Page 8 of A Wicked Duke's Arranged Marriage
“You’ll never believe what I just heard!”
The study’s tense silence was interrupted by the banging open of the door and exclamation as a furious flurry of lace and satin burst through.
The blonde woman behind it all looked positively flush, excitement making her eyes glassy and her already energetic disposition just that much more apparent. She was a pretty girl, though slightly plumper than was considered in fashion. With blonde curls, a peaches and cream complexion, and large blue eyes, she almost resembled a porcelain doll.
It didn’t hurt that she almost always smelled of confectioners’ sugar and freshly baked bread. A bonus of having a father for a baker, Josephine had long teased her.
“Josie, you’ll never believe it!” Caroline repeated as if she had forgotten she had already spoken as she all but slammed the door closed behind her.
“You’ve said that already,” Josephine teased, setting her pen down and trying to force a smile as she greeted her old friend. “But you’ve yet to tell me what is supposed to be surprising me.”
“The duke,” Caroline hissed, rushing over to the desk. She sat daintily on the edge of the chair in front of it, her grin stretching from one side of her face to the other. “The Duke of Wallburshare!”
Josephine frowned, rubbing her nose absently as she tried to recall anything about the man being mentioned. He was so rarely seen in their community, more of a shut-in than anything else. She thought she remembered him being tall. Or maybe he had just seemed tall. He hadn’t been around much, even before he’d retired fully to his estate after his wife’s death. So much of his time had been spent in London and among the society of the ton.
“Did he die?”
Caroline inhaled sharply, looking both offended and scandalized at the same time as she drew back. “Josie, that’s positively horrid! Died! How does your mind always go to the most morbid possibility?”
Josephine’s eyes cut towards the ledgers she had just been reviewing, the irony not lost on her. But she didn’t sayanything. She just sighed, giving her friend a half-hearted shrug as she tried to focus on what they were discussing.
“It’s so much more exciting than that! He’s looking for a wife!”
Josephine blinked. “But she died.”
“Oh, Josie. You really are impossible. He’s looking to remarry. To find a new wife. Here! In the country. Oh, he must’ve written to every nobleman, no matter how minor. Miss Cecilia Brekkenbough and Miss Irene Haversham were both in the store earlier talking about it.” Caroline sat forward further, the pink colour in her cheeks increasing even further. “They said he is asking after every eligible daughter, Josie.”
Josephine didn’t see how that affected either one of them in the least. Caroline was hardly in the running, and she very much doubted that the St Vincent name carried enough weight to have been considered either.
“Aren’t you at least a little bit interested?” Caroline demanded huffily.
Josephine laughed, the tension easing just that slightest bit within her. Leave it to Caroline to be offended that Josephine wasn’t buzzing with such titillating news.
“No, I’m not. I don’t see why anyone else should be, either. He’s looking for a wife? You make it sound like he has put an ad in the paper requesting a new sow!” She could envision it as she said it, the mental imagery almost too much to bear.
Caroline groaned, throwing herself back more fully into the chair she had been perching on the edge of dramatically. “A sow! Really!” She threw her hands up, exasperation filling her features. “He’s done nothing so gauche; he only wrote to the lords.”
“That’s gauche enough,” Josephine snorted. “You don’t find that at all unsightly? He’s barely been seen since his wife passed three years ago. He doesn’t attend anything in the community or go to any of the parties or balls, and by all accounts, he spends all of his time wandering the great halls of his estate mourning the loss of his wife.”
“That’s romantic!” Caroline argued hotly. “Imagine the depth of such love!”
“Romantic for him, maybe,” Josephine muttered. “I’d hate to be tied to such a fate. Can you even imagine?”
Caroline shot her an arch look, and the two of them dissolved instantly into chuckles, though Josephine’s were admittedly a good deal more short-lived.
“Clearly, something else is weighing on you, Josie,” Caroline chastised. “You’re so set against the romanticism of it all. What has got you so trapped in your own head?”
Josephine very much doubted that she would view the situation any differently, no matter the circumstance, but again, that ledger between them with all the red lettering caught her eye, and her chest tightened all over again.
“Money,” she admitted baldly, not bothering with any sugar-coating. It wasn’t the first time she’d divulged such truth to her oldest friend.
Caroline’s cheeks paled somewhat as understanding filled her gaze, her excited grin turning into a worried frown. “Again?” At Josephine’s nod, her frown deepened. “So you’re going to have to make adjustments again for the month?”
Josephine laughed without any mirth. “I wish. I don’t see how there are any that I could make. Not this time. I can’t think of any way to stretch our budget even in the slightest. I’ve already moved around everything that I can.”
Caroline hesitated, glancing away guiltily before she sighed. “Maybe you should write to your siblings again to ask for some help. Just for a little while.”
Her siblings.
