"Send the Plain One, He'll Reject Her," They Laughed — But the Duke Could Not Take His Eyes Off Her
Chapter 8
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He looked for a long time—longer than anyone had ever looked at her in her life. His eyes moved slowly, carefully, from her brow to her mouth to her chin and back again, as though he were reading something written in very small print."Everyone told me you were plain," he said at last, very softly.Hester swallowed. "I am, Your Grace.""Then I have been misunderstanding that word my whole life."The library door banged open.Lady Delphine Marchbank stood on the threshold in her nightcap, holding a candle of her own, her face white with fury."Hester! Go to your room. Now!"Out in the corridor, her aunt's fingers closed on her arm like a trap."You shameless creature!" Lady Marchbank hissed. "Alone with him at midnight! Do you think I don't know what you're doing? Do you think he's in earnest? Look at yourself, girl! He's amusing himself with you because you're plain and grateful and there's nothing else to do in the country. Men like that don't marry the shadow. They marry the sun."She thrust Hester towards the stairs."One more word to him, and I'll send you home in disgrace, and you can find your own way in the world."Hester kept away from him the next day. It was the hardest thing she had ever done.She sat behind her aunt at breakfast and did not look up. She refused the afternoon walk with a headache she did not have. Twice she heard his voice asking a footman where Miss Larkin was, and twice she slipped out of a room before he reached it.In the late afternoon, Rupert Vere found her alone in the rose garden."Miss Larkin." He bowed, all charm. "May I offer you a little friendly advice? You're a sensible woman, I can see that. So I'll speak plainly." He smiled. "My cousin's physicians have told him he'll need a companion soon. Someone to lead him about, read his letters, manage his days. And what better choice than a lady from the shelf? No money, no family to speak of, nowhere else to go. She'd be so grateful, far cheaper than a nurse, and much more loyal." He tilted his head. "You didn't truly imagine it was anything else, did you?"Hester said nothing. She would not give him that. But his words went into her like splinters.And that evening, they were driven deeper.She was passing the door of the Dowager's sitting room when she heard her own name."If it must be the Larkin girl, Nathaniel," the old lady was saying, "then at least she will be useful to you."And the Duke's voice, low and certain: "Useful? Yes, Mother. She is the most useful."Hester did not wait to hear the rest. She walked very quickly to her room, shut the door, and sat on the edge of the bed with her hands folded in her lap.