Chapter 1
Dear Cousin Cecilia,
I hope this letter finds you well. I am writing in secret—Mama would be furious if she knew—but I felt I ought to tell you what has been happening since your departure.
The Duke of Ashworth has been most strange.
He rarely joins the company anymore, preferring to spend his time in the library or walking the grounds alone.
When he does appear, he is distracted and short-tempered.
Lady Marchmont is quite vexed—she had cherished great hopes of a match between His Grace and one of the young ladies under her roof, and now he scarcely looks at any of them.
Georgiana is devastated, though she tries to hide it. She knows why he has changed, of course. We all do. The way he looked at you, that day at the musicale—no one has forgotten it.
I do not know what passed between you, but I thought you should know that whatever it was, it affected him deeply. He is not the same man he was before you left.
Please do not think too badly of me for writing. I know I should support Georgiana’s interests, and I know Mama would say I am being disloyal. But I have always thought you were treated unfairly, and I wanted you to know that you are not forgotten.
Your cousin,
Dorothea