Page 49 of The Scarlet Lady's Duke of Desire
“Mr Thornton, I appreciate that you are upset but…” The duke did not get the chance to finish his words.
Melody, having overheard the conversation between her father and the nobleman, was barely able to make her way into the nearest alcove beside the library door as she heard the bell ringing that suggested her father had begun to pull on the cord pull beside the fireplace. As though it was not enough, he called, “Jenkins!”
The butler would not be far, Melody knew it, and so she hid herself as thoroughly as possible in the shadows behind a marble bust podium.
Still reeling from all that she had heard, she knew one thing for certain. There was no way at all she could marry Mr Colton.
Whether her father believed the duke or not, she did. After all that time trying to figure out why Mr Colton was so adamant to come and visit her and her parents, and after all the time she had spent mulling over why he should enjoy her company where no other member of thetonhad ever even bothered to try, it made all too much sense.
Mr Colton and his father sought to use her father’s vast and hard-earned fortune to try and dig themselves out of whatever hole it was that they had come to find themselves in. She didn’t need to know every detail. The simple facts were enough for her to have made up her mind in a heartbeat.
She could not marry the man but nor could she bring herself to be seen by the duke, especially not so close to the library. God forbid that he should ever learn that she had overheard the entire conversation with her father. She could only imagine what he might think of her then. Her reputation was already ruined enough without his believing she was some kind of eavesdropping child.
But in that moment, as she heard Jenkins escorting the duke out, she felt exactly like a child. She had often hidden in that very same alcove during her childhood when she had been eavesdropping on her parents' arguments over all the problems that their scandal had caused their family over the years. And being there now brought back all the heartache she had felt during those arguments.
What was worse, however, was the fact that her father clearly did not believe what The Duke of Haston had told him. She could not say she blamed her father. He and Mr Colton Senior had been friends ever since they were boys and business partners ever since they had graduated from Oxford.
They had lived their entire lives in each other’s company. She could entirely understand why her father would be unable to believe the things that he had just been told.
But that did not matter right now, what mattered was hiding from the duke.
Yet the very moment that Jenkins had shown him past her hiding place, she found herself leaning out of the alcove, praying that he would glimpse back and see her standing there. She wanted to hiss his name and have him come running back to her. She wished to thank him for doing all that he could to stop her from making the most terrible mistake of her life. And yet, she could not bring herself to do so.
When he had gone, all she felt was disappointment that he had not tried to make up some excuse to stick around to see her.
She closed her eyes and imagined what it might have been like, were she to have grabbed his wrist on his way past and pulled him into the alcove alongside her. Were it not for Jenkins, she might have risked it. She might have allowed herself a moment to be pressed against the wall just as he had pressed her against the tree trunk all those days ago.
But when she opened her eyes again and found herself alone, she quickly forced all thoughts of such things from her mind. She had more important things to worry about right now, things like how she could possibly get out of her marriage to Mr Colton. Not to mention the very real possibility that the duke was likely well on his way to being engaged himself if her cousin were to have anything to do with it.
That evening, after much deliberation on what she ought to do, Melody was more than a little relieved when Petunia came to visit.
Upon meeting her in the drawing room after dinner, Melody hurried over to her best friend and threw her arms around her. “Oh, Petunia, I am glad to see you.”
It was true. She had never been happier to see her. She had spent the last several hours debating what she might do with her life and where she might go from there. How was she ever to get through her life on the outskirts of thetonentirely alone, without any chance of having a true and loyal husband?
Pulling back from her friend, she held her at arm’s length by the hands and added, “I did not expect to see you again so soon.”
It had been just that morning that they had been in the modiste’s shop. So much had happened that day; her learning of Lady Florence’s plans and then learning the truth about her own fiancé, that it felt as though it had been a lifetime ago.
“I intended to wait until the morning, but I simply couldn’t wait,” Petunia admitted, squeezing Melody’s hands in such a way that it made Melody cringe a little. For one so petite, Petunia was exceptionally strong when it came to being excited. “There has been an invitation sent out this afternoon. Lady Fyling is hosting a ball on behalf of her nephew, the Duke of Haston.”
“What of it?” Melody shrugged, though at the mention of him, her heart raced. “Likely it is to celebrate his betrothal to Lady Florence. I suspect they will announce it there, will they not?”
Petunia cocked her head at Melody and then shook it, scowling deeply at her as she asked, “Haven’t you heard? Oh, of course, you haven’t, you poor thing!”
Melody’s stomach twisted at her friend’s words. She did not need to be reminded of how out of the loop she was when it came to the gossip of theton.
“Lady Fyling has suggested to several other ladies of thetonthat Lady Florence is not best matched towards her nephew and so the ball is aimed at his beginning a courtship with a lady moresuitableto him,” Petunia explained, and Melody’s heart skipped a beat. Her throat constricted in such a way that it was almost painful.
“They say the duke is finally prepared to take finding a wife seriously,” Petunia said, her voice filled with excitement. “Can you imagine it? Imagine what an honour it would be to be the wife of a duke—a duchess!”
The stars in her friend’s eyes left Melody feeling uneasy. Though she suspected that Petunia was far more suited to the position of duchess than she could ever dream of being, the thought of her friend ever getting so close to the duke made her feel quite unwell.
“Do you think you should like to be a duchess?” Melody asked, trying her hardest to contain all the conflicting emotions that were flitting about in her gut. “Would it not be an awful lot of effort all of the time?”
She tried to tell herself that she hated the idea. It didn’t entirely work.
“Oh, I think I could get used to it,” Petunia chuckled, “Don’t you?”
