“He’s not going to do that.” Madeline had appeared in the doorway and was leaning against it, one hand on her hip. “He’s determined. I’m glad it wasn’t me he picked, ugly old hound dog. I wouldn’t want to do it either. I’d throw such a fit!”
Marie held in her anger, wincing when Madeline called him an ugly hound dog. She was seething inside but kept her eyes on Jenny. She shook her head and put one hand under Jenny’s chin when she looked toward Madeline, turning it back so that Jenny was looking at her again. “Listen to me, Jenny. We will figure something out. I know you don’t want to marry the Duke and you don’t think there’s a way out, but we’ll figure one out! I will think about it all night until I come up with a plan. Okay?”
“Why are you so invested?” Madeline asked suspiciously, coming in the room and staring hard at Marie. “What do you care whether Jenny marries the Duke? It would make her a Duchess! She would be wealthier and have a much higher station. Is that it? Are you jealous because she will be a Duchess and you won’t be?”
“No, of course not! I would never think that!” Marie was struggling to hold on to her fury. She wanted to slap her sister.
“Then you must be in love with the Duke!” Madeline spat out the words as if they could never be true. Marie sputtered but could not come up with a response. Madeline stopped advancing suddenly and narrowed her eyes. “That’s it, isn’t it? Isn’t it, Marie? Fess up, sister! You love the ugly old hound dog, don’t you?”
Marie balled up her fists and stood up to face Madeline. “Will you please stop calling him that! He’s…he’s not ugly! It’s a scar, that’s all! It won’t be passed on to his children, should he ever have any. Why do you have to be so nasty, Madeline? What has the Duke ever done to you?”
Madeline stood her ground, not backing off from her little sister. “He’s never done anything to me, and I’ve never done anything to him. He’s an old coot who can’t find a proper lady.”
“Well, he certainly didn’t pick you to be his Duchess!” Marie cried out.
“Nor you!” Madeline responded.
“Oh!” Marie turned her back to her sister and sat next to Jenny again, taking her little sister’s face in her hands.
“You will not worry, Jenny. I will hatch a plan. We will figure something out, I promise!”
Jenny’s eyes were wide and filled with tears. Marie thought how pretty she was even with her red eyes and nose. Jenny’s voice shook a little when she said, “Do you really have feelings for Duke Phillip, Marie? Because I would feel even worse if I had to marry him, knowing that you wanted him from the start.”
Marie shook her head and pulled Jenny into another hug. “Don’t you worry about me, sister. I will figure something out where we will all be happy.”
She ignored Madeline, who snorted behind her in a very unladylike fashion.
Chapter Four
When Marie woke up the next morning, she shot out of bed and had her robe around her shoulders in mere moments. She rushed out of her door, down the hall and into Jenny’s room, where her sister was sleeping soundly in her large pink canopy bed. Marie tossed back the curtain and sat on the edge of the bed, shaking Jenny awake gently.
“Jenny. Jenny, wake up, I think I know what to do! Jenny, wake up!”
Her sister opened her eyes to slits and then wider. “Marie? Oh! What is it? Have you thought of a plan? Oh, thank goodness.” In only a few moments, Jenny went from lying in her bed asleep, to sitting up and then falling back onto her pillow in relief. She picked up the pillow next to her own and hugged it to her, sitting up again. “Tell me what you’ve thought of, Marie.”
“I’m going to talk to Papa.”
Jenny looked crestfallen. “That’s your plan? But the Duke…”
“Wait for me to finish.” Marie smiled at her, and Jenny pressed her lips together with a small grin. “I’m going to talk to Papa because he was previously unaware of my feelings for the Duke. I’m sure if he knows that I would be a better choice than you for marriage; he will approach the Duke about it. I also thought that perhaps you could feign illness today and not go on the carriage ride with him. Instead, Papa will ask if it would be all right if I went along. The Duke has not spoken to me since the beginning of the Season…”
“Because you’re always playing that piano.”
Marie blushed as she went on. “Yes, I know that, Jenny.” She giggled a little. “Regardless, I believe that if Papa mentions me as a possible substitute, Phillip will take him seriously. You know how much in high regard he holds Papa.”
“Yes, I do. Oh Marie, do you think it will work? Do you think Papa will play along?”
Marie nodded vigorously. “I know he will. He is always striving to do what will make us happy. And this way, we need not tell him about Jonathan quite yet.”