Page 58 of Her Wicked Duke
“Clarice!” Anne called, waving at her friend.
Clarice turned away from her.
Anne frowned. Perhaps Clarice did not realize it was her, but she was not truly that far away.
Several other people glanced at Anne as she walked toward the lake, her sister and niece trailing behind. But her friend and her group walked away, giggling behind their hands.
Anne paused, watching them go, feeling confused. What had happened? She turned toward her sister.
Surely this hadn’t happened because she had missed some of the Society events. The ladies of the ton were definitely gossips and enjoyed their cliques, but surely they wouldn’t turn against her…
She had not done anything untoward that anybody should know about.
“Let us return home,” Mary suggested gently, not wanting to draw attention to them. She laid her hand on Anne’s arm and directed her onward, back to Yore House.
Bewildered, Anne followed.
Anne forced herself to attend another party to try to find out why the ton was being so strange toward her. Even though she dreaded attending without Alexander at her side, she made the effort and tried to assure herself that she would be fine in the end.
Alexander had not answered any of her letters, but she tried not to worry too hard about it. Everything felt off-kilter for her, disorientating, and she struggled to keep her composure as she entered a party with Mary and Patrick.
While their marriage had been strained lately—she had heard enough through the thin walls of their home—Anne had encouraged them to attend the party with her as her chaperones so they might use the opportunity to dance together beneath the glittering chandeliers.
“Reconnect, find your love again, Sister,” she had told Mary. “Remember how you felt when you first looked at Patrick.”
And her sister had agreed, leaving Eloise in the care of their parents.
Now, at the party, Anne tried to avoid eye contact with any of the gentlemen there, but it was only halfway through the party that she realized nobody had even asked her to dance. The realization settled heavily in her stomach.
When she approached Georgia, the soft-spoken girl who had once been her best confidante, she only gave her an awkwardly polite smile and excused herself to be elsewhere in the room.
Only Jocelyn remained, as Clarice had made a point to be passed around from man to man on the dancefloor.
“Jocelyn,” Anne said, pulling her friend aside. “Jocelyn, you are a dear friend. Please, could you tell me what is being said about me? I have the feeling of being an outsider in the ton, and I am unsure why. Has something happened?”
Jocelyn did not answer her. She only gave her a disgusted glance before excusing herself, as Georgia had. In her place was the Earl of Satton, a smile on his face that Anne did not care for.
His arm wrapped around her waist boldly, and he pulled her toward the open doors of the terrace. Once upon a time, this was exactly what she had wanted, but now she only resisted.
“Sir, please remove your hand!” she protested, and the Earl did. “What has gotten into you?”
The grin he gave her was leering, and she felt exposed. “Word is going around, Lady Anne. You cannot pretend that you are innocent and pure any longer. I heard it from the mouths of your friends themselves. Who knows you better than them?”
“Excuse me?” she snapped. “They are my friends. Why would they spread rumors about me?”
They wouldn’t, surely… Not my friends… We have been with each other for years.What rumors are being spread? Wait?—
“Sir, Iampure,” she said, affronted. “How dare you suggest?—”
“We all know, Lady Anne.” The Earl laughed, the sound guttural. It crawled down her spine.
Away from prying eyes, his fingers slid down her back, almost touching her backside. She stepped back. He stepped forward.
“Why would your friends lie?”
“And what is it you know?”
“That you and the Duke have been meeting regularly,” he told her. “That he has… ruined you. And if he has, then there’s no point in pretending you want to save yourself for your husband. However, I fear your options will diminish greatly. Nobody wants a ruined maiden who has already spread her legs for a man before marriage.”
