Page 60 of A Deal with her Forbidden Duke
She shook her head, but Madeleine continued.
“Nellie had once been in love with him, too. He had promised her jewels, had warmed her bed—but she had turned him away when she found out that her bed was one of many.”
“You are lying,” Lady Rowthern hissed. “He always told me about you. How you were jaded and bitter. Unappreciative of his lifestyle.”
“His lifestyle?” Madeleine laughed. “He was riddled with debt, Lady Rowthern, and if you did not know that, then perhaps you should have been more concerned with his behavior, rather than gossiping about the wife he left at home. I told Nellie that I do not care who he bedded. Heavens knows there was no love between us. I did not love my husband, but I do not enjoy the defense of him. He does not deserve it.”
“No,” Lady Rowthern snarled. “Youdid not deserveDonald. His generosity was wasted on you. You are wrong! There is no Nellie Trent, no other women—none, except for you, Your Grace. You were the only thing keeping Donald and me from being together.”
Her face was turning red with her anger, and her gloved hands clenched at her sides.
“Believe me, Lady Rowthern,” Madeleine said. “I have nothing to gain from lying to you.”
“More lies! You think that I will concede to your lies, that I will discard Donald easily in my mind and believe you. But I willnot. I do not care for my husband, but Donald… I cared so deeply for him. You truly did not deserve him.”
She stepped forward, and Madeleine flinched again.
Before Lady Rowthern could do anything, a scuff of boots had Lady Rowthern moving back quickly.
Relief flooded Madeleine as she looked towards the sound and saw Alexander.
“Lady Rowthern, I do suggest you back away from my wife.” His threat cut through the dark evening on the balcony. “Unless you wish me to invite the Marquess of Rowthern to join us out here, and you can tell him what you have been discussing?”
The woman whirled towards Alexander, her eyes widening. “No,” she said quickly. “There is no need!”
Alexander scoffed at her. “You know, Lady Rowthern, I have half a mind to do it, regardless. Do you know why?” He stalked forward. “I do not care for faithless wretches like you. Your husband provides for you, and I understand a loveless marriage and the pains it might cause, but for you to boast in such ways about your affair…”
He shook his head.
“You are weak, Lady Rowthern. A coward. And you are foolish—likely as foolish as the late Lord Kinsfeld considered you, for surely, he treated you the same as he did his other women.”
Lady Rowthern fell utterly silent, her mouth parted in shock at how sharply Alexander spoke to her. Madeleine’s pulse spiked, her nerves rising.
“Excuse yourself from my wife’s presence immediately, Lady Rowthern.”
The woman did so, snapping into action as she bowed out of the balcony, leaving Madeleine gazing at Alexander.
He drew closer to her, cupping her face before pulling back.
“Are you all right?” he asked her, his brows furrowing in concern.
He swiped beneath her eyes, and she realized she had shed a tear or two.
“I am merely exhausted,” she admitted. “I could hold my own against Lady Rowthern, you know.”
“Oh, I know, and I heard plenty of you doing it. Now, will you allow me to remove you from this ball and take you home?”
Home.
The word was a soft fall into a cushioned bed—something she had had before but barely felt as though the word meant anything. How strange for it to mean something a little more with a man such as the Duke of Silverton.
“Yes,” she said, sighing. “Please do.”
Chapter Twenty
“Perhaps you should not have been so intense with Lady Rowthern,” Madeleine said during their carriage ride back to Silverton.
She ached for rest but that felt… wrong. She ached forsomething, yet she was not entirely sure what that something was.
