Page 19 of Duke of Wickedness
Helen didn’t stop with the hovering, however, which meant that Ariadne had to discover her bones again and use them to push herself back into a sitting position, lest her sister by marriage get worried.
When she managed this—Ariadne did not rush her efforts to get upright again— Helen was sitting across from her, hands folded primly in her lap. As Helen was not a prim person, this was highly suspicious.
“That,” Helen said, “did not seem to go well.”
Ariadne frowned at her. “I thought you were embroidering.”
Helen nodded thoughtfully, an escaped brown curl bobbing in front of her freckled face.
“Curious thing about embroidering, now that you mention it,” she observed. “It actually does not involve your ears. Few people know this, but it’s true.”
“Inconvenient,” Ariadne mused.
“For you, maybe. I find it extremely convenient, as it happens.” Helen offered her very sweetest smile to show that she was not distracted by this very obvious attempt at distraction. “So. The viscount.”
Ariadne’s grimace was worth a thousand words.
“Do you know what I would like to know?” she demanded as Helen gave her a sympathetic chuckle. “Why are men so obsessed with putting women into boxes? Why do they all need to be able to…define me as one thing or another?”
The mirth in Helen’s expression faded, replaced by something that was a little bit sad. Ariadne wanted to shy away from it. It made her feel young in a way that she wanted to push away.
“You know,” she said, “I have some concerns about the courtship process that Society recommends.”
“Really? You? Whoever would have imagined that?”
Helen’s mouth quirked to the side. “Yes, yes, I take your point. I am not what anyone ever imagined a duchess to be.”
This was true—but not negative. Ariadne could not think of anyone who could possibly be more suited to her stern, responsible brother than his playful, offbeat wife, with her improper accent and her inability to hide her feelings.
“I often think about how your brother and I would not have ever connected in a drawing room,” she commented. “We both would have dismissed the other out of hand. We only came together because we?—”
“Fought like cats in a sack?” Ariadne supplied.
“What an elegant metaphor,” Helen praised. “I was going to say ‘butted heads’ but, then again, I lack your way with words.”
Both women smiled at one another, sister to sister.
“My point, though,” Helen went on, “is that, if you are going to follow Society’s way of doing things—which has its merits in some cases, I’ll allow—you must get to know yourself first, lest anyone else make you think that the box they put you in is all that you are.”
This was interesting advice, given that Ariadnedidintend to follow all of Society’s rules while finding herself an acceptable husband.
“Get to know myself first…” she repeated. “Right. Very well. I like that.” She paused. “What does that mean?”
Helen laughed at this, but it was a kind laugh, one that didn’t make Ariadne feel diminished for being its recipient. And wasn’t that the beauty of sisters? Having the safety to not know? To seek aid? To let her true self out?
“Right,” Helen said. “Let me think about how I can say this without horrifying you.”
Ariadne appreciated this consideration immensely and so did not interrupt Helen’s thought process.
“Right,” Helen said after a moment. “So. There are certain…things that may or may not appeal to different people.”
This was vague enough that, a few days prior, it might not have helped Ariadne’s understanding very much at all. But now, she thought of thecertain thingsshe had seen and experienced—ofa woman, her head thrown back and her hair spilling down her bare shoulders; of the rasp of the Duke of Wilds’ fingers against her cheeks—and knew what Helen meant without needing further details that might inadvertently give her information about her brother’s personal life.
“Yes,” Ariadne said, just in case Helen thought she should offer further context. “Right. I see.”
Helen looked frankly relieved that she wasn’t being asked for more, either. It was so nice to understand one another.
“The point I’m making is,” she said, “when it comes to…matters between man and wife, you might wish to agree on which things you like—and don’t like.”
