Page 21 of Always a Princess

“Today is the day!” Sophia entered the breakfast room with a singsong tone in her voice and a bounce in her step.

“The day you get engaged?” her father asked from the head of the table.

Thea knew Sophia hadn’t seen him before she spoke.

“Wouldn’t that be the surprise of a lifetime?” She recovered quickly.

“If not that, then what have you to look forward to today?” her father asked with his paper lowered.

“The biggest ball of the season, of course,” Louisa said to her father as she walked into the room and rescued her sister. “Aren’t we supposed to be excited about balls? We are debutantes.”

“Indeed. Now find a husband. Both of you.”

“Why are you so eager to marry us off, Father?” Sophia asked.

“It was your mother’s dying wish that you make excellent matches. It is in her memory I spend all this money on your season.”

A pang of guilt shot through Thea. She was letting her aunt down as well by not helping the girls secure appropriate matches already.

“Did you have a love match, Father?” Louisa asked.

“Love match?” He huffed. “Love comes after marriage, if one is predisposed to that sort of thing. It is by no means a concern or requirement for a good match.”

“Then what is?” Louisa asked him.

“A noble title, a fortune that will outlast your lifetime, an annual income suitable to provide a lifestyle befitting the daughter of a marquess.” He said it all so matter-of-factly that Thea knew he was absolutely serious and any other consideration was unnecessary to him. “I have seen the Duke of Carlton about town. He would make either of you an excellent husband. Have you danced with him yet? Perhaps this evening, I will introduce you directly and insist he does. He can have either of you, with my blessing.”

Both girls’ faces went pale.

“Carlton?”

“But he’s old, Father,” Sophia said.

“He’s at least a decade younger than me. Perfect age to take a wife. It’s time he settles down and gets to the business of producing heirs.”

The twins both stared at Thea, and she had a blind realization. For the last decade, she had painted a picture of love and respect in marriage, and that was unlikely to be either of their realities if their father got his way.

“It is settled,” her uncle said as he laid his paper aside. “I will attend this evening, and each man who meets my standards will be introduced to you to see if they take. You’re welcome.”

The girls looked at one another, horrified. Their father didn’t notice in the slightest.

This was going to be an interesting evening—and not at all in the way Thea had been thinking.

CHAPTER 13

Something was different about her tonight. Her dress was far more severe and matronly than anything he had seen her wear before, as was her hair. It was scraped back in a tight chignon, and her expression did not invite anyone to come closer as she stared at her hands, tightly clasped in her lap.

Was she reprimanded for our waltzing? Alexander wondered.

He had hoped that by dancing with other women first, her reputation would be spared the gossip he had ignited the first time.

He could not see beneath her hem, but he was willing to bet one of his Russian estates that she was not wearing dancing slippers this evening.

Her demeanor and appearance made him want to speak with her even more. What troubles her this evening? How can I change the pinched look on her face into a sunny smile?

And then he saw the difference. A man with a graying beard returned to her side with both of her charges.

“Is that her uncle? Their father?” he asked Hudson.