Madison and I arrived in the drawing room quite late the morning following the ball. We had stayed up until practically dawn catching up on everything that we had missed in one another's lives since we had last seen each other and had slept in to recover. But we were arriving now and to a scene far more jovial than any we had experienced in Emily's previous season.

"Oh, girls!" the Countess exclaimed as we entered, reaching out and squeezing each of our hands in a greeting far warmer than any I had become accustomed to expect from my mother. "It was the most wonderful thing, I cannot believe you missed it!"

My gaze found Emily who sat smiling for the first time upon the loveseat that Madison and I usually occupied.

"What happened, Countess?" Madison inquired and the woman positively beamed at the question.

"It's Emily! Oh, after you left, you'll never guess who asked her to dance."

"Who?"

"The Duke!" She cried. My glance snapped to my sister who was simply smiling proudly from her seat.

"Did he?" I asked.

"He did indeed. And once he'd finished, other gentlemen were practically lining up to have their turn with her as well."

I turned back to my mother at that. That was interesting.

"Congratulations, Emily," Madison said, remembering her manners enough for the both of us. "That's quite thrilling."

"I imagine we will have a whole throng of gentleman callers today. What do you think, Emily?" the Countess beamed, turning back to her eldest daughter and joining her on the loveseat.

I watched the two of them titter away like the oldest of friends as I heard my own heart hammering in my chest. That was odd. I opened my mouth to offer my sister the congratulations that I owed her but somehow my lips would not form the words. Also quite strange.

"Ella," Madison's voice came gently through the fog. I turned my gaze upon my oldest friend who had taken a seat on a settee in the corner and patted a chair nearby for me to join her. Clearing my throat and shaking my head, I did as beckoned.

We hadn't brought our needlework today. I had pricked my own fingers one too many times the day before and thought it best that I didn't bleed all over my work before it was complete. So we were taking a break from the craft, playing a game of cards instead. Madison dealt them onto the small end table between them and I smiled as I plucked up my hand, trying to refocus on what lay before me rather than what lied behind.

We were only halfway through our first game when there came a knock upon the door and my mother eagerly called the footman in. He announced a gentleman caller, one for Emily, and the mother daughter duo greeted him eagerly and sat him down to tea and biscuits while Madison and I returned to our game.

But it wouldn't be the only time we were interrupted. Suitor after suitor called upon the eldest Harrington daughter like they never had before. By the fifth one, I expelled a breath of annoyance as I lost my game at precisely the same time.

"Do you suppose there's a line outside?" I queried with an irritated tone. Madison glanced up as she collected the cards, raising a brow in my direction.

"And what if there is? Are you not pleased for your sister?"

"I am," I rushed on defensively but then dropped my shoulders when I realized that Madison had seen straight through my attempt. "Of course I'm thrilled for Emily. But it's just... it was one dance. One moment of attention from a Duke and they throw themselves at her feet. They were never interested before."

"Ella," Madison started. "Are you... jealous?"

"Of course not! No, Madison. Truly, I'm not jealous. I only..." I peered back at my sister and saw her actually smiling at the man who sat opposite her now. It was the first real smile I'd seen on my sister's face in I could not remember how long. I was pleased that Emily was happy. In truth, nothing made me gladder. But there was another reason entirely that the men lining up to court my sister now worried me so. I sighed and turned back to divulge my deepest secret to my oldest friend. "Emily was my buffer."

"Your buffer," Madison repeated, not understanding. I bit my lip.

"Yes, my buffer. She- well, I'm not allowed to get married until she does. And I'm not... I'm not ready to, Madison. I know it's what I was born and bred to do. Find a wealthy husband preferably with a mighty title and bring honor and fortune to my family name while bearing him a dozen little heirs. But I don't... what if that isn't what I want?"

Madison's eyes widened for a fraction of a second before she leaned in and whispered, "what else might you want?"

I sighed.

"I don't know," I answered with exasperation. "I mean I might want those things. Some day, perhaps. But more than that I want... I want love, Madison. I want what you and Benthem have. Someone I can talk to who actually wants to hear what I have to say. Someone who doesn't avoid me within the confines of our manse. Someone who wants... well-"

I hesitated here, cheeks burning at the insinuation I was making. But Madison understood. She always did. She smiled and patted me on the arm.

"So you wanted more time to find him," Madison whispered, finally understanding.

Feeling tears in my eyes, I nodded.

"I want to be happy for her," I said, casting a glance in my sister's direction. "And I will be. But every step forward for her is a day less that I have to find my own happiness. Once she's promised off, Mama will turn her attention to me immediately. She will waste no time. And she will encourage me to take the very first offer given to me. And that will be Sir Thomas Abney."

