Chapter 1 #2
Marina closed the book and glared at her, her cheeks reddening. “I do not want to do that.”
“Marina—” Emily moved forward.
“Emily, I cannot—” Marina sputtered.
Before she could finish, Emily swiped the book from her hand.
“Em—”
She glanced down before her friend could finish, and the sight froze her to her very core. She shut it immediately. “Good God.”
Leonora looked over in alarm. “What is it?”
“Something I refuse to discuss while sober,” Emily said, pushing the book firmly back into place after Leonora had only stolen a glance and turned red as a beat.
Marina laughed. “Seems Dominic is far more entertaining in private than he is in public.”
“That is because in public he must pretend to be respectable.”
Marina moved to the desk and opened a drawer. “Are those?—”
Emily joined her and groaned at once. “Calling cards.”
There were several, tied in little bundles, some from widows, some from unmarried ladies, some folded with a lot of care.
“He keeps them,” Marina said with delight.
“Of course he does,” Emily muttered. “He would keep written proof of his own appeal.”
Leonora came nearer, curious despite herself. “Perhaps he means only to remember who has called.”
“Dominic remembers everything flattering without aid,” Emily said, shutting the drawer.
Marina wandered to the mantel and picked up a silver paperknife shaped like a dagger. “This is absurd.”
“It is Dominic.” Emily shrugged.
There were miniatures there too, their mother looking radiant in one, their father handsome and faintly smug in the other.
Emily shook her head. “He has arranged them like witnesses to his greatness.”
“Or his sins,” Marina quipped.
“Those would require a much larger mantel,” Leonora whispered.
The three of them laughed, and the room seemed to loosen around them.
The ballroom, with its polished smiles and weary little humiliations, had begun to feel distant, almost unreal. Here, there was only warmth, mischief, and the pleasure of three mischievous ladies saying exactly what they liked.
Then, Emily turned and saw Leonora had picked up the snuff box again. It sat neatly in her gloved palm, dark enamel edged in gold, prettier than anything Dominic ought to own.
“It truly is beautiful,” Leonora murmured.
“That should have warned you against it,” Emily replied.
“Open it,” Marina urged.
Leonora looked appalled. “I cannot.”
“You can,” Emily said. “Your innocence has already suffered from entering this room and seeing that doomed paint?—”
“Can we agree to never speak about what we saw in that book ever again?” Leonora called out, her voice shrill.
Emily raised her hands in surrender. “You will not find me protesting.”
Leonora nodded and pressed at the lid with her thumb. It did not move. She adjusted her grip, tried again, but to no avail.
Marina leaned in over her shoulder. “Here, let me.”
“No, I have it.”
She did not.
The lid sprang loose just as the base slipped from her fingers. The box struck the corner of the desk and fell to the carpet with a hard, sharp crack.
Leonora gasped and went white. “Oh no!”
Emily was beside her at once. “Do not look so stricken.”
“I have broken your brother’s snuff box.”
“We cannot afford to be afraid now,” Emily said, kneeling to retrieve the pieces. “What is done is done.”
Marina crouched beside her. “Can it be mended?”
“Perhaps.” Emily turned the thing in her hand, examining the hinge. “Though I may need to throw myself at Dominic’s mercy first.”
Leonora took a huge breath as Emily continued to examine the pieces. She was about to rise to her feet when something in the box caught her eye. It looked sharp against the lining and would not have stood out if the box hadn’t been broken in the first place.
“What is that?” Marina asked, noticing it at the same time.
Emily pressed lightly on the split edge and drew out a folded scrap of paper tucked into a hidden compartment.
For one second, none of them spoke. Then Marina exhaled, very softly.“Well…”
Leonora forgot her horror at once and dropped to her knees beside them. “What is it?”
Emily unfolded the paper. It was old and worn where it had been folded many times. The hand was Dominic’s, though younger somehow, less controlled. She read the first line and laughed before she could stop herself.
“What?” Leonora demanded.
Emily looked up, scandalized yet delighted. “It is a list.”
