Page 29 of Her Wolf of a Duke

“I shall tell him so,” Levi assured her. “He will be pleased to hear that.”

“Can we help you at all, Cecilia?” Miss Kendall asked. “We could find another clue for you and then take yours.”

“No, never! I am not a cheat, Emma. I am simply missing something vital, I believe.”

“Oh!” Miss Godwin exclaimed, at last looking at her clue. “Do you suppose it is the dining hall? The clue mentions weapons we use each day. That would be a knife, wouldn’t it?”

“Dorothy, you do have your moments of brilliance!”

The two ladies gave a rushed goodbye and then hurried on. Miss Kendall laughed softly before searching for another. It was easy enough to find; it was tied with ribbon to one of the branches. Though she was tall, it was just out of her reach. Levi brought it down for her, but he handed it to her so that she could read it.

“Thank you, Your Grace,” she said begrudgingly. “Coins are tossed to make a wish, but not for food as I have no fish. That is a strange clue, wouldn’t you agree?”

“For someone that is unfamiliar with the Duke of Pridefield, yes, but fortunately for you we have quite the competitive edge in that respect. Come along.”

The clue was referring to a fountain on the other side of the estate, and so when Miss Kendall tried to run, he stopped her. She would have been out of breath by the time they reached it and the exhaustion would have slowed them down more than if they simply took their time.

However, their slower pace gave him time to truly look at her. She seemed to revel in the challenge, a fierce look of determination in her eyes. She truly was beautiful, and there was no use trying to ignore that fact. Even walking at their slow pace, she did so with purpose as she followed him.

“Your friends are lovely,” he said into the silence.

“Yes, they truly are.”

But then she sighed, a moment of despondence flashing on her face.

“Is something wrong?”

“No, no of course not. I simply… Do not take offence to this, as you are proving to be a better partner than I had expected, but I had thought I would be paired with one of them. I have hardly seen them.”

“I do not take offence. I understand perfectly. I would have enjoyed doing this with the Duke of Pridefield, but as he is hosting the event and has written all of the clues, it would not have been fair.”

She laughed softly at that.

“Do you enjoy being needed?” she asked.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, as a duke, you are at the pinnacle of our society. You have a purpose, and thetonis better off for having you be a member of it. Is that something you like?”

“It is a lot of responsibility, I suppose, but I shan’t claim to hate it. It feels good to do something, even if my lack of a wife and heir means I am not achieving perfection. Why do you ask?”

“It is nothing,” she replied.

“It is clearly something. I can see it in your eyes. You can tell me, I promise not to share it with anyone else.”

She looked at him for a moment before taking a deep breath, looking away into the distance.

“When my mother died,” she explained, “I was very important. I had to help raise my sister, as well as find a good match formyself. I suppose I did well with the former, but with the latter I was a failure. I had suitors, but I never found one worthy of abandoning my sister for, and so I remained unmarried. Now, a spinster, I am actively hurting my sister’s chances.”

“And yet she has found a baron. He is no viscount, but it is a match. She certainly seems happy enough, at least.”

“Yes, and I did not do that. She did it on her own. I was of no use to her. Then there is the matter of my friends–”

“Who clearly think the world of you.”

“They did before, but I am not as important as I once was. I had made plans yesterday, and not so long ago they would all have been excited to hear them. Instead, it was as though they had devised their own plan and I followed along with it. I can hardly blame them, of course, for I am never there.”

“Have you told them any of this? It may well help, you know.”

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