“He is dead, isn’t he?” Lisa asked.

Christiana glanced to where her youngest sister still stood by the chair and said uncertainly, “It would seem so.”

“What do you think killed him?” Lisa asked with a frown and then suggested, “It was probably his heart. I noticed how flushed he got when Suzette argued with him. He seemed a very passionate man.”

Christiana didn’t comment, instead she let her gaze drift over the man she’d been so eager to be free of and let a sad sigh slip from her lips. She’d thought herself in love with him when they married, but the man she’d loved hadn’t existed, he’d turned into someone entirely different once the ceremony was over. That man had smothered every last drop of her love over this last year with his controlling and critical attitude. Still, she felt a tinge of grief stir within her. It was probably for the man she’d thought he was and the life she’d hoped for, Christiana acknowledged. Despite everything, she’d still held on to a drop of hope that something would happen to turn him back into the usually Prince Charming he’d been when he’d courted her, and that she could yet have the happy ending she’d expected on their wedding day.

Christiana hadn’t been foolish enough to think there was much hope for that, but there was absolutely no chance for it now. She was a widow . . . and had every intention of staying one. There was no way she would ever entrust herself into another man’s hands again, not in this lifetime. Christiana had learned her lesson well.

Shoulders straightening resolutely, she said, “I suppose I should have the servants call a doctor to—”

“No,” Suzette interrupted. “If he’s dead you will have to go into mourning and cannot give us our debut. We will be expected to join you in mourning too and will have absolutely no chance of saving ourselves.”

Christiana recognized the truth in Suzette’s words, but said helplessly, “What can we do? He’s dead.”

As Suzette glowered at the hapless Dicky, Lisa suggested, “Perhaps we could just put him in his bed and tell the servants he is feeling unwell. Even a couple of days may be enough for Suzie to choose someone desperate enough to accept her offer. The moment she settles on someone and heads for Gretna Green you can pretend to discover Dicky dead in his bed.”

“A couple of days wouldn’t even be enough time for Suzie to start her search for a husband,” Christiana argued sensibly.

“It is,” Suzette insisted. “Tonight is the season opening ball at Lord and Lady Landon’s. Everyone will be there. You and Lisa can gossip with the women to find out who is rumored to need money, and I can assess those men and find out which seem the most desperate and amenable to my needs.”

“Everyone will be there who has been invited,” Christiana corrected dryly. “And we weren’t.”

“You were,” Suzette argued. “Lady Landon told us so.”