Chapter 38
Joanna paced around the drawing room. “Are you sure the note said Blackwell Manor?” she asked her mother.
“I am quite sure,” the viscountess said, sipping her tea. “You read it yourself.”
Joanna cringed and covered her face with her hands. She was happy her father hadn’t spent all night at the card table, but why on earth was he with the duke? “Father should have been back by now. It’s already afternoon.”
“Perhaps we should go over there,” her mother said, looking eager. “We can see him in person and exchange pleasantries with the duke—”
“No,” Joanna said quickly. “No, I can’t ever see that man again.”
Just the thought was unbearable after their meeting the morning before.
Besides, it would be better for Evan if she stayed away from him.
She just could not understand why he would talk to her father in public and invite him home after her courtship with the duke had ended so publicly and disastrously.
Mrs. Lucas came into the room to tidy up things from tea. Joanna caught sight of a folded-up paper sticking out of Mrs. Lucas’s dress pocket and realized neither she nor her mother had read that day’s newspaper.
Joanna had been so distracted thinking about her father that she had completely forgotten.
Perhaps she should pay more attention to the newspapers and gossip rags if they were going to keep mentioning her and her family.
It was better to be prepared instead of caught off guard in public by another scandal. “Is that today’s paper, Mrs. Lucas?”
The housekeeper gave her a guilty look. “Yes, miss. But there wasn’t anything interesting in it.”
Joanna raised an eyebrow, feeling suspicious. “Can I see it anyway?”
The older woman hesitated a moment before sighing, taking the newspaper out of her pocket, and handing it to Joanna. She left the room without another word.
Joanna looked through the paper, half-expecting to find mentions of herself or her father. But instead, she found Evan’s name. Her mouth went dry at the sight, and her stomach churned.
“What is it?” her mother asked. “How bad is it?”
Joanna looked up at her, feeling herself tear up. “It’s Ev—the Duke of Blackwell. He is betrothed to Lady Katherine Preston.”
Her mother froze. “How can that be?”
“I-I don’t know.” She set down the paper and started to pace around the room. “He told me he never wished to marry.” Her voice broke. She had believed him to be sincere when he said that. Now she was simply bewildered. “I didn’t even know he knew Lady Katherine.”
“Do you know the lady?” Her mother picked up the paper to read the words for herself.
“I met her once, only briefly. She’s very sweet, and very pretty.
Perhaps she and the duke will make each other happy with time.
” It was difficult for her to picture Lady Katherine on his arm.
She had been so timid, and had confessed that no man in the ton interested her.
Joanna could not imagine the duke would take much happiness from taking an unwilling bride.
“I don’t understand,” her mother said. “Why would he invite your father to spend the night, only to announce his engagement to someone else in the paper?”
Joanna sat down, feeling bewildered and devastated.
“I don’t know if he’s the one who did it,” she said.
“I don’t know who would go behind his back in such a manner, but he was adamant that didn’t want to marry.
” A lump rose in her throat. “Perhaps he changed his mind. Perhaps he just didn’t want me. ” A tear ran down her cheek.
“He proposed to you,” her mother said. “Of course he wanted you.”
“He proposed because he is a man of honor,” she said. “He didn’t want to ruin me. That’s all.” Before that article came out, the most he wanted to offer her was an extension of their false courtship. If his opinion on marriage had changed, it had nothing to do with her.
“I don’t believe this,” her mother said. She stood up and started to pace. “Perhaps this isn’t a real engagement. It must be an unfounded rumor published in the paper.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Joanna said, her voice hoarse.
“If he breaks off that engagement, that would ruin Lady Katherine’s reputation.
I would never wish that.” The young lady had been so kind.
The last thing Joanna wanted was for her to become the target of the ton’s gossip.
She took a deep breath, hoping to compose herself as she accepted the reality: any possibility she had of marrying the duke had officially dissolved into thin air.