Page 51 of The Matchmaker Meets her Duke
But Pandora had gathered the hem of her dress and was running into the bend at the end of the empty street. She didn't look back.
ChapterTwenty-Three
Emmett was hunched over his desk, his quill curving as he concluded a letter when an incessant knock intruded on the quiet of his study. "Yes?" he called, hoping that whoever it was would decide against the timing and return some other time. He was pressed for time: letters to write and letters to answer: a hunting session with Lord Melbourne, the one he had been roped into, no thanks at all to Ashton. Not to mention returning to Someries Manor tonight to see that everything was holding up most wonderfully well before he took Pandora to her new Manor tomorrow morning.
The heavy door to his study swung open and in entered Rose. A sullen look clouded her face. She perched herself on the chair across from him.
"Emmett," she said, then stopped as if the words had flown from her mouth.
"Dear sister. You're rather early. Or is it me?" He picked up his pocket watch and confirmed that it was not in fact him. She had indeed returned earlier than stipulated from her social call with his grandmother and Pandora.
"A turn of events," she said vaguely.
"And how were your visits? I hope Grandmother didn't run into Lady Brexley," he said and laughed to himself a little.
But Rose did not laugh. And for the first time since she entered the room, Emmett realized the dark shadow that was etched on her face. Or maybe he was finally taking it seriously.
They were divided by his large, finely carved mahogany desk in the middle. Still, Emmett's hand gently reached for his sister's hand over the desk. "You don't look very well."
"Emmett. I have… something."
Something.Dear heavens, what was his little sister on about?
"Where is my wife?" he asked wondrously, aiming for a lighter tone. Whatever his sister had to say, surely it couldn't be as solemn as she was making it out to be. He loved his sister, but she was not averse to the notion of overreaction. "Splayed in the drawing room now," he continued, "ungloving and pretending she hasn't missed and mooned over me all day?"
Rose reached in her lap and placed on the desk a folded paper. How had he not taken note of it in her hand when she'd sauntered in?
Emmett stared at it, then at her face. A gossip column with the nameLady Daturawas splayed over it in fine bold print. But there had to be a mistake. What was this?
"It's everywhere," Rose said.
"What is?''
"See for yourself.” Without another word, Emmett reached for the column and yanked it open, reading with a deliriously wild speed that was foreign even to him.
New information that 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. As their union is yet to be consummated and never will, this author is more than inclined to be–
Emmett read the paper twice more, then flung it from his desk. A joke. That is what this was. His sister was playing a practical joke on him. Although why Rose would choose this particular topic and why she thought he would find it particularly funny to read about alleged impotence in a fake newspaper, he would never know.
"That isn't funny, Rose," Emmett said. "I understand that you're mourning and you've been having a tough time with… Ashton's stance, but that gives you no right and no excuse to concoct such practical jokes. That I do not in the least find funny, mind you."
"It's not a joke, Emmett."
"I dare say that it is."
"Pandora, she ran away. She left after Sybil…Baroness Humphrey's daughter dashed in with the paper. AndIdare say that I know where she's gone too."
Emmett straightened up. He put his quill aside since Rose had interrupted his writing time, not certain he was hearing properly. Might Rose be drunk? Surely she ought to be. "What are you talking about, for heaven's sake? Where is Pandora?"
"She's gone, Emmett."
"Gone where?"
She shrugged. "I'm sorry, Emmett. I–" she hesitated, taking her eyes from his face. "I wish – I can't believe that she would."
Emmett stifled the laugh bubbling in his throat. Surely Rose wasn't maintaining that this wasn't a practical joke, that it was Pandora behind that horrid column. "Rose–"
"It's true. It's all true.” Now he had to laugh. What fantastical nonsense! What was wrong with his sister this evening? Was she ill? Had she gone mad?
