sorts. Come, let us sit and you can tell me your troubles.”
Dalinda wanted to protest but you simply didn’t say no to a duke. Especially when he was the host of the event you attended and you held his handkerchief in your hand. She followed him to the settee and perched upon it, wiping her eyes again and then clutching the handkerchief in her lap, glad she had something to cling to in order to help still her hands.
“Now, I know you are making your come-out this Season. I learned that from the receiving line. Is it some young rake who has upset you in my household? If he has, I will box his ears for you.”
She smiled at his sweet declaration. “No, Your Grace. Nothing like that.”
“Then why is a beautiful young woman wearing a delightful gown so utterly sad? Sad enough to leave the ball and retreat to my library?”
She hiccupped. “Well, the library must have some appeal if you also have left your own ball,” she said, hesitant to reveal why this powerful man had found her in tears.
He nodded knowingly, as if he knew she were reluctant to speak about her troubles and wished to put her more at ease.
“My wife and I used to host a ball every Season. It was my favorite night of the year, seeing my duchess in her finery, sparkling like no other woman present.”
Dalinda hadn’t met the duchess this evening and asked, “Is she no longer with us, Your Grace?”
A shadow crossed his face. “No. She passed away many years ago. When our boy, Reid, was but four years of age.”
She remembered meeting the marquess and, for a moment, was sad that he had only been a little boy when his mother died. She supposed getting to spend a few years knowing his mother and then losing her hurt even more than her situation, where she had never known her mother at all.
“It sounds as if you were a love match,” she ventured.
A smile lit his face. “Ah, we were, my lady. That we were.”
He gazed off and she knew he was lost in happier times. Finally, his gaze returned to her.
“I continued hosting this ball to help keep my darling’s memory alive. It has been more than a dozen years since she’s been gone but I still miss her each day.”
Dalinda smiled. “I would say you were lucky to have her for as long as you did and know love between you. You also have a beautiful reminder of your wife in your son,” she added.
He nodded. “You’re right, of course. But though the ball is in her memory, it makes me realize that she is never coming back. I watch the dancers. The women’s skirts swishing. I hear the laughter. The music. And it only forces me to remember that she is gone.” Shrugging, he said, “I find I leave my own event each year earlier and earlier. I retreat to the library and think upon happier times before I join my guests again at supper.”
Pity filled her, seeing how the duke had loved his wife so.
“I am sorry to have interrupted your time to be alone and reflect on happier days, Your Grace. I will be going.”
Dalinda started to rise but he stopped her. “No. Stay. Help me take my mind off my own troubles. Hopefully, you will share yours with me—and we will both feel better.”
“I don’t see that happening, Your Grace,” she said frankly. “I find myself in the shoes that other women have. My father has chosen my husband for me.”
“Has he?” the duke asked. “I am sure you have had a bevy of gentlemen calling upon you ever since the Season began, Lady Dalinda. Perhaps your father taking matters into hand will—”
“I was not hoping for a love match, as you had, Your Grace. I merely wanted to find a kind man who would provide me with children. And yes, I have had a good many young men show interest in me. However, my father wishes me to be tamed. He thinks my nature is reckless because I tried to help my brother and my best friend elope to Gretna Green.”
She bit her lip, worried that she had shared too much, but the duke looked on with interest.
“Did they wed? And are they happy?”
“No. Father caught up to them, thanks to my traitorous maid. Poor Anna was banished to the country. Dez was hustled into the army and will miss out on going