The Duke Asked 30 Women the Same Question — The 31st Gave the Answer That Silenced the Room

Chapter 2

“Miss Ellery,” the duke said, and his voice was different now — quieter, sharper, like a blade being drawn from its sheath. “Would you answer?”

The old countess snapped, “She is not here for that. She is nothing. I did not — ”

The room went still.

Marin stepped forward.

Every woman who had been rejected watched her with quiet satisfaction. They wanted to see poverty humiliated in public. They wanted to see the shadow burned by the light it had wandered into. They wanted someone to fail worse than they had failed.

The duke repeated the question. His voice carried no impatience, no mercy, no variation from the words he had spoken thirty times before.

“A hungry boy of nine steals a loaf of bread from your kitchen on a winter morning. The steward demands he be whipped before the village so the poor will learn not to steal. As mistress of the house, what do you command?”