Page 49 of The Duke's Carriage Window
She gasped in horror as Darius and Warren came toward the refreshment table. Meredith ducked behind a tall potted plant a few feet away before they spotted her, but she was close enough to continue to hear what the young women were saying when the two gentlemen approached the refreshments.
“Would you settle a point for us, Your Grace?” one asked.
“Yes?” Darius asked.
“That woman… your ward … will you soon be rid of her so that you might hunt for a wife soon?”
“I beg your pardon?” Darius’s voice deepened. “I have no desire to be rid of Miss Montague. She is a lovely young woman. Even the prince approves of her. Soon she will marry?—”
Another woman laughed. “You must be teasing, Your Grace. But truthfully, you must see that woman is damaging your hunt for a wife. Can’t you pay her and simply send her away?”
The silence that came from Darius was a knife to Meredith’s heart. He wasn’t going to defend her. He was going to let those women insult her as if she didn’t matter.
Because I don’t matter, not to the one person who matters to me.
She smothered a balled fist against her mouth to silence herself. Warren started to speak., but Meredith couldn’t bear to stay and hear what else was said. Without a backward glance, Meredith bolted for a set of balcony doors that she prayed led to a terrace outside.
Air, she needed air…
“Can’t you pay her and simply send her away?” Lady Mary Raikes asked Darius.
She was, objectively, a lovely brunette who possessed a pedigree dating back to the days of the Norman invasion. By the standards of the ton, she was the sort of woman who would be perfect as his duchess.
But all Darius could do was stare at her with a rage beyond words.
Send Meredith away? Pay her? Raikes’s blunt rudeness took him completely off guard. So much so that he just stared at her in terrible, thunderous silence.
“Ah, Lady Mary, I see you are as detestable as always,” Warren said with a cool smile.
Lady Mary arched a brow at him. “Who are you again? Oh yes, an untitled gentleman. You’ll forgive me if I have no care to what your ilk thinks.”
At this, Warren laughed harshly. “To forgive you, I would first have to have the misfortune of caring about your opinion…which I don’t. Miss Montague is worth a thousand of you, Lady Mary. Perhaps that’s what has your petticoats all twisted up? The thought that if Tiverton were to marry her over you, you’d know you aren’t worth anything to him.”
“Are you going to let him speak to me like that, Your Grace?”
Darius, finally able to see past the seething anger, opened his mouth to speak, but someone jumped out from behind a potted plant. It was Meredith. His Meredith…running from the ballroom, running from him. Because she’d overheard their conversation? She must have.
That black rage swelled within his head again as he met Lady Mary’s gaze.
“Actually, I will let Mr. Burville speak to you like that, because if I dare stay in your presence one moment longer, I will say something that you will wish I hadn’t.” Without even excusing himself, Darius skirted around the refreshment table and headed for the balcony doors. He had to find her, tell her that he didn’t agree with Lady Mary. That he’d never send her away. That she was worth far more than a thousand Lady Marys. She was worth everything.
The night was cold and smelled of rain and roses as Darius stepped into the gardens. He squinted in the direction of the garden path and caught a glimpse of Meredith’s sky-blue ballgown vanishing around a towering hedgerow. He didn’t call her name. If anyone else was in the garden, he didn’t want to be overheard shouting for her because it could ruin Meredith’s reputation if people assumed he was out here alone with her. He needed to get her back inside the ballroom at once.
He took off down the garden path, moving as fast as he could without running until he saw her once again. She sat on a marble bench, half in shadow. Darius stopped about fifteen feet away to take in the sight of her before she realized he was there. She was so impossibly lovely, even crying in the dark. And each of those tears shattered his heart.
In that moment, Darius admitted the truth. He’d fallen in love with this woman. The woman he could not have because tonight she had experienced the very thing he’d hoped to keep her safe from. His boots crunched on the gravel as he took a step forward. Her head jerked up at the sound.
“D—Darius?”
“Meredith,” he breathed as he came toward her.
She stood up, backing away from him.
“We must go back inside before—” He stopped, instantly regretting his words.
Her face paled. “Why? Because if we are caught out here together, you might be forced to marry me? And you wouldn’t want that, would you? To be saddled with me as your unsuitable bride?”
Unsuitable. His own distasteful words came back to him. How had she known about that? Had she overheard him speaking to Frances two weeks ago? If she had, it would certainly explain the distance she had put between them recently.
