He spoke with a note of amusement in his voice, but it was laced with a clear affection. “And I do understand—back when I was in Society it felt as though I were constantly under scrutiny.”

Della repressed a snort.

“But why am I telling you that? You would know about that, wouldn’t you, given your own history?”

Apparently she hadn’t repressed enough. And, of course, he knew about her scandal. Who didn’t?

Well, except for all the young women who arrived at her doorstep looking for help. And likely most of the kittens that had wandered in to be rescued as well. She couldn’t speak to the furniture’s knowledge.

“You know my history. Do you know everything?”

The duke shrugged his thin shoulders. “I believe so. That you eloped with an ineligible man, that you returned to London a few years later with a child and no husband. That your sisters have been desperately trying to maintain their own status in Society but have only caused their own scandals.”

Della felt herself bristle. To speak so cavalierly about her sisters, as though all that mattered to them were their reputations. Although she supposed that to any outsider it would appear that way; she wouldn’t have known what was behind their actions if they hadn’t kept writing one another.

She should remember to thank them, all of them, for keeping in contact with her. She hadn’t thought much about how difficult it must be for them, to have a sister such as her.

She hadn’t thought much at all those years ago when she’d eloped either. Just that she had not wanted the future that lay before her, presented on a gold tray with ducal strawberries.

But it was a few years later, and hopefully she was wiser, and knew what she wanted. Which at the moment was a very large former sea captain. And she also knew for certain what she did not want—the same thing as before, only more definitively. Not only did she not wish to be married to some lord who took her because of her family, not because of her, but she did not wish to be married to anybody.

“I apologize, did I offend you?” the duke asked, interrupting her thoughts.

She began to shake her head instinctively, then considered it and nodded. “Yes, you have.”

His eyes widened. As of course they would; ladies never cast blame toward any gentleman, much less a ruined woman such as herself toward a duke.

“My history is as you say,” Della continued. “But my sisters—there was more to what they were doing than merely salvaging their reputations.” She thought about them, from earnest Eleanor, to fierce Olivia, to stubborn Ida, to resolved Pearl. She also hadn’t realized, those years ago, how much she loved her sisters. Sarah was the sister of her heart, but her actual sisters were just as beloved.