Page 2 (1/2)

"But--"

"I said, go"

The wootten and she did as she was told, straightening her tassels and s her leave

The duke turned, still buttoning the falls of his trousers His duchess looked away Sophie did not, h she could protect Seraphina frohten us off with your crassness, it won’t work"

He raised a brow "Of course it won’t Your fa, and they did

The Talbot family was the scandal of the aristocracy Sophie’s father was a newlyreceived his title a decade earlier froossip, it was generally accepted that Jack Talbot’s fortune--made in coal--had purchased his title Some said it on in a round of faro; so a particularly e

Sophie did not know, and she did notto do with her, and this aristocratic world was not one she would have chosen for herself

Indeed, she would have chosen any world but this one, where people so ed and mistreated her sisters She lifted her chin and faced her brother-in-law "You don’t see our money"

"Sophie," her sister said again, and this time, she heard the censure in the word

She turned on Seraphina "You cannot mean to protect him It’s true, isn’t it? Before you, he was iood is a dukedoratitude that you ca and saved his nahtened one coat sleeve "You’re addled if you think that’s how it happened I landed your father every aristocratic investor he has He exists because of oodwill And I spend thetrapped into stock"

Sophie bit back her gasp at the insult She knew the stories about her sister landing the duke, knew that her mother had crowed far and hen her eldest had become a duchess But it did not make his insults fair "She’s to bear your child"

"So she says" He pushed past thereenhouse

"You doubt she increases?" she called after hi down at her hands clasped over the swell of her growing body As though she could keep her child froe that his father was a monster of a man

And then Sophie realized what he really meant She chased after the duke "You cannot doubt that it is your child?"

He swung around, gaze cold and filled with disdain He did not look at Sophie, though Instead, he looked at his wife "I doubt every word that drips fro lips" He turned away, and Sophie looked to her sister, tall and proud and filled with cool reserve Except for the single tear that spilled down her cheek as she watched her husband leave

And in that er bear it, this world of rules and hierarchy and disdain This world into which she had not been born This world she had never chosen

This world she hated