Page 28 of A Deal with her Forbidden Duke
“We have arrived,” Alexander’s voice was rough, and he cleared his throat. “Parling’s Boardinghouse. Let us go, Madeleine.”
She bit back a noise at the way he caressed her name, as if his tongue licked every letter of it, tasting and savoring it.
“Let us go,” she whispered, agreeing.
Together, they vacated the carriage and went into the boardinghouse.
It didn’t take long for the Duke to sweet-talk the housekeeper to call for a Miss Nellie Trent.
The woman came down, her hair a dark spill over her bare shoulders.
The dress she wore had Madeleine biting her lip in anger.
Donald had bought Madeleine that dress for their first Christmas together. She had worn it once for a winter ball, and had not seen it since. She had thought it was in the back of her wardrobe somewhere, overlooked by her lady’s maid, or that he had sold it even.
How long had this woman had it?
The sight of it filled her with anger. It was more ridicule and humiliation.
“Well,hello,” Nellie purred, ignoring Madeleine completely, and setting her sights on the Duke. She sauntered down the stairs, brushing up against him. “Mrs. Carrey said I had a visitor. Might that be you, sir?”
“Your Grace,” he corrected, his jaw stiff. Pointedly, he did not look at her.
Madeleine made herself more irritated with the thought of wondering if he would look at her if she wore her dress. Her rightfully owned dress currently draped prettily on Nellie. And she was indeed beautiful, with deep brown doe eyes, and long dark lashes that she batted at Alexander.
“Your Grace?” she echoed. “Oh, you are aduke. Oh, my. It is my honor to make your acquaintance, then. What are you looking for tonight?” Her gaze swept between the two. “Perhaps something a little more…interesting.”
Madeleine cleared her throat, annoyed, even though she tried to hide it. Alexander shifted.
“We are here to enquire about Lord Kinsfeld,” Alexander told her, his voice hard. “I believe that you?—”
“Are his mistress?” Nellie filled in, looking smug. And then it hit her. “Ah. You must be the neglected wife, then.”
Her eyes set on Madeleine, a dark, cruel laugh spilling from her lips. Noticeably, she was not saying anything to confirm she knew Madeleine’s husband.
Yet the flicker of being caught was there.
Even so, Nellie quickly covered it up with more bravado. “It is a shame. You are truly as unimpressive as he told me you are. No wonder he fled,” she said.
Her throat burned with shame but she glared back. “Miss Trent, understand one thing. I do not care if you have bedded my husband or not. You are free to him, for all I care. The only thing that matters to me is that I may be free of his debts.”
Nellie laughed again. “Youtonwomen. You are alwayssodesperate to enter a marriage until you realize that being the wife, tied to your husband’s affairs and finances, only brings your downfall about. Me, I am a free woman, doing whatever I please.”
“I am sure,” Alexander said impatiently. “But what can you tell us of the lord?”
“Nothing,” Nellie said airily, shrugging her dainty shoulders. “Nothing at all.”
Madeleine huffed, irritated. “I am certain he has mistreated you, too, Miss Trent. You are beautiful, and my husband enjoys beautiful things—until he finds thenextbeautiful thing. Andthen he tosses his previous toy aside. I have learned such a lesson the hard way. Have you?”
Nellie’s eyes flickered, and Madeleine let her shame and anger drive her further.
“‘Dimmer than a dying candle,’” Madeleine said, “That is something he would say to me. Telling me that I had a pebble for a brain when my knowledge made him insecure. Not to mention the many veiled comments about my appearance. I could ‘try harder,’ ‘look prettier,’ even when I was draped in all the fine gifts he had given me.”
Nellie frowned, and Madeleine knew she was right. He had called her one of those things once.
“Fine,” Nellie snapped. “You wish for me to admit anything? Fine! I had an affair with Lord Kinsfeld. He’d pretty words enough, but I ended things as soon as I found out that other women’s beds were being warmed. All but your own, it seems, Lady Kinsfeld.”
Madeleine bit her tongue.
