Page 90 of Would I Lie to the Duke
She tried to speak, but words did not materialize. Her eyes had gone hot and dry, and she could only stand there, rooted to the spot by a burning spike that went straight through her.
Lost. It was all lost. Because of her.
“My plan worked,” Noel said.
Silence. Then Lady Farris said, “Your Grace?”
His voice a wry drawl, Noel said, “A lark, really.It’s all been so tedious lately, everyone and everything the same as always. I used to pull pranks all the time in my school days, so I thought it would be amusing now, finding someone of ordinary birth to pose as one of us. Adding her to the Bazaar would make it even more droll. Miss McGale agreed to my proposed scheme—it was even better that she had a business in need of investors. A soap-making business, you know, and quite excellent.”
Gaze moving over the crowd, fully in command of everyone’s attention, he continued. “At my direction, she presented herself as ‘Lady Whitfield,’ then, through the subtlest of means, presented McGale & McGale to the others. She followed all ofmyinstructions. And,” he added with a smirk, “everyone fell for it.”
Jess stared at him. Was he truly saying all this? Protecting her?
“You cannot be serious, Your Grace,” Lord Pickhill said.
“Believe what I say or don’t, Pickhill. It hardly matters to me.” Noel lifted one eyebrow, the picture of hauteur.
Lord Pickhill tugged at his lapels and chuckled. “It was well done of you. Very comical.”
“Amusing,” Baron Mentmore said, and added his own laughter.
Lady Farris said nothing, but Jess struggled to meet her incisive gaze. Did the countess accept Noel’s explanation?
Everyone else did. There was laughter and nods allaround and murmurs that His Grace had pulled off a remarkable prank.
Noel’s chuckle was dry as autumn leaves. “With that, I bid you all good night.”
The crowd parted as he strode out of the ballroom. Jess stared at his retreating back. She felt so many things, shock and gratitude and sorrow all combining into one tempest within her.
“Miss McGale, please explain,” Lady Catherton said tightly. “Are you in His Grace’s employ or mine?”
Jess did not heed her employer—likely,formeremployer—as she raced after Noel, clinging to a thread of hope. She could explain, and he might understand.
She caught up with him on the landing. Still wearing his smirk, he said, “Well done, Miss McGale. Everyone was fooled. I bid you good night—and goodbye.”
His eyes were wintry, and as she looked into them, she saw that there was no hope. He was lost to her.
She had expected this, but that didn’t make the pain any less. She struggled to remain standing, her hand clutching the stair railing for support. “Goodbye, Your Grace.”
And then he was gone, his footsteps resounding in the corridor, speedy and clipped as he quickly walked away from her.
She stared at the space he’d occupied for a long, terrible moment. Behind her, she heard the chatter, the excitement over the duke’s jest, with cheerful music from the orchestra beneath it all. Surely the papers would declare the earl’s gathering a rousing success,and people would talk about it, boasting if they had been there to witness it all, or else bemoaning the fact that they had not been in attendance.
All of this came to her as if she stared through a spyglass at some distant shore, far, far from her.
She walked heavily down the stairs, into a world absent of Noel.
Chapter 26
Jess stepped out of the servants’ entrance, carrying her battered satchel. She had to leave behind the extensive lady’s wardrobe, but those garments had never been hers in the first place. She was back to being Jess McGale again, with Jess McGale’s minimal belongings.
It would be a long walk to the coaching yard, carrying this bag. She hefted it onto her shoulder to redistribute the weight.
Sorrow weighed heaviest. She’d carry Noel’s sadness and sense of betrayal all the years ahead. What came next, she’d no idea. Though Noel had saved her from utter public humiliation, there’d be no rescuing McGale & McGale. Their investors would surely withdraw their capital.
It would all be gone soon. Everything. She’d lost him—for what?
She blinked hard, pushing back tears. In the past, she’d been able to salvage some semblance of hope, some slender lifeline to cling to. Misfortunehad befallen her many times, and many times, she’d pressed onward, determined to persevere. If not for her own sake, for the sake of her family.
