowed her to visit him when she’d requested to do so.
“What are you going to do about the scandal sheet?” Eugenia asked softly.
Looking back at her friend, sprawled on the settee with her head against the back cushion and her arms spread limp to each side, Marlena answered, “I don’t know.”
New concern clouded Eugenia’s pale eyes. “You’ll have to stop writing it.”
“Maybe not.”
“I remember you were going to discontinue it after the first Season but Mr. Trout didn’t want you to and offered you more money to continue.”
“It suited me to keep doing it.”
“Only because you knew the money helped us. We know that, Marlena.”
“That’s not true it’s the only reason,” she defended, and then added after a prick of conscience, “Maybe at first it was. Yes, I wanted to help you. That is what friends do. Help each other. But there has always been a little of a will-o’-the-wisp idea that I couldn’t let go.”
“You’re good at writing the gossip,” Eugenia said with a smile of praise.
“I suppose. I do study over all the bits of gossip I hear and I’m careful with every word I write. I do feel everyone who reads the column enjoys it, and knows we really mean no lasting harm to anyone.”
“Except to the three rakes,” Eugenia injected with all seriousness.
Marlena pursed her lips for a moment as she remembered the handsome, forthright duke. It was really quite astounding that he admitted he hadn’t been curious enough to ask Mr. Olingworth any questions about her. Maybe he’d be just as uninterested in every other aspect of her life, including Miss Truth.
“After meeting the duke this afternoon,” Marlena said, “I do believe he considers the scandal sheet a bee he can’t swish away.”
“That is good news,” Eugenia said with a satisfied huff.
“Mr. Trout says he still receives many good comments. However, you know I couldn’t write it if Veronica didn’t attend some of the social functions she’s invited to and report back to me everything she hears. And Justine, too, of course, though she’d much rather talk about herself most of the time.”
“Veronica does hear an enormous amount of gossip.” Eugenia laughed softly. “I’m sure it’s because she’s so quiet. Most people probably don’t even know she’s nearby and listening to them. I only wish she were happy with Mr. Portington.”
The relationship between the two of them was something neither Marlena nor Eugenia could help with. “We both thought getting a small measure of revenge on the rakes would have helped Veronica with the feelings of despondency that come over her from time to time.”
Veronica had continued to attend some of the parties, refusing to give up her social life completely as her husband had after he lost his membership at White’s. She hadn’t found a way to remedy his obsession with his artifacts and fossils either. And she lay the blame for her hasty, unhappy marriage to the older Mr. Portington squarely at the feet of the Rakes of St. James.
Veronica had been one of the young ladies making her debut the year the rakes sent their secret admirer letters. Society went into a tailspin when they realized twelve young ladies had taken the letter seriously and had slipped away from their parents and chaperones to meet with their secret admirer. Only later to find out it was a trick created by the rakes for their personal wager and enjoyment.
There were no secret admirers for any of the ladies.
Veronica’s bouts of deep melancholy were the reason Marlena had come up with the idea for Miss Honora Truth’s Scandal Sheet. Shortly after she’d moved in next door to the two sisters, she’d become aware that Veronica was hopeless in her marriage, and blamed her situation on the rakes’ letters. With a meager dowry, she’d felt as if the scandal had left her few choices when it came to marriage.
When Marlena heard that because of their titles, none of the rakes were ever held accountable, not even shunned by Society for a short time, she was upset by the unfairness of it, too. She wondered how the rakes would feel if their sisters were the marks of an ill-advised scheme their first Season?
Maybe they should find out, she’d thought. And just maybe doing so would help Veronica feel better about the decision she’d made to marry Mr. Portington.
Eager to help her new friends, Marlena had suggested they start their own scandal sheet to make sure everyone remembered what the rakes had done to the young ladies making their debuts that year. So the chickens had come home to roost for the three rakes who had so easily fooled innocent young ladies into thinking they had a secret admirer.
And thus Miss Honora Truth’s Scandal Sheet was born.
“Surely you aren’t thinking you can continue to write about the duke while he is your guardian,” Eugenia said, breaking into Marlena’s thoughts of the past.
“I don’t know yet,” Marlena answered truthfully. “That money is what helps you and your sister to continue to live in your house. You would have to move away otherwise. I must think about it.”
“But what if the duke finds out?”
“And what if he doesn’t,” Marlena said, trying to remain optimistic. “There’s no reason to assume he is even trying to find out who is writing the column or who started the rumor that the Duke of Griffin’s sisters might be in danger of mischief their debut Season. Even if he did, you must not worry. I would never implicate you, Veronica, or Mr. Bramwell. I won’t let anything happen to any of you.”
Eugenia laid a comforting hand over Marlena’s. “And we would never let you take all the blame for helping us.”
“I’d want to. I would insist. Besides, what will he do to me, other than insist I marry so I’m no longer his responsibility? And he’s already planning to do that.”
“You marry?”
“Yes. I’ll be twenty at the end of the year. Marriage is something I must start considering, as will you, as soon as the Season starts. The duke doesn’t seem to be a patient man to me. I don’t think he’ll want the responsibility for my welfare for very long.”
“And Veronica wants me to make a match this year, too. And I would if—” Eugenia stopped, sighed, and then continued. “There’s one good thing about this. We’ll be attending the Season together.”
Marlena smiled. “Yes. We will be there for each other as we have been these past years. Now I will need you to help me keep your sister calm when I tell her who my new guardian is.”
“Oh.” Eugenia breathed the word out for a long time. “I guess she will have to know, too.”
“Yes, but I will explain to her that she should have no worries about this and that you and I have everything under control. She will certainly understand that I have no choice in who my guardian will be. Besides, she’s seen the Duke of Rathburne and the other two rakes on occasions at parties and dinners over the past years. She avoids them. That’s the proper thing to do. No one in Society should ever know she harbors ill will. She would be the one punished. Not the dukes.”
Eugenia nodded. “I’ll reinforce to her everything you said.”
“Good, because I really don’t have answers to any of this, Eugenia, except I see no reason to change our routine. Veronica will continue to get the gossip from her group of friends and tell it to me. Along with the bits I pick up from Justine, I’ll write the sheet and give it to you. You’ll give it to your maid to hand off to her sister to leave for Mr. Trout when she cleans the publishing company in the evenings. So you see, there is no reason to worry about any of this. All will be good.”
For now.
“Good afternoon, Your Grace. Terribly sorry to keep you wai—”
Marlena turned to see her widowed older cousin, Mrs. Justine Abernathy, waltz into the room with shoulders thrown back, chin arched high, and light-green skirts billowing behind her.