Page 84 of Dukes Are Forever
"This is the Lady Dido…."
Malloryn froze. He leaned closer to the detachable phonograph as Devoncourt's voice came through the speaking tube.
"Is that—?"
Malloryn held a hand up, quelling Byrnes's question instantly.
"What are we going to do?" Ava asked, looking pale as Dido laughed gently at something Adele said.
Indecision flooded through him.
He'd never hesitated to make tough calls in the past.
The rest of them stared at him.
"If we go in there," Kincaid warned, "we risk ruining this entire venture."
"You can't go alone. The place is filled with dozens of blue bloods," Ingrid pointed out.
"We could lose this lead on Balfour," Byrnes said.
"Fuck Balfour," Malloryn snapped. He'd promised Adele she wouldn't come to any harm.
His first instinct was to extract her immediately, but how was he going to do that when Dido was standing right in front of her? Dido would slit Adele's throat the second she saw him.
"We wait," he said quietly, his heartbeat pounding. "Dido may not know Adele is working for us. Byrnes, I want a visual on Adele. She said she's in some sort of orangery at the back of the building, with glass walls."
"On it." Byrnes vanished.
"Herbert, do we have confirmation of where Clara is at the moment?"
The butler frowned and pressed his fingers to the earpiece he wore. "Still dancing, I believe. She was trying to extricate herself, but the gentleman would not take no for an answer."
"He'll regret that."
Herbert nodded. "He will."
If Adele kept her head….
She could do this. She thought swiftly on her feet. And she was intelligent enough to see the trap yawning around her.
Malloryn had to keep telling himself that.
"Devoncourt, could you fetch us both another glass of champagne?"Dido asked."I thought I could have a little chat with the duchess, woman to woman."
"Thank you,"Adele said politely, though he heard the tension in her voice.
"Devoncourt tells me you're interested in escaping the yoke of the Duke of Malloryn?"
"I don't know if I would dare, my lady."
Good. Nice and noncommittal. A breath eased out of him.
"It's a woman's lot, is it not? To suffer under a man's control."
"This is the world we were born into."
"But you are here to discover if you can find some way of escaping him. Poor little soul. Love hurts,"Dido mused."A woman is better off without it."
