Page 9 of Bound By her Earl

“There you are, Emily,” Diana cried, reaching out one arm to pull Emily towards her, so she could plant a kiss on her cheek. “And Rose, look at you! You look beautiful. Are you enjoying your debut?”

“Very much so,” Rose agreed. And then, when Emily stepped on her foot, added, “Your Grace.”

“Oh, stop it,” Diana chided Emily. “I’m not going to stand on ceremony with yoursisters.” To Rose, she said, “Keep calling me ‘Diana.’”

Emily wanted to argue that the twins could only be aided by increased practice in decorum, but she didn’t intend to argue with Diana in her current state…at least not while Diana’s protective husband glared on like he thought his wife was made of glass.

Instead, she said, “Are you really meant to be out in a crush like this, Diana? I thought you’d already entered your confinement.”

“No,” said the Duke firmly just as Diana replied, waving an airy hand, “Oh, it’s fine. Besides, confinement isboring.”

“But you have all those novels,” Andrew argued, sounding very much like a man at the end of his rope.

Diana smiled at him beatifically. “And I am as surprised as you are to learn that there is, in fact, a limit to my interest in enjoying sensationalized gothic fiction. And after a week of trying torelaxandrepose—” she said the words like they pained her. “—I have hit that limit. Besides, some physicians on the Continent believe activity is good for a mother-to-be. Thus, here I am.”

“Where did you read that?” Andrew demanded suspiciously. “You don’t read scientific papers. They’re not bloodthirsty enough for you. Was it a novel? You do know novels arefiction, Diana!”

Diana waved her hand again, entirely unperturbed by her husband’s increasingly frazzled air.

“One reads things,” she said simply. Then, before Andrew could retort—as he clearly looked poised to do—she grinned again. “Look! There’s Frances. Hello, darling.”

“Um, hello,” Frances said, a touch nervously. Frances had become somewhat more comfortable expressing herself around Diana’s husband in the year since their friend had wed, but Emily knew it was still a struggle. “Good to see you, Your Grace, Diana, Emily, Rose,” she said in order, with a nod to each member of their little circle.

“Good evening, Lady Frances,” Andrew said.

Frances furrowed her brow as she looked at Diana. “Are you sure you’re meant to be out, Diana?” she asked cautiously.

“You see!” Andrew burst out as though he could hold it back no longer. “I am not a madman, Diana. Itold youit was highly irregular for you to come out in your condition, but youinsistedthat I was being absurd. No woman would think as I did; that’s what you said! And yet, here we have two women—your dear friends, no less—who seem inclined to my way of thinking.”

Diana scowled up at him. “I don’t know why you’re so bothered about this, Andrew, truly I don’t. I feel fine. And you don’t see me telling you whenyouneed rest, do you?”

“Yes,” said Emily, Andrew, and Frances all at once. Andrew looked intensely smug at this; Frances looked mortified.

Rose, the only one who hadn’t spoken, looked highly entertained by this whole thing.

“IloveSociety,” she whispered happily.

“That was different,” Diana told her husband sternly. “You’d been shot.”

“You wereshot?” Rose asked, aghast and visibly intrigued. Emily winced. She’d been hiding the gossip pages for weeks to stop the twins from learning about that as she’d no doubt it would excite their curiosity beyond manageable limits.

Fortunately, Andrew did not even glance at Rose. His stern gaze was fixed on his wife. “You don’t even like coming to balls, Diana,” he insisted.

“Ah,” she said, “but I amneededat this ball.”

Andrew sighed. “Explain.”

Diana practically vibrated with triumph. “Well, Emily is here chaperoning her sisters, is she not?” Emily wondered how on earthshewas at the middle of this marital debate but decided her best chances of escaping unscathed involved not putting forth that question. “But Emily herself is unmarried. What ifsheattracts a suitor? Then who will chaperone the twins? I’m clearly the logical choice, Andrew.”

Emily could think of approximately ten rebuttals to this, but she chose to offer the one that her sister was most likely to latch on to and save for later.

“I’m not going to attract a suitor, Diana,” she said.

Diana looked affronted. “I don’t see why not, Emily Rutley. You’re lovely, you’re clever, you’re from a fine family. There’s no reason why a gentleman shouldn’t admire you. You’re simply being difficult.”

Rose, watching her sister get scolded by an enormously pregnant duchess, looked as though she’d died and gone to heaven.

“I’m not—” Emily began, but Frances’ hasty tap on her arm halted her. She looked down at her friend, who nodded over Emily’s shoulder.

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