Page 6 of Raising the Duke’s Unexpected Twins

The sisters hurried to sit across from her and her mother, and Cordelia looked at each of them in turn. Emma was the second eldest, with dark hair like her own and blue eyes like their mother. She was all things quiet and sensible, while Danae, with blonde hair and the same blue eyes was all that was passionate and wild. She smiled.

The children will adore them.

“It is best you all hear what is about to happen, although please, do not interrupt me until I finish. I want to get everything out at once.”

She shared her story, the decision by Helen and David to give her the children but the mysterious destination of the inherited money. She explained all as well as the duke’s ire and his promise to find a way to dispute the will. When she was done, her mother and sisters were wide-eyed.

“I know it is a lot to take on, what with our own debts and problems, but I must do this for Helen. She had asked it of me, and clearly, she thought I was best for this duty and not their own grandfather.”

Cordelia’s heart raced nervously. She wouldn’t know what to do if her family turned her out with the children in tow. After a few seconds of silence, her mother grasped her hand.

“But of course you must do this. It is a sacred duty you have been given by your friend. We will find a way out of this and a way forward. All that matters is that the children join us and that they have a happy home.” Her mother was smiling, but Cordelia could see the worry behind her eyes. “There is still more to sell,” Fiona added, looking about the sitting room as if cataloguing its worth. “We can sell the last bits we were saving. That should be enough for a time.”

“And we too, could use our dowries from father to pay for the children,” Emma suggested.

“You are all too kind,” Cordelia answered, looking between each of them, and she rose to her feet. A plan was forming in her mind, a plan she had shied away from for too long, and after her family’s last act of kindness, she realized that she could not put this upon them. “I could not ask for such a complete sacrifice from you. You must have your own futures to think of.” She walked towards the window and stared out into the street again.

It seemed a sort of mad plan at her age, when she had no real idea how to go about it, and when she needed it to happen quickly, but it was a good one. Turning back to her family, she tried to smile.

“I think Emma will congratulate me on my good sense in this matter. I am the eldest, and I have brought this responsibility upon us, so now it is my responsibility to take care of it. And there is only one week in which to do it, for the children will become my responsibility in seven days’ time.

“But what will you do?” Danae asked, looking confused.

“It is high time that I find a husband.”

CHAPTER 3

“What a foolish errand this is!” Cordelia muttered to herself, feeling like a peacock with a white feather coming out of her coiffure, falling down slightly and tickling her cheek.

It had been her mother’s plan to dress in such a manner for this ball, with a cream muslin gown with a slightly lower bodice, for it was quite in style, but not to Cordelia’s liking. She looked around the room, feeling like she was at an auction, ready to select the choicest animal.

She caught eyes with one young man, a Lord Shiner, but when she smiled at him, he gave her a quick nod and then hurried away, as if he could not get away fast enough. Sighing, Cordelia looked around for any wine that she could use to numb the embarrassment. Hearing a young man’s voice near her, she turned with foolish hope that he had come to ask her to dance the next set, but he was asking Miss Featherton instead who was standing not too far away.

She has not the encumbrance of children upon her, children not her own.

Pushing through the crowd, feeling tired and ejected, she found a table of glasses and grasped at the first glass of wine she could see. Taking her first sip, she sighed.

I should give up the endeavor. It is hopeless.

Cordelia could not help but feel annoyed at both her lack of success that evening in drawing male attention her way but also her deep disgust of what she was doing. Marriage only seemed like a cage for all the young women who had come out at the same time as her. They had married old men or cruel men or men who enjoyed sampling any young woman who came their way. It all ended in unhappiness and entrapment. The only couples she had ever seen happy were her own mother and father and Helen and David.

And yet here I am, ready to throw myself upon the first man who asks, without either love or affection or even respect. It will be a cage just like all the others.

Emma edged up to her and wrapped a hand around her arm.

“You look beautiful, sister,” Emma said kindly.

Cordelia laughed. “Surely I look ridiculous. Like a dressed goose at dinner.”

“Not at all. You look perfect, and I have seen more than one handsome young man look your way this evening.”

Cordelia turned to her kind sister and knew she was lying. “You are far too kind for your own good, Em. For they look my way, yes, but since word has spread all over London about my inheritance of two young ones, no doubt from the duke’s lips, all eligible men are determined to avoid me at every turn.”

Sighing, she glanced towards the dancing couples as the next song began. She had never been one for dancing, and as she got older, fewer gentlemen asked her. It had suited her very well before, but now it was only irritating.

“I should have been far more charming in my younger years,” she confided to Emma. “It is not as if any offers of marriage or courtship had been flooding in before, Emma.”

“Dear Cord, you are too harsh on yourself.” Emma smiled, and Cordelia felt a little glimmer of hope.