“None at all.” Charlotte felt her cheeks growing hot again at the memory of the shame and humiliation she had felt on hearing the announcement.
“Sister, I am so sorry that he has done this,” Martha said softly, reaching for her hand. “I cannot imagine what he is thinking when he could be with you instead.”
Charlotte sighed. “Well, Miss Thomas will no doubt have a much bigger dowry than either of us, and I suppose that even handsome men must have something to live on.”
“Surely it cannot be all about money, though?” Martha said.
Charlotte gave her sister a sad smile. “I think you are still rather naive, my dearest sister," she said. “I have no doubt that a great many people in society make almost all of their decisions based on nothing else but money.”
“But what about love? What about affection, at the very least?” Martha said. “I cannot believe that it matters for nothing to these people.”
“But they are not like us, Martha, and that is the whole problem,” Charlotte said. “We are different from them, and they all know it, and they do not want to be associated with us. Lord Harry does not want to be seen in public with me, despite the ardent words in his letters.”
“But the Duke did not seem to object to being associated with you?”
“No, indeed, and I am still surprised by it, in all honesty.”
“You did look rather fine on the dance floor with him,” Martha said. Charlotte thought that she saw a hint of wistfulness in her eyes, not quite envy but maybe something approaching it.
“It was rather fine to dance, although the fact that everyone was watching made the whole experience rather strange.”
“But sister, after the dancing and the announcement, you disappeared. And I could not help but notice that the Duke was absent from the ballroom at the same time.” Martha looked a little concerned as she said this, keeping her voice low in case anyone should hear.
“My dear, there is nothing scandalous, I promise you.” Charlotte dropped her voice to a whisper. “He had a proposal for me, that is all.”
“A proposal?” Martha squeaked.
Charlotte flinched and hushed her sister, looking around to check that no one had noticed her outburst. She need not have worried, though. Lord Harry and Miss Thomas had just taken to the dance floor, and all eyes were upon them.
“Not that sort of proposal,” she hissed. “He has suggested a pretend courtship, to show Lord Harry what he is missing and to give himself a break from the marriage market. He wants to avoid all the society matrons foisting their daughters on him, for a little while at least.”
Martha was gaping as Charlotte told her the Duke’s idea, and when she had finished, she looked no less shocked. “How very singular!”
“Indeed!”
“And you have consented to this plan?” Martha asked.
“What do I have to lose, sister?” Charlotte said. She turned and looked across the room, to see the Duke approaching them with another man. The other man was not quite as tall as the Duke, but had a similarly aristocratic bearing and was dressed in very fine clothes. No doubt he was a gentleman of similar rank to the Duke.
Charlotte and Martha both curtseyed as the men came towards them. Charlotte could sense her sister’s nervousness. She was just as unaccustomed as Charlotte was to be conversing with such gentlemen.
“Miss Hervey,” the Duke said. “I would like to present my very close friend, Mark Lewis, the Marquess of Miller.”
Both men bowed, and Charlotte remembered what she was supposed to do next. “I am delighted to make your acquaintance, Lord Miller. This is my sister, Miss Martha Hervey.”
There was a slightly awkward silence between the four of them for a moment, and once again, Charlotte felt the eyes of the room on them. She took a deep breath. “And how are you enjoying the ball, my lord?”
Lord Miller smiled. “I am enjoying it very much,” he replied. “His Grace and I have not seen each other for some time, so it has been a great pleasure for us to catch up on things.”
Charlotte blushed and glanced at the Duke, wondering if he had confided the whole of their present situation to his friend. He met her eye and shook his head. It was the tiniest movement that would have been undetectable to anyone else, but the gesture clearly told her what she wanted to know – he had not told his friend of their secret arrangement.
Charlotte wished she could find a way to communicate to him that she had told Martha, but she could not think of a way to manage it without being too obvious.
She felt Martha’s presence next to her and knew her sister would be battling to overcome her natural shyness.
“Your Grace,” she began, pushing her shoulders back. “My family was very sad to hear of your father’s death. It must have been the cause of much sorrow for you, especially since your mother, too, is no longer with us.”
Charlotte smiled at her sister’s sweetness.