“A list of what?”
She lowered her eyes again. “ Things to do before I reach twenty. ”
Marina clapped a hand over her mouth as Emily continued to read in a lower voice. “ To steal a private waltz with an entirely unsuitable person during a ball .”
Leonora’s eyes widened. Marina made a muffled sound of pure delight.
Emily read another line. “ To attend a masquerade ball in disguise and secure someone’s attention without them knowing my face or title .”
The study changed at once. It no longer felt like a hiding place. It felt like the center of a conspiracy.
“Did Dominic ever complete the dares?” Marina asked.
Emily snorted. “Knowing my brother, he’s completed far more than that. But…”
The twins looked at her.
She felt the thought form with bright, reckless certainty.
“I just had the most amazing idea.”
“No.” Leonora’s response was sharp. “I know what you are thinking, Emily, and the answer is no.”
“Ladies, please.”
“Emily—”
“We have to do the dares too!”
Leonora stared at her. “That is madness.”
“That is life,” Marina countered.
“That,” a fourth voice called from the doorway, “is enough.”
They all turned to see Emily’s older sister. Sybella stood there with one eyebrow raised, her spectacles catching the firelight, her expression far too composed for Emily’s liking.
Emily rose at once, the list still in her hand. “You arrived at a most excellent moment.”
“Somehow, I strongly doubt that.”
Emily opened her mouth to speak again, but it was too late.
Sybella crossed the room and held out her hand. “Let me see.”
“Syb—”
“Let. Me. See.”
Emily sighed and gave her the list. Sybella read it in silence, her mouth tightening once, then threatening to twitch at one corner.
“No,” she said at last.
“Sybella.”
“No.”
“We have only just begun.”
“That is exactly what alarms me.”
Marina stepped forward. “It is a splendid list.”
“It is a dreadful list.”
“It is both,” Emily countered. “Which is why it matters.”
Sybella looked at her over the page. “This has your fingerprints all over it.”
Emily lifted her chin. “I should hope so.”
Sybella folded the list with care. “Absolutely not. It is bad enough that you are all rummaging through the Duke’s things. When he catches you?—”
“Not if you do not plan to tell him,” Emily cut in and stepped closer. “I am tired of being managed through evenings like cattle at the market, Syb. This is the first interesting thing that has happened tonight.”
“That does not make it wise.”
“I am not asking for wisdom.”
Sybella studied her face for a long moment. Then, she sighed. “I cannot convince you otherwise, can I?”
Emily shook her head.
Her older sister swallowed and dropped her shoulders, a sure sign of defeat. “I will join you.”
Emily blinked. “What?”
“This is a recipe for disaster. I might as well supervise it so it does not grow into something else.”
Emily took the list back at once. “Agreed.”
“You have agreed much too quickly.”
“And since I have had the worst of the day, I would like to start the dare,” Emily added, her voice strangely confident for some reason.
“Emily, I do not think—” Leonora started, but Emily was already turning toward the door.
Through it, at the edge of the ballroom, she could see him. He was one of the men her mother had pointed to while speaking with her this morning.
The Duke of Huxley.
“He has just returned from a long war,” she could still hear her mother’s voice in the back of her mind. “I would tread carefully if I were you.”
Emily kept her eyes on him anyway. He stood apart from the room, as if the room had disappointed him personally. Dark-haired, broad-shouldered, unsmiling, and untouched by the evening’s easy frivolity. What better target?
“So, who shall we choose?” Leonora’s voice called gently from behind her.
Emily felt a sharp little thrill. “I know just the man.”
Leonora followed her gaze and went still. “Surely you do not mean…”
“He’s done nothing but brood all evening, and he hasn’t danced at all!”
“Because people stay away from him for a reason, Emily!”
“Oh, come on, it’s his first ball since he returned. We should be nicer to him. Besides, I’m curious to see a soldier up close.”
Leonora muttered that she still would not like to get to his face, but Emily only laughed, folded the list, and stepped into the hallway.
“Follow me.”