Victoria dragged her fingers down her face and groaned. She never wanted to go to another ball, gala, or black-tie party as long as she lived. Hadn’t her mother already set aside enough parties for her to pass out at? She looked down at the email again. Monday night? That was only the day after tomorrow and last she checked, Victoria didn’t have a costume for a masquerade ball.

Should she go or should she stay away? Victoria was technically a Friend of the Farmingdale Library; she had the tote bag to prove it. She would have to have the messy conversation with John one day, there was no putting it off for weeks on end. Farmingdale wasn’t a large enough town for them to simply avoid one another. A fleeting memory of the short dance she’d shared with Matthew last night told her otherwise. In that moment, when she’d been in another man’s arms, she had desperately missed John. Her head tilted back against the headboard with a dull thud. She needed to talk to John, she needed to see him. She had to apologize for her behavior.

Her gaze left the ceiling, where there were no straightforward answers, and landed on the wall near the door. The nearby bookshelf caught her attention. Victoria cocked her head to the side and squinted her eyes. No, it couldn’t be...

She shoved the computer from her lap and slipped from her bed.

Are you kidding me?

A book sat amongst the literary criticism and theory books that she hadn’t touched since her PhD days. A small worn paperback with lines tracing its old spine. As she knelt to examine the shelf, Victoria’s hand flew to her mouth.

“G.D. it.”

There, in all its glory, sat For the Duke’s Convenience.

Fully dressed and ready to go home, Victoria marched downstairs with her weekend bag on her shoulder and a tawdry paperback romance in one hand. Her parents were in the dining room drinking coffee, when she stormed in and announced, “I’m going home.”

Archie looked up from his morning paper, reading glasses perched on his nose. Katherine’s pursed lips hovered over her coffee mug. She was still dressed in a silk robe and satin bonnet. “Excuse me?” she said, setting down her mug. Archie’s chair slid from the table.

“Stay where you are, Dad,” Victoria said. “I’ve got something to say to the both of you.”

Her mother gathered her robe to her neck in disdain. “Archie, you better tell your daughter to watch her tone.”

“Aw hell, Katherine, she’s your daughter too,” her father said, taking off his reading glasses. “What is it, Victoria?”