Page 61 of The Scarlet Lady's Duke of Desire
Again, it wasn’t entirely a lie. The duke had not expressly asked to court her and until he did any such thing there was no way she was going to suggest to her best friend that he might wish to do so. The humiliation of his becoming engaged to somebody else would be all too painful if she were to do so.
“Melody, there is something you aren’t telling me,” Petunia insisted, raising an eyebrow. She looked Melody deep in the eye without blinking, her expression suggesting she was not going to let it go until she had learned the truth.
“What is it? What is going on? Why did Mr Colton break off the engagement?”
The questions piled up one on top of the other and before Melody knew it, she blurted, “I never cared for Mr Colton to propose in the first place! I foolishly accepted because it was what my parents wanted, and I thought it would help me forget about The Duke of Haston.”
Even as she said the words, she squeezed her eyes tight shut, terrified to see her friend’s reaction.
“What does the duke have to do with any of this?”
The confused tone to Petunia’s voice made Melody open her eyes once more. She blinked away angry tears from her eyes and admitted, “Ever since the duke asked me to dance that evening, I have been unable to stop from thinking of him. And he…he visited here, and things occurred that left me feeling even worse.”
Melody started to explain everything from how the duke had practically professed his love, not once but twice, without ever actually using the right words for her to truly believe he meant it.
She went on to tell her how after the rumours about Lady Florence started and with how her parents had been discreetly pressuring her to consider marriage to Mr Colton, she had broken and decided that it would be the safer option.
Finally, she told her friend about how the duke had come to her home and spoken to her father, how he had insisted that Mr Colton was no good and that only days later Mr Colton had mysteriously broken off their engagement. And it was the morning after her mother had caught her and the duke together in his aunt’s gardens.
“Oh, Melody! How could you possibly have kept all of this from me?” Petunia demanded and for a few terrified seconds Melody believed her friend was angry with her. Then she gripped hold of both her hands with renewed force as she insisted, “You must tell me everything! Are you in love with the duke? Is he in love with you?”
Those questions caused Melody’s heart to skip a beat. Could it truly be love?
“I…I do not know. I cannot say I have ever experienced anything like this before,” Melody admitted, shrugging her shoulders. She felt heat growing in her cheeks.
“Describe it to me!” Petunia insisted.
Melody sucked in a breath. She wasn’t sure she wanted to.
“I…well…it feels as though my heart will beat right out of my chest whenever he is mentioned and just seeing him makes my entire body tremble,” she admitted, feeling sick at the thought of how badly the duke had affected her.
With every word she said, her friend looked more and more excited. Just when Melody was about to point out that it didn’t truly matter how she felt, rather it was how the duke felt about her, there was the sound of hurried footsteps coming down the hallway towards the drawing room.
With the door still open to allow for Jenkins return, Melody half expected it to be with butler bringing their tea. It was only when she heard the huffing and puffing that she looked around to see her father racing down the hallway towards them.
Upon seeing his bright red face and the way his cheeks puffed out in exasperation, Melody jumped to her feet and hurried around the couch to meet him as he entered the room. “Papa, what is the matter?”
The businessman looked as if he were about to respond. Then, he looked past Melody to Petunia and his expression filled with reluctance.
“Papa?” Melody prompted and as though the businessman had realised that it was only Petunia and not someone more likely to use his words against them, he sucked in a breath as if preparing to explain.
“It is Mr Colton and his son,” he explained. Melody’s skin crawled at the mention of them.
“What…what is it?”
“Nobody has laid eyes upon them for several days,” her father announced. Melody had no idea of knowing whether she ought to be relieved or terrified.
“Perhaps Mr Colton Senior is unwell?” Melody suggested. She knew from memory that her father’s friend often took to his bed with episodes of gout or some other illness.
But the look on her father’s face upon hearing her suggestion told her she couldn’t be more wrong.
“Oh, Melody, it is far worse than illness,” her father replied, and Melody’s entire body tensed. It was not often that her father grew emotional or dramatic but when he did, she knew that it was something serious. “The Coltons have both sold their shares of the company and nobody has seen them since the day they met with their solicitor in order to do so.”
“Oh, heavens, can your poor family ever manage to have something go right for once?” Petunia exclaimed, remaining in her seat across the room. It appeared she had been attempting to give them a little privacy though it was clear that Melody’s father’s news had left her unable to stop herself from saying something.
“I am not certain we can,” Melody admitted. She sighed with exasperation, unsure of how her family could cope with another scandal. As soon as word of all this got out, it was certain to cause just that. The scandal of all scandals in which people would say her betrothed had been so determined to end his engagement with her that he had disappeared off the face of the earth.
Gulping past the lump in her throat, Melody thought,shall I ever be free to simply live my life?