"Whom you do not like."

"There are worse men..." I trailed off, lost in thought as I watched Emily's latest suitor kiss her hand and rise to leave. "But I'm quite certain there are better as well."

"Mama," Emily spoke suddenly from her position on the loveseat as the door shut behind the man who had just left them. I noticed the wariness in my sister's voice and turned to listen. "Why has he not come?"

I stiffened.

"Who, dear?" our mother responded.

"The Duke," Emily answered with a frown. "Last night when he asked me to dance, I thought he might be... well, interested. But he only danced with me once and left me to the rest of them. I did not even see him again all night. Such strange behavior for a man who I thought might like me."

It suddenly dawned upon me precisely what had happened when Madison and I had left the previous evening. The Duke had staged a rescue for my sister in the same way he'd done for me. He knew his attentions would attract other men to whatever woman he graced with a dance so he had done it merely to acquire suitors for the eldest Harrington sister. In his haste to be the white knight, however, he hadn't considered the implications of his actions, of what a girl who wasn't privy to his plan or used to being desired might believe his request to truly be. And now Emily was expecting him to call on her, to make good on the interest he had shown. But he wasn't coming.

"Perhaps he is too busy today-" our mother began in explanation but Emily's sour mood was back and she fell against the loveseat and crossed her arms in frustration.

"He's staying in this very house, Mama."

I stood, tossing my cards onto the table a bit harder than I intended. Madison glanced up at me in surprise but I could only grit my teeth and mutter, "Excuse me," before lifting my skirts and leaving the parlor in search of a certain Duke.

I found him, alone, in my brother's study. Elijah had surrendered the room to the Duke of Northumberland's use upon his arrival given the man's importance and his own lack of business. He stood behind the desk now, sifting through some correspondence which had been delivered with the morning post.

"Are you forgetting something?" I snapped as I entered the study, remaining on the other side of the desk from him, fists clenched and lips curled in anger. He looked up at me, lips parting slightly at my tone.

"Excuse me?" He requested. I took a few steps forward.

"You don't intend to call upon my sister," I said. I'd meant for it to come out as a question but I knew the answer and so it came out as more of a statement. To my annoyance, however, he seemed amused by my question.

"Am I supposed to?" He mused.

"You danced with her."

"I danced with you too."

That damned smirk. I furrowed my brow and held onto my fury in spite of it. I placed my hands on the desk and leaned over it in anger.

"I am unavailable. She is actively seeking a suitor. You knew that," I snapped.

The Duke's eyes trailed from my face down to where my cleavage was exposed from the position I stood in leaning against the desk. I followed his eyeline and stood abruptly up, straightening myself as he cleared his throat and cast his gaze away.

"You are unavailable," he repeated but suddenly I wasn't sure if we were still having a conversation or if he was reminding himself of the fact.

"Yes," I said, crossing my arms subconsciously across my chest. He took a seat in my brother's chair and looked up at me as I fought to still my beating heart.

"But you wouldn't be if Emily married."

"I- no. I wouldn't be."

"Isn't that what you want?"

My brow creased in confusion as I looked down at him.

"You profess to know what I want?" I snapped again.

"I would never," he answered, holding up his hands in mock surrender. "But I did hear you speaking to Sir Abney. You did not reject his advances, just reminded him of tradition. So if it is Sir Abney you want-"

"You danced with my sister so that I may be free to marry Sir Abney," I interrupted, raising a brow in apparent disbelief.

"So that you may be free to marry," the Duke corrected but I noticed the twitch in his jaw. "It's a foolish tradition that binds you."

"Maybe I want to be bound," I snapped without considering the phrasing of such a statement. His smirk was back, paired with another raised brow. I rolled my eyes and sighed. "Maybe I do not want to marry."

That seemed to catch him off guard. He blinked at me in astonishment.

"You don't want to marry," he repeated. "At all?"

"Not for duty," I answered. "Nor for title or land or riches. I won't throw myself at the feet of every Duke that comes to town."

I sneered at him and, though it should have been an offense, he only smiled back..

"You may think me empty headed," I continued, my fury returned. "And perhaps I am. But I wish to marry for love. Not to please my mother or my father and especially not to please you."

With that, I turned and stomped toward the door, nearly forgetting in my rage the reason that I had come after the Duke in the first place. As I reached the threshold, I stopped and turned back to him.

"By the way," I said, "your plan had one fatal flaw. It's you she wants now."