Page 2 of His Abandoned Duchess

He made it abundantly clear that he had no intention of genuinely acting as my husband. I should be surprised if he managed to be upset about any number of activities I might do.

“Well, give it here then. I want to see just what else this sheet says about our dear Amelia.” Selina reached for the papers from Isaac as he frowned harder and harder with each moment.

“Excuse me, Selina,” Isaac replied, standing up from his chair and setting the sheet down on the cushion like he hadn’t so much as heard a word of what she’d said.

As the paper plopped down, Ethel moved to snatch it up just as Selina did, and the two began squabbling about who would have the honor of reading the article next. Amelia didn’t care to pay them much attention, they were often at each other’s throats as such, and as she shook her head, Isaac cleared his throat as he stood over her.

“May I sit, Amelia?”

She nodded, scooting down the compact sofa now that Selina was entangled with Ethel like a pair of dogs fighting over a lamb shank.

“Of course, Isaac.”

He joined her on the settee, his brow down so thoroughly over his hazel eyes that she could scarcely see them. Isaac’s jaw was set firmly, and he gripped the brim of his beaver so much that the stark curves of his knuckles were set a pale white color.

“My sincerest apologies, Amelia. I should have kept you safe from a situation that would set the sheets ablaze with scandal.”

She shook her head, offering Isaac a gentle smile. “You are under no contract to do so, Isaac. I appreciate your friendship fiercely but you hold yourself to too high a standard. It was a simpleparty, and people talk. It is, in fact, what I believe they do best, particularly in the ton.”

“And you’ve had their attention since the drum you put on a few months ago, Amelia. They’ve all been a buzz about the latest rumblings coming from Heartwick.” Charlotte leaned forward in her chair, gently holding Amelia’s hand, her mitts smooth and warm against her skin. “It may be that someone has you in their sights, looking to put up any number of set-downs about you.”

“Ethel!” Selina cried. “You will allow Amelia to peruse the sheet as necessary. The new heir and Duke of Soulden has as yet come to speak with me, and if there is mention of him in the scandal sheets, I will see it.”

Rolling her eyes, Ethel handed the sheet to Selina. “I merely wished to glance over the piece about Amelia. Honestly, if you genuinely think I would be so concerned with the content of this ridiculous scandal sheet, you do not know me. And the Duke has not yet spoken to you because we’ve yet to come across him when you are not foxed.”

“Ugh!” Selina exclaimed, snatching the scandal sheet and walking off to the corner of the room where she might read over the thing without interruption.

Magnus cleared his throat, standing with a gentle bob of his head and following after Selina to ease her injured pride. The women offered him a nod as he passed by, but it was only Amelia who noticed the flick of Magnus’s stare toward Ethel. Malice laced through his dark eyes, and Amelia silently noted yet againhow he seemed to be consistently put off by Ethel, even doing so much as to keep Charlotte seated away from her.

Clamoring chatter echoed through the room as more talk spun about the article and what Amelia was supposed to do about it. At once, the headache of that morning became the least of Amelia’s concerns. However, she still found it difficult to accept that such a ridiculous claim against her would be believed by anyone.

Ethel mirrored that conviction, stating that none with so much as a single portion of thought left in their head would believe such terrible things about Amelia. Ethel would always be the one to suggest that people did not, however have much in the way of smarts to begin with. She was a bluestocking through and through, and Amelia often wondered if that was what turned Magnus so off from her company.

Consistently seen with her nose in a book or the like, Ethel was undoubtedly one for acquiring knowledge and information about the world at large—as much so as any man. And while Amelia never particularly shied away from such pursuits, she couldn’t compete with Ethel’s natural tenacity.

“A few less than noteworthy drums henceforth, and the ton will have little to ruminate over. It shall all pass with the shedding of leaves in the fall.”

“Leave it to Ethel to be both poetic and dismissive of a threat to a dear friend’s reputation,” Charlotte replied.

Amelia sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose as she finished her latest cup of tea.

“That’s quite enough. Both of you.” Her friends met Amelia’s exhausted expression with ones of concern. “Allow Amelia to reassure you that thiswillall die down. The ton is fickle. All previous incidents of the past have been forgotten as soon as something new occurred to draw their attention. This will be no different.”

A beat of silence passed through the room, and the assembled had difficulty making eye contact with Amelia as she looked around the somewhat crowded space. Isaac was the first to draw her attention, shifting toward her on the settee with only his beaver between them to give the two separation.

“Let us hope, Amelia. Though,” he cocked his head to the side, offering Amelia a look of such concern when he met her eyes again, “I don’t believe I would be the one person here to express concern that this latest scandal has touched on a rather…novel notion.”

“Which would be?” she asked.

“Your husband,” Charlotte answered for him. “This is the first time the sheets have put forth the claim that you would be doing these things to garner a reaction from your ratherabsentspouse. There couldn’t be any truth to those claims, could there?”

Amelia’s jaw dropped open at that, and the pound behind her eyes picked up so much so that she needed to stand from thesmall sofa and search out fresher air by ambling through the drawing room.

“I am not looking for my husband to do anything, Lady Charlotte. He is of a mind of his own, and from what I understand quite happy in his residing in the countryside. I receive word from Blackford Estate on the regular that he is well, and I’ve no need for any concern.”

Selina stepped forward from the corner where she had been standing with Magnus. As she eyed Amelia, she smoothed her hands down the quilling ribbon at the edge of her sleeve. Always one for fashion, Selina’s cambric frock was conveniently without its tucker this morning, quite the fast trick for such an informal occasion.

“And you are certain that your husband could not be moved to pay Heartwick a visit?”

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