Page 4 of A Deal with her Forbidden Duke
“And he was tossed right out of that club! Oh, theshame!” The Baroness of Inglebury clasped her hands, lifting her eyes to heaven like Sarah Siddons herself.
Madeleine Cluett, the Countess of Kinsfeld, had her hands clasped in her lap, listening to the conversation that flowed around her.
“As his mother,” the baroness continued, “I was mortified! Yet none of his friends were willing to follow him out of that club. Of course, it was left to his father to scrape him off the street.” She shook her head.
“A model heir,” snorted one of her ladies beside her.
“Hush now,” the baroness snapped, flushing.
Madeleine leaned into her friend, Tessa Derrington, the Countess of Easthall, fluttering her fan in front of her mouth.
“Do you know what I have noticed regarding these gatherings? Everybody adores telling their own stories until they receive an opinion that negatively comments on their beloved. Yet moments before, they were calling them for shame,” she said.
Tessa smirked. “Indeed. She wishes to humiliate her son for a good story until there are repercussions.” She turned to Madeleine. “Yet you have your own story to share, do you not?”
“Whatever do you mean?” Madeleine looked back at her friend, at her straight hair, as fierce as fire, and her pale face, lips curved in a knowing smile.
“There is something on your mind. I am wondering why you do not share.”
“With these ladies?” Madeleine whispered, mockingly scandalized.
She shook her head, trying to laugh off the fact that her friend had noticed the sour mood she had tried to hide behind dressing up for the soiree.
“I prefer to keep my personal life to myself.”
Tessa huffed. “Of course, but you cannot keep it fromme.” She whacked her fan lightly against her husband’s wrist. “Colin, do tell Madeleine how she cannot keep her thoughts from me.”
Colin, the Earl of Easthall, blinked at his wife for a moment before he laughed. “Ah, Tessa. Do not get me involved in your… womanly dalliances. And do not use your fan upon me again!”
“Oh, hush. You love me exactly how I am.”
“Tessa, you are positively the most tyrannical woman I have ever met. How can a man enjoy that?”
Tessa tucked her fan beneath her husband’s chin flirtatiously. “You should ask the mirror that, husband.”
Madeleine blushed at their outward display of affection for one another. In truth, she was not embarrassed, but merely jealous. At least the focus was off of her.
“So, Madeleine, you must share with me what is on your mind.”
Or perhaps she was not so easily forgotten.
“One moment, Lady Morgan is telling a riveting tale,” she lied, not at all listening to the woman who spoke.
Yet she tuned in, hoping not to have to share her thoughts.
The parlor walls in the Inglebury estate must be laden with gossip,Madeleine thought, as Lady Morgan spoke of her husband’s most recent shame.
Apparently, his cousin had disappeared abroad and not returned, having left with a large sum of money.
“Rumors say he has begun a new life!” another lady said, laughing. “What do you say of that?”
“I say good riddance,” Lady Morgan muttered, sipping her wine.
She continued her tale, and Madeleine continued her own examination of the heavy drapes that were drawn back to expose the window. She did not want to ignore her friend, truly, but how could she possibly share what weighed on her mind?
She had not seen Lord Kinsfeld in four days now.
How can I admit that I do not know where my own husband is?
