Page 43 of The Unwanted Duchess

“It is perfectly fine. We shall attend if that is what you wish.”

She could only nod in response and then pretend not to feel her heart aching as he left.

Her father was not invited to the dinner. Samantha had arrived before Graham, at her sister’s request, so that they could speak without what Diana called ‘listening ears’.

“So, how are things with your duke?” Diana asked, eyes narrowed slightly.

“How are things with yours?”

“Do not play coy. You do not seem half as frightened as before.”

“Well, that is simply because I am not,” Samantha explained. “He is not a bad man, Di. In fact, I would say that he is quite kind to me. I suppose I judged him too quickly.”

“As he did you, yes. He is not forgiven for that, you know.”

“I do not think that he expects forgiveness, but he will prove that he has changed. Truly, he has.”

“Has his opinion of you changed or of people of our status as a whole? That is an important distinction to make.”

“Sister, you are a duchess. You are hardly of my status.”

“I am not ashamed of where I come from. We are from humble beginnings, and it makes us bearable. My point stands: we were not born into the same life as he was, and so he sees people like us in a certain way. Has that changed?”

“You shall have to see for yourself as he has only truly met myself and our father, and whilst his opinion of me has changed, I cannot say the same for his opinion of our father.”

“Well, that is to the surprise of nobody. Very well, I shall give him a chance. Beyond that, however, how does he make you feel?”

“Perfectly fine.”

“And is that all?”

Samantha blinked. How could she tell her sister that she found him rather attractive but did not dare act upon it because it was utterly impossible that he would feel the same, and that was only if that was how she truly felt, and it was not simply because he was kind to her? She had never kept secrets from Diana, but there was nothing to tell until she knew what it was she wished to say.

“That is all for the moment.”

“But you see it changing?”

“That is what happened to you, is it not?”

Diana blushed slightly to which Samantha looked at her triumphantly.

“In any case,” she continued, “he is a good man and will be a good husband, and I shall have my freedom. Who could ask for more?”

“You must always want more when it comes to matters of the heart.”

“This is not a matter of the heart,” she lied. “This is a practical solution for our problems and nothing more.”

“If you insist.”

If Samantha had not pitied Graham when he told her about his childhood, she certainly did when she saw how Diana and her husband Colin looked at him when he arrived. They were more like wild animals than hosts, and she did not know whether or not Graham was affected by it.

“So,” Diana said as pointedly as Samantha had ever heard, “you intend to marry my sister, yes?”

“That is my intention,” Graham replied carefully.

“And might you have any other intentions besides that?”

“Diana!” Samantha hissed, but Graham seemed unfazed.

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