“You cannot be serious, Jack.”
“I am serious. He had promised to help me find a husband, just like he found you one.”
Louise slammed her fork down and hissed, “This is not just like how he helped me find one. He happened to see that Deptford and I would get along splendidly, and he put us in the same parties and soirees and routes. And he introduced us on one occasion, maneuvering us to be together, to have discourse. I never once climbed into his room to ask him to assist me.”
Louise’s passion was formidable, and Jack appreciated her sister’s concern.
But she wasn’t going to start apologizing for her boldness. At least not yet. “Louise, you and I have always been different individuals. For instance, you never liked to get your dresses dirty, but I have no problem with getting my dresses dirty.”
Louise arched a brow. “This is not the same thing as that. Yes, you have always been daring and willing to climb trees and have great adventures, butthiscould truly lead to great misfortune.”
Louise pressed a hand to her middle, clearly calming herself before adding, “This isn’t just you falling out of a tree and breaking your arm. This is you ruining your entire life. If you were to be caught with him, you’d have to marry him.”
Jack frowned. “I wouldn’t marry him.”
“What do you mean you wouldn’t marry him?” Louise protested. “Of course he’d have to marry you. He’s a man of honor.”
“Yes, he is a man of honor, it’s true, but he seems most insistent upon the fact that he does not wish to marry, and I could never have him in such an underhanded way.”
“Oh, all men say that,” Louise said.
“No, no,” Jack said firmly. “I think this is different. There’s something truly there. Something in his heart which is quite certain that I am the worst person in the world for him. It’s actually rather demoralizing because I know he likes me.”
“Of course he does,” Louise said. “Whatever are you talking about?”
“There’s something melancholy about him, Louise,” she insisted.
Louise frowned. “I have never seen a hint of melancholia about him. But truly, this is not like the Duke of Stone that I know. He never even entertains ladies in his room. Or that’s what people whisper.”
“I beg your pardon?” Jack choked.
Louise nodded. “Truly. His mother is the shocking one. Or so they say.”
“What do you know of her?” Jack asked, unable to resist.
Louise’s eyes rounded whilst contemplating the infamous dowager. “Not much more than you, surely. She’s gloriously beautiful and cultured and interesting. And even though she is nearing fifty, she is still one of the most sought-after women in thetonfor gentlemen of a certain ilk. And those gentlemen are usually quite strong and handsome themselves. She’s known to enjoy the theater and a good time, but she is wild. She always has been, I think.”
Was that why he would never marry, because his mother was wild?
That didn’t seem like James, either. He certainly didn’t have anything puritanical about him.
She sighed, loathing that she felt so at sea in all of this. “I don’t really know what I’m going to do, because he does seem to be failing in his usually skilled endeavors.”
“Whatever do you mean?” Louise said. “His reputation for finding husbands and wives is remarkable.”
“Not for me,” she ground out. “I am apparently without match. He just seems to be coming up against one closed door after another in the attempt to make it possible for me to find the correct match. Even our lessons have gone wrong.”
“Lessons?” Louise echoed warily. “Jack, what have you done?” she whispered. “I can see on your face that you’ve done something that you should not.”
“I have not,” Jack replied faster than she should, her voice a mere breath.
Louise snorted, then leaned forward and said quietly, “You’ve already done something wrong by climbing through his window and having a meeting with him without chaperone.”
“No one will ever know,” Jack pointed out.
“So you say, but that’s not how thetonworks. Someone will always know.Ialready know.”
“Perhaps,” Jack allowed, feeling a bit huffy and defensive. She forced herself to take a calming breath before sharing her logic. Sotto voce, she insisted, “They’ll never know it was me. They’ll just think it was someone in a pair of breeches and shirt, climbing into his room and then out a short time later. No one will ever have anything to say about that, surely. He’s a duke. No one will mind his business.”