Page 50 of The Matchmaker Meets her Duke
"The Lady–" Pandora's heard herself trail off. TheLady Datura? She stifled the urge to laugh. Now would be an inappropriate time to be amused, what with the tension building in the room. But surely Rose was playing a nonsense trick on her. Surely Rose was speaking impossible words. She couldn't be reading fromLady Datura'scolumn because shewasLady Datura, and she'd promptly given up her column the moment she'd walked down the aisle with Emmett.
So what on Earth was Rose going on about?
"It says,'The marriage of the Lady Pandora, sister of the Earl of Danvers to the former king of rakes and newly settled Duke of Willcrow is hogwash and a lie, nothing but a sham tale spun from the depths of Hell in a bid to protect the Duke's large, unspeakable secret: his unfortunate inability to procreate an heir for his Dukedom. And as their union is yet to be consummated–"
"No." Pandora felt heavy and yet lightheaded as if her brain had been stuffed full of wet wool. "That… that can't be." A disbelieving laugh escaped from her mouth, the ground growing bottomless underneath her feet. Her world was beginning to spin.
Thatwasn'ther. Surely anyone would see through that. Surely Emmett's grandmother, Emmett's sister, wouldn't think that she could possibly do this. "It wasn't–" Rose turned away from her before she could even gather her words. "Rose.I couldn't.Youcouldn't possibly think that I could!"
"You're the Lady Datura?" Baroness Humphrey's mouth had dropped to the floor.
Pandora winced in her seat. She did not feel right in the head, she ought to pinch herself. She was dreaming a nightmare. She would wake soon, and find Emmett's lovely arms clasped behind his head, watching her sleep, a shaft of sunlight peaking in through the window, lighting the curls of his hair… Emmett.
Pandora sprung to her feet at once. Her heart was in her mouth, yet she tried to calm herself. She spun to the Baroness' daughter. "Where did you get this?"
She poor thing stepped backward as if in fright. She stuttered. "I don't, I didn't. A newsboy was waving about in the park and everybody – is the Dukereallyunable to produce an heir?"
"What?" Pandora squinted at the young girl, feeling the flames of fury licking at her temples.Be calm,she urged herself.Get yourself together.
The girl stuttered some more. "I mean, the Duke. Of… of Willcrow. Your husband. It's such a shame, I feel terribly sorry for you, truly I do–"
"What is wrong with you – it's not true!" A sullen silence followed Pandora's explosion. If one listened enough, they would hear a pin drop. They would hear the beat of every heart in the Baroness' drawing room.
The Baroness' young daughter backed further away as if she was being confronted by a madwoman. Pandora could not blame her. She did feel mad. She felt mad and confused and on the verge of losing her sanity. Why was this happening?Whohad done this? She wanted to strangle something. She wanted to rip that godforsaken paper to bits. She wanted to crumple to the floor and scream.
"Pandora." It was the Dowager's voice, calling unto her as if from a far place. But when she turned the old woman was hunched behind her, a warm hand on her shoulder. Not kind. But not unkind either.
"Let us go home." Her voice had died down to a whisper, far away from the reaching ears of the Humphreys. "Then I can sit you down, and you can explain to me exactly what you had in mind when you decided to have this published." Her tone grated on Pandora's already volatile bundle of nerves, her words like blade sharpening against the blade.
Pandora felt sick and dizzy with disbelief. She grasped for something – the mantelpiece, the arm of the chair, anything that would steady her. She needed to feel less like she was floating.
"Grandmother…Your Grace," she corrected herself at the hardening of the old woman's eyes, "I promise you I had no hand in this–"
"Now, now, come Child." She guided her out of the drawing room. Then she paused and turned briefly to the Baroness. "We'll see ourselves out, Lady Humphrey. A most delightful visit this had been. Most delightful."
The Baroness nodded wordlessly. She looked almost as entranced as Pandora felt.
Pandora let herself be guided back out to the coach, but outside, under the glare of the now dimming sun, she came to. "I must – I have to go."
"What now?" the Dowager's tone had lost some of its patience. But she did. Pandora had to leave. She couldn't stand to be in the presence of such disappointment and doubt for one more moment.
Because they believed it. The column. They believed it was her, returned to her ink and papers, slandering the Duke of Willcrow,her own husband.And she realized with a sinking of her heart that nothing she said would convince them otherwise. Not now, at least. Not in such a fragile, frazzled state of mind.
And Emmett. She didn't know where he was, or what he was doing. A pang shot through her at the thought of somebody showing the paper to him. Because of course, he would read it.
What would he think?
He would believe it. Her own husband would believe that she would write such horrible words against him when she… when she loved him.
Of course, she loved him, as surely as the day gave way to the night.
But he would read the paper. He would read those terrible words by this terrible, fake Lady Datura long before she could get to him with her own side of the story. He would believe the first story that he heard. And the story would be a lie.
Pandora's heart sank further into the claws of despair. Hot tears brimmed in her eyes, but she held them back. She would not cry. Not in the presence of people who thought she was capable of such monstrosity. She was stronger than that. She would be alone by herself first. She needed to be alone. No, she needed to be in the presence of her brother, who would believe her because he always believed the best of her.
"I… I have to go." Pandora turned away from the Dowager. From Rose with her inscrutable expression. From the coachman holding the coach open and even Baroness Humphrey and her daughter by the door, sickly pale with scandalized shock.
"Where to, Child?" the old woman called after her, finally unable to keep the alarm from her voice. "Pandora, your home is this way! This way,girl!Pandora!"
