Page 2 of The Duke's Spinster

“I said what I said.” Artemisia crossed her arms and glared at Zenobia. “And we’ve never balked at a dare.”

“They’ve never been this…this…”

“Important?” Artemisia supplied.

“Scandalous,” Boudicca countered.

“Risk not, gain not.” May as well have been embroidered on Mimi’s flag.

“Who are you, Mimi? Or maybe I should be asking, what’s gotten into you tonight?” Boudicca held up the lemonade.

“Call it spirits, but I call it the truth.” She turned to Zenobia. “You know you need to do something.”

And then, right before her eyes, Boudicca watched a veil lift from Nobi’s eyes.

“I’ll do it,” Zenobia’s face hardened. “But—” she lifted her finger and pointed at the other three. “I’ll not do it alone. I dare each of you to claim your own duke as well.” Where were flags when one needed them?

“What?” Boudicca’s heart banged against her chest. Once. Hard. She thought it was done. It was not. The banging banged again in a rhythm she had never heard banged out before.

Artemisia laughed. “I’m in. If that’s what it’ll take for you to claim the love of your life, then I’m in.” Boudicca thought she saw something flash across Mimi’s face, but she couldn’t decipher it.

Zenobia pointed at Joan, “You’ve been quiet. Are you in? If I tell Christopher how I feel, will you follow through on my dare?”

Joan shrugged her shoulders, but her shoulders didn’t even have time to drop before Artemisia clamored in, saying, “She’s in too.” She peered at Boudicca. “And Bodi’s in too.”

“I’m not.”

“Yes, you are. You out of all us need a duke the most. In fact, you’re going first.”

“I don’t need a duke.”

“Everyone needs a duke,” Artemisia laughed.

“I’m a spinster. You three go ahead with this silly dare. I’m the chaperone.” Boudicca was about to cross her arms and then remembered where they were.

“Oh no. You’re not sitting out on this one. This is your life too. You deserve to be happy.” Artemisia wasn’t backing down.

“Marrying a duke does not guarantee happiness.”

“Not marrying a duke doesn’t guarantee happiness either.”

Trust the youngest to apply that kind of logic.

“Bodi, I think you should do it.” Joan intervened. “You’ve got nothing to lose.”

That stung.

She knew Joan wasn’t being intentionally mean. Joan, of all her sisters, was kindness personified. But still, hearing those words pierced through a layer of her heart she thought she had closed off.

She was a spinster. She had accepted it. But to hear the words that she had nothing to lose sounded as if she had already lost.

Well, she hadn’t lost.Yet.Besides, if she was going first, and she failed, then maybe none of them would go ahead with the silly dares.

Not following through on the dareswouldmake chaperoning easier.

*

Another night. Anothercrush. Another failure.

---