Chapter Eight #4
The look in Sarah’s eyes said they both knew why he must be there. But Sarah said only, “Neville is family.”
“To you.”
“Did he not play a part in the courtship between my brother and your sister?”
“I suppose,” Millie replied.
“Well, then. There you have it.”
Millie sighed. “That doesn’t make sense at all.”
“Neville is involved. I think I know why, but what I know is speculation. I can only tell you for certain that he is a very trustworthy man.”
She contemplated telling Sarah that Neville and his trustworthiness could hang. But Neville didn’t deserve her ill will. Only she was at fault. In fact, she felt almost as if her own intentions had made tonight happen.
She took in a hard, frustrated breath.
“Was that a sniffle or an ironic laugh?” Sarah asked.
“Just last night, I told Lenora I’d rather be notorious than leg-shackled…” She groaned. “I think I have gotten my wish.”
“There are more than just those two options, you know.”
“Easy for you to say,” Millie replied. “You’re old.”
Sarah chuckled.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”
“I’m not insulted.” She shrugged. “I am well into my third decade. A firm spinster. And, yes, within reason, I do as I please.”
“But,” Millie pointed out the obvious, “you are the daughter of an extraordinarily powerful duke.”
“Yes,” Sarah answered. “One who protected me while he was alive. And my little brother, also a powerful duke, has not seen fit to restrict me in any way.”
“Harbury is kind, but I get the impression he could be quite stern if he wished.”
“Never to me. Nor, I think to your sister.” She leaned forward and added in a conspiratorial tone. “He’s slightly afraid of me, you know.”
“Why?”
Her eyes twinkled as she smiled. “I used to force him to do all sorts of things for me in order to keep his secrets.”
“What secrets?”
“Oh, nothing that matters now. And I expect he and Cassie keep nothing between them hidden.” She looked out the window. “As it should be between lovers.”
Millie’s brows went up at the word lovers. Not a word even her married sisters would use in her presence. Sarah’s breach of etiquette gave Millie the courage to ask a question that had been plaguing her since they’d left the theater.
“Do you think Willard really wished to marry me? Or just ruin me?”
“Hard to say… But I suppose we’ll find out the truth soon enough.”
Millie fisted her fingers. “I don’t want to marry him.”
“I would not wish to marry him, either.” Sarah reached across the carriage and covered Millie’s hand with her own. “Men like Willard truly are dangerous. But never as invincible as they would have us believe. Something tells me he made more than one mistake tonight.”
“All men are dangerous.”
“All people can be dangerous. But most, including men, are not as menacing as they believe.” Sarah shook her head.
“Take Lord Willard’s lads, for instance.
When my friends and I came on them in the lounge, they were laughing and carousing.
All it took to silence them was my spinster governess look.
” She stiffened her neck and glanced disapprovingly down her nose.
Millie giggled. “Terrifying.”
“It doesn’t always work on women, but trust me, with young men, it has a god-like power to stop tomfoolery.”
“Can you teach me?”
“Can’t be done.” Sarah shook her head. “Not until you’re at least twenty-seven. And something tells me that by then, you will not be a spinster.”
Millie lifted her chin. “I won’t be forced to marry Willard.”
“Not Willard, no…” She dipped her head and studied Millie’s eyes. “But perhaps someone else?”
Millie’s heart began to pound, hard. “What if I want to be like you?”
“I’m flattered. And I give you leave to imitate me all you wish. But mind you, just because I am unmarried does not mean I am…unattached.”
Millie cocked her head.
Sarah held up her hand. “That’s all I will say.
But, if you’ll pardon my observation, a lady who has the presence of mind to steal a knife after having been insulted and threatened with that same implement can certainly manage a husband.
” She paused, giving Millie another one of those long, searching looks.
“Especially a husband who, if occasionally pedantic, is honorable to the core.”
Oh, no! Not Lady Sarah, too. “But I don’t want to manage a husband. More importantly, I don’t want any husband to manage me.”
Lady Sarah sighed. “That is the essential problem, is it not?”
“Why must men always feel like they are in charge?”
“I haven’t any idea.” Lady Sarah made a sound like a snort.
“Was that a laugh?” Millie asked.
“No, my dear.” She patted Millie’s leg. “You’ll be fine.
You’ve just had a hard night. We’ll go back, have a family chat, and then you will be the one to decide what your future will be.
Cassie and Eliza will be there, and I will be, too.
Your sisters and I will not allow the men to run roughshod over your fate. ”
“Thank you,” Millie said sincerely.
“Now, you must decide what you wish that fate to be.”
Millie cast her gaze back out the window.
How was she to do so when her head and her heart refused to agree?