Thomas couldn’t honestly return that sentiment, so he simply said, “You’re looking lovely tonight, Lady Deborah.” That much was true, at least.
“Have you two heard the news yet?” Lady Deborah asked, her voice full of excitement.
“What news?” Thomas’s mother asked. “We’ve heard nothing at all—we’ve only just arrived.”
“Well, it might even be considered ascandal.” Deborah sounded like a spider with a particularly fat fly. “The cursed lady is making her debut this season. She’s actuallyhere. I’ve seen her myself.”
“Oh my,” Thomas’s mother breathed. “Is she really? The poor dear.”
“I wouldn’t call her that,” Deborah said. “Awfully suspicious, the circumstances of that fire.”
“Wait a moment,” Thomas said. “What are we talking about?” He’d never heard anything about a cursed lady.
His mother sighed. “It’s really just a rumor,” she told him.
“Well, there are plenty of us who believe it,” Deborah said firmly. “We’re talking about the lady whose bad luck killed her whole family, Your Grace. No one knows exactly what happened that night. The only thing thatisknown is that twelve years ago, a fire broke out in the Cooper family home, and everyone was killed—everyone apart from the youngest daughter. She was only a child at the time, so no one knows how she managed to survive—but if it really was a curse, that would make sense because it would explain why it didn’t touch her. Her bad luck brought the fire down around her and killed everyone in her family, but it couldn’t killherbecause she was the wicked one.”
Thomas was filled with an irritation toward Lady Deborah that he didn’t quite know how to express. It came bursting out of him in an explosion of outrage. “This is thenewsyou have to share?” he asked. “A young lady is here, making her debut, and you’re going around telling people she’s wicked and responsible for the deaths of everyone in her family? That she caused this tragedy when she was only a child? How can you say something like that?”
Lady Deborah’s eyes grew wide. “I didn’t come up with it,” she said. “Everyone is saying that.”
“Well, it’s an awful thing to gossip about,” Thomas said firmly. “What you’re talking about is a tragedy. The deaths of a whole family, leaving a child alone in the world—”
“Notalone. She lives with her uncle now.”
“After losing the rest of her family! And now she comes to a ball, and I’m sure she’s aware that everyone here is saying these things about her. It’s hardly an appropriate thing to do. I wish people wouldn’t spread malicious gossip like this. It’s cruel.”
Lady Deborah’s cheeks went bright pink. “Will you excuse me?” she asked and rushed away.
Thomas’s mother turned to him. “You humiliated her.”
“She shouldn’t be gossiping about people’s tragedies.”
“Perhaps not, Thomas, but really…that was rude. You don’t need to be so rude. And you shouldn’t have embarrassed poor Lady Deborah. Doing that isn’t going to stop anyone from gossiping, and I think you know that.”
He did know it. He rather regretted the things he had said now, but what was to be done about it? It was done.”
“I’m going to go and get a drink,” he said, mostly to avoid being scolded by his mother any further.
“Well, come right back here when you have it,” she said firmly. “I want to introduce you to some of the other young ladies who are here tonight.”
Thomas took a deep breath and exhaled slowly as he went off to get his glass of wine.
He had known this was what his mother would expect of him tonight. Of course this ball was going to be all about meeting young ladies in the hope that he would find one who was of interest to him. That wasn’t going to happen, but Thomas knew he would have to humor her. He would get through this much more easily by playing along than by putting up a struggle.
And at the end of the night, the truth of the situation would remain—he had no intention of marrying, and he knew that he never would.
So let her introduce him to as many ladies as she liked. He would greet them all, exchange pleasantries, and thank them for their time. And then, when that was over, he would go on his way. Eventually, the members of thetonwould come to understand the truth.
The Duke of Westcourt did not intend to take a wife.
CHAPTERTWO
“Come, Thomas, you must meet Lady Caroline.”
Thomas did his best not to let his exasperation show on his face. He didn’t think he could bear to meet one more person tonight. It felt as if his mother had introduced him to a hundred ladies, and he was beginning to feel baffled by the realization that there could be so many he hadn’t already known.
The lady his mother was leading him toward was pretty enough. She was tall and slim with striking green eyes and fair hair. But after everyone he had been introduced to tonight, Thomas didn’t think he would remember her face. She wasn’t someone who would stand out to him.
