Free Forbidden to Love the Duke by Jillian Hunter

room that had gone on into the wee hours. Ivy wasn’t certain whether she had dreamt Rue sneaking into the hall to investigate.
    She sat up in bed and shook Rue gently awake. “It’s not raining. With any luck we’ll make it to the pawnbroker’s shop and be home before supper. I’ll have to buy a new dress in the village and shoes and stores for the pantry. We all need cotton stockings and shifts. If we have enough money left over, we’ll buy rose water and gloves.”
    Rue sat up and combed her fingers through her hair. She was avoiding Ivy’s eyes. “What a horrible place this is.”
    â€œWhy did you leave the room last night?” Ivy asked.
    â€œThere was a party down the hall, and I was hoping to catch a servant in passing and have him ask the guests for a little consideration. You were sleeping peacefully. Icouldn’t sleep at all.” She slid from the bed. “Come. We’ll do what we have to do.”
    Ivy glimpsed her sister’s face in the mirror. “Do you feel well? Look at those circles under your eyes. I wonder if you took ill in the rain.” But then the four sisters had all been on edge lately. “Everything will be better soon.”
    Rue smiled wanly. “Yes. I believe it will.”
    Ivy told herself that whatever was wrong with Rue would have to wait until they returned home. She had to keep her wits about her when she dealt with Mr. Newton, the pawnbroker. She’d never had the sense that he cheated her, but business was business, as he said, and he paid her the best price she could expect due to the fact that he’d once gotten into trouble with the authorities for receiving stolen goods.
    An hour later she watched him open her mother’s old jewel casket on his counter to examine the diamond-
and-pearl necklace. Rue stood at the door, her face turned to the street. “Oh, Lady Ivy, this is a magnificent necklace, crafted indeed to be worn by a noblewoman. I cannot pay you what it’s worth.”
    â€œI’ll take whatever you can pay me, then.”
    â€œIt’s come to that?” he said in a worried voice.
    â€œTake the pearls, and the casket. Fenwick is at stake.”
    He removed his spectacles, laid the pearls on a velvet swath, and turned his attention to the intricately carved casket. “Keep the box,” he said after a while. “Only a few were made during Royalist times and carried secret messages for the exiled king.”
    â€œIt will only make me miss the necklace.”
    â€œThis is a unique item. There are panels hidden within that held secret messages, but, alas, all appear to be empty.”
    â€œYes. We opened them countless times as children.”
    â€œI will pay you, my lady, but I do hope that this is our last encounter. You deserve better.”
    â€œI’ve nothing left to sell, sir.”
    When the time came, she almost could not bear to part with the necklace—ten pounds was generous for a pawnbroker but little compensation for what her family had lost. Rue stifled a sob, which so upset Ivy that she accepted her payment with a hurried thanks and steered her sister out of the shop. “It’s all right, Rue. Everything will be fine once we’re back at Fenwick.”
    Rue pushed through the throng of pedestrians, presumably to reach their parked carriage. “Nothing will ever be right again. We should never have come to London. It’s only a place of endings, and dreams that can’t ever come true.”
    Ivy hurried after her in concern. “You’re not making any sense. Stop a minute. You’re going the wrong way. I wouldn’t have sold the pearls if I’d known you felt like this. Rue,
stop
.”
    But Rue didn’t stop.
    And in her distress Ivy stepped straight out into the street in front of a speeding phaeton. The driver swerved to avoid hitting her. The lady in a plumed hat beside him covered her face with her