Much to her relief, Suzette caught the hint and immediately launched into tale after tale of life back on their country estate. She actually seemed to begin to enjoy the endeavor, devilment sparkling in her eyes as she recounted who had married, who hadn’t, and every bit of gossip she had heard no matter how trivial. As for Lisa, she sat silent, her worried gaze remaining warily on an increasingly impatient Dicky as Suzette babbled on. It was a relief to all of them when he suddenly stood to announce, “I shall leave you ladies to your nattering then. I have more important issues to attend to.”

On that pompous note, he left them, moving much more swiftly than he had allowed her to on entering.

“Thank God,” Suzette moaned when the door closed, her gay, trouble-free facade dropping away. Anger immediately replaced it and she sat forward to demand, “What the devil is going on, Chrissy? Does he act like that all the time? My God he was nothing like that when he courted you. He—”

“Hush,” Christiana hissed. Standing, she moved swiftly to the door and knelt to peer out the keyhole. When all she saw was empty hall, she released a relieved breath and moved back to her sisters.

“How bad is your marriage?” Suzette asked quietly as Christiana settled on the couch between her sisters. “You look tired and miserable. He’s not treating you right, is he?”

“Never mind that,” Christiana said wearily. There was little anyone could do about her situation and discussing it would merely bring her misery to the surface. It was easier when she simply didn’t think about it. “What is going on? Why are you two here?”

Suzette and Lisa exchanged a glance and then Lisa finally spoke up for the first time since their arrival and announced, “Father has been gambling again.”

“What?” Christiana gasped with dismay. “But he promised never to gamble again after Dicky paid off his last gambling debts.”

It was how she’d ended up married to the man. Her father had landed them in hot water with one aberrant night of drinking and gambling. He’d raised what money he could by selling family heirlooms to meet the debt, but it hadn’t been enough, and he’d been at a loss as to how to pay the rest. The creditors had been knocking on the door when fortune had seemed to smile on them in the form of Dicky. He’d arrived at Madison Manor with an offer of marriage for Christiana, and on hearing of their dire straits had offered to clear the remainder of her father’s debts in exchange for Christiana’s hand in marriage.

To her father’s credit, he’d refused the offer until Dicky had convinced him that he loved Christiana. Dicky had claimed to have seen her at the local fair that summer and spoken to her briefly, which she hadn’t recalled at all . He’d also claimed he’d been fascinated and found out all he could about her and that everything he’d learned he’d found pleasing.