Chapter 1
Lady Eliza Darby, daughter of the sixth Duke of Ravenwood, sister to the now seventh Duke of Ravenwood, was determined not to upset her stomach in the middle of the Duchess of Sudsbury’s ball.
It would just be rude.
“I’m certain Viv will be considerate in her machinations,” Louisa said from Eliza’s left.
Johanna scoffed to her right. “When has Viv ever been considerate of anything that affected one of us?”
Louisa frowned. “Do be kind, Jo. You know Viv is only trying to protect us.”
This roused Eliza from her determination to not upset her stomach across the ballroom floor.
“Protect us?” She shook her head. “She’s not so much protecting us as hoping to keep us from finding our husbands abed with an opera singer like she did.”
The words came out more forcefully than she had intended, her rattled nerves driving her usual cutting wit toward unsavory sarcasm. She pressed a hand to her stomach, willing it to settle.
Jo snorted in her lemonade and peered around sheepishly as if hoping no one spied her unladylike behavior. But as was the case with all of the Duchess of Sudsbury’s events, the night was a crush, and no one was paying particular attention to the forgotten Darby sisters.
“Is that really something one can prevent another person from experiencing?” Louisa posed.
“Surely not,” Jo responded, having recovered from her lemonade dousing. “I think that only serves to illustrate the futility of what she is trying to do.”
Louisa shrugged. “I must commend her. After all, there’s nothing to compel her to help us now that Andrew is the duke. It’s rather perceptive of her to think he may not want three unwed sisters underfoot when searching for a wife.”
Johanna lifted her chin. “I see nothing wrong with the matter. We are family after all. Andrew’s duchess should accept us.”
Eliza gave her younger sister a sharp look. “Are you mad? Even I find it difficult to accept us.”
She didn’t miss the soft laugh Louisa attempted to hide.
Jo frowned and rolled her glass of lemonade between her hands. “Still. I see nothing wrong with the current situation.”
The current situation was three unwed sisters living in the home of their unattached brother, the Duke of Ravenwood now that Father had passed the previous year. With Mother succumbing to the influenza when Johanna was only two, it had left far too many females in the hands of an absentminded father to see them safely off and into society. That was why Viv was the only one of the Darby sisters to wed, and then only because Aunt Phyllis had been alive to sponsor her. Aunt Phyllis had promptly died before the next season, leaving Eliza without proper guidance. Father had tried, of course. Each girl had gotten…well, it resembled a season at least.
But as all three were still unwed, it was obvious their father’s attempt had rather lacked in ambition.
Louisa leaned around Eliza to peer at Jo. “Of course, you don’t. You have no wish to wed at all.”
Jo opened her mouth to retort, but oddly, no sound emerged except for a gurgled word, a shadow of what might have been intelligible speech. Eliza blinked at her sister. Jo was the strong one, always quick to speak her mind no matter the consequences. For her to stumble so was…well, Eliza didn’t know because she’d never witnessed it before then.
Louisa leaned into Eliza now to get a better look at Jo. “Johanna Elizabeth, do you really wish to wed?”
The sisters, Eliza included, had always assumed Jo’s independent nature would not incline her to the married state, but perhaps they had been wrong. Viv would be only too pleased.
The conversation was momentarily suspended when Lady Setterton collided with them as she attempted to drag her poor daughter closer to the dancing. Eliza eyed the young woman, pity pouring through her at the poor girl’s unusually yellow complexion.
Eliza had thought she was safely on the shelf until Viv had come stampeding back through the doors of Ravenwood House, a scorned woman determined to ensure her sisters did not meet the same fate. Now here she was again, feeling just as yellow as Lady Setterton’s daughter appeared.
As she had already discussed with her sisters, Eliza could not determine how this plan was at all logical. But there was no reasoning with Viv once she’d set her mind to something, so that was that.
Eliza was taken down from the shelf, dusted off, and returned to the marriage mart much to her dismay. She was no fool after all. It wasn’t that she hadn’t received her fair share of marriage proposals from fortune hunters. As the daughter of a duke, she had a sizable dowry to tantalize most gentlemen in need of funds into ignoring the rest of it.
The horrible truth of the matter was the fact that Eliza had had the unfortunate circumstance of inheriting her father’s visage.
When people were polite, they used the word plain to describe her. When they were not polite, well…she would rather forget what she’d been called.
Even to think on it had her hands going together, twisting the fine silk of her gloves against her knuckles. She wasn’t entirely sure she could bear any more of this. Standing on the fringes of a society that had deemed her less even while her sister searched for a match for her. For poor Eliza with the hooked nose, thin lips, and bespectacled eyes too small for the rest of her face.
She forced her hands apart and squared her shoulders. If she kept her posture, her gown didn’t hang so billowy on her overly thin frame, and perhaps whoever the suitor Viv found wouldn’t notice her lack of…bits.
Her eyes drifted downward to her own chest before she could stop them, but she wrenched her gaze away when the wilted bit of lace Viv had stuffed into her décolletage earlier that evening stared back at her. No, she most sincerely was not fooling anyone about her lack of bits.
The momentary interruption must have derailed Louisa’s thoughts because suddenly she said, “I’m sure Viv will select a most reasonable man for you, Eliza.”
“A most reasonable man?” Jo gave an unladylike snort. “That sounds like an enticing future.”
Louisa frowned and swatted a hand at her sister. “You are not helping at all. I’m sure there’s someone here tonight that is utterly perfect for you.”
And without hesitation, Louisa popped up on her toes to scan over the top of the crowd. The ballroom was already teeming with the best the ton had to offer, and still names were announced one after the other in a waterfall of earls, marquesses, and barons.
Jo placed her empty glass of lemonade on the tray of a passing footmen.
She studied Eliza briefly, some sort of understanding passing over her features, before she turned away saying, “Someone sensible,” as she scanned the other side of the ballroom.
“He would enjoy reading, of course,” Louisa said, coming back down on her heels.
“Of course,” Jo readily agreed. “And he’d be kind to animals.”
Louisa brought her hands together in glee. “Oh, I bet he’ll have a beloved hound.”
Eliza swallowed the sudden surge of bile in her throat. Wasn’t that what every girl dreamed of when she thought of her future husband? Not that he’d be dashing and strong and handsome. Not that his kiss would make her toes curl or that his touch could—