“Was she at the ball last night?”
“Yes, she was,” Thomas said. “And she’s very unfortunate, Rachel.”
“Unfortunate? How is she unfortunate?”
“Thomas, this is a hardly appropriate conversation for your sister,” his mother chided. “Let’s discuss it after breakfast, all right? Just the two of us?”
“No,” Thomas said. “You’ve made your opinions on the matter clear, Mother, but I’ve come to my own decision on what the right thing to do here is.”
“Thomas, think about what you’re saying,” his mother said. “Please don’t rush into this.”
“I’m not rushing,” he told her. “I’m sure of what I want.”
“What’s happening?” Rachel asked. “What are you saying, Thomas?”
“I’m going to marry Lady Madeleine,” Thomas said.
Rachel gasped. “You’re going tomarry? Already? You’ve already found someone? Oh, Thomas!”
She sounded nothing but purely excited, and for just a moment, Thomas was buoyed by that excitement. She was right to feel that way, wasn’t she? She was right to be pleased that he was getting married. It was good for the Dukedom; his mother had wanted him to marry. Surely, she would be able to see the good in it as well.
Apparently, she couldn’t, though, because she let out a groan. “Thomas. Wediscussedthis. We came to a decision.”
“You came to a decision. I never decided anything. Mother…I can’t leave her to ruin.”
“Wait a moment,” Rachel interjected. “What are you talking about? Why would she be ruined, Thomas?”
It was going to have to be revealed. “There’s gossip about the two of us,” Thomas told his sister.
Her eyes widened. “What sort of gossip?”
“Gossip I won’t repeat,” he said. “Suffice it to say that none of it is true. But that won’t matter to society. A lady’s reputation can be destroyed by a whisper.”
Rachel covered her mouth with her hand, and her eyes went to her mother.
“You’re frightening her,” their mother said. “I asked you not to talk about this, Thomas.”
“There’s nothing to be frightened of,” Thomas said. “Not for us, at any rate. It’s only Lady Madeleine who has anything to fear, Rachel. She’s the one people will say terrible things about. She’s the one who will never marry if I don’t stand by her now.”
“Thomas,” his mother said. “The curse.”
“You don’t believe in that,” Thomas told his mother. “It’s a foolish superstition. You must know that.”
“What’s thecurse?” Rachel demanded.
“Some say Lady Madeleine carries a curse,” Thomas explained. “Her family was lost in a terrible fire. She was the only one who survived that night.”
“It sounds to me as if she was lucky,” Rachel said. “Not cursed.”
“Lucky to lose her whole family?” their mother asked.
“No, not lucky inthatway,” Rachel said. “But if she was in a terribly dangerous situation and managed to survive, wouldn’t you call that a kind of luck? I would.”
“You might,” Thomas agreed. “A lot of people don’t see it that way. Mother certainly doesn’t seem to see it that way.”
“I just want you to be careful,” his mother said. “To marry the cursed lady, Thomas—can’t you see what a dangerous idea that is? Don’t you worry about what might happen? Her whole family was killed.”
“She didn’t kill them.”
