Page 60 of The Scarlet Lady's Duke of Desire
“Oh, Melody, what has brought this on?” Petunia asked though she hugged her back with the same fury that Melody embraced her. Melody did not get the chance to respond before her friend said, “I am well, and I have news!”
Melody just managed to catch herself from groaning at her friend’s words. Whenever she used the word ‘news’ it was far more like to be ‘rumour’. And she remembered all too well the last time her friend had come to her with such words.
Then it had been about the duke’s and Lady Florence’s little tryst in Lady Fyling’s rose gardens, a rumour which perhaps only she knew to be false after her overhearing the woman in the modiste’s several days earlier.
Whatever Petunia had to say, she knew that she had to take it with a pinch of salt.
“Jenkins, please could we have a little tea?” Melody asked with a smile before she gestured her friend over to the seating area towards the fireplace.
“Of course, miss,” Jenkins nodded, bowed low and hurried from the room.
Almost the moment that the two women sat down, Petunia inched to the edge of her seat and looked at Melody with excitement burning in her blue eyes. Melody was about to ask her what had gotten her so excited when Petunia announced, “There are rumours that The Duke of Haston is to be married and quite soon.”
Melody groaned inwardly. She had had enough of her friend bringing over news of the duke. It was bad enough having heard the rumours of him and her cousin only to learn that they were untrue. But after everything that had happened, she felt nauseous every time she heard his name mentioned.
“I suppose Lady Florence is to be the lucky lady,” Melody said, trying her hardest to sound nonchalant though she was almost certain she did not.
“Oh, it’s not entirely certain yet,” Petunia responded, a smirk spreading across her face. “There are a few other young ladies in the running.”
Melody half-expected her friend to suggest that she herself might be in the running. She was relieved when those words did not leave her friend’s lips, as she was not certain she could handle the thought of her best friend marrying the man who had caused her heart to race so many times.
“According to Lady Fyling, she is quite certain he will be wed before the year is out!” Petunia insisted. “It is all just speculation, of course, but surely someone must catch the duke’s eye soon. He cannot afford to wait around forever. The longer he goes without an heir…”
Melody barely heard her friend as she began a spiel about how the duke needed children to secure his line and he would not be able to do that until he had gotten himself a wife. Instead, she found herself thinking of just how painful it would be to hear that his wedding date had been set, to hear that he was marrying someone, regardless of who it was.
The thought of his marrying Lady Florence was bad enough but to think of his marrying any other lady of theton, passing over her entirely in favour ofanyother woman, made her feel quite sick. Even now, after Mr Colton’s abrupt departure from their engagement, she was still uncertain as to what had happened between herself and The Duke of Haston.
After all his words at his aunt’s ball, she had yet to see him again. Though she had told herself it was a good thing, and she would be happy if she never saw him again, she couldn’t help but feel as though absence was causing the heart to grow fonder. Whenever she thought of him her entire chest felt too tight and her heart seemed to want to break free of her ribcage.
Closing her eyes, Melody tried to switch off from the conversation, only to blurt, “Petunia, please, stop.”
“What is it? What is wrong?” Petunia gasped almost immediately, and it was only when Melody felt her friend’s hand upon hers that she realised she was trembling uncontrollably. “Oh, Mel, you’re shaking like a leaf. What is the matter?”
Melody barely dared to open her eyes and when she did, she found her friend gazing back at her with serious concern upon her face.
She thought to lie and suggest that she had a headache. It wouldn’t have been entirely a lie. The stress of the last several days was beginning to press behind her eyes and her temples were throbbing with all her friend’s talk.
Then she realised she could not lie anymore. Though she and her parents hadn’t uttered a word about Mr Colton’s breaking off the engagement, sitting with her friend in that moment, she knew that she could not keep it from her for a moment longer.
“Mr Colton rescinded his proposal.”
The words rushed from her lips though even as she said them, she felt that it was the least of her troubles right now. Though she was concerned over what her future might look like now with Mr Colton gone from her options, she was not devastated at the thought of not sharing her life with him.
She was, however, devastated at the thought that the duke had not yet been snapped up and yet he still had not come to visit her or even sent word that he had truly meant what he said in his aunt’s garden that night.
The gasp of shock and horror that erupted from her friend suggested to Melody that she really ought to have felt worse than she did. The way Petunia’s face paled suggested that it was the most horrific thing that could ever happen to a woman.
“Oh, Melody, when did this happen?” Petunia asked, gripping hold of Melody’s hands so tightly that it was almost uncomfortable. “Oh, you poor thing.”
Melody shook her head and sucked in a deep breath. “It was not entirely unwanted.”
When she met her friend’s gaze, she was just in time to see Petunia’s eyes widen. “How so?”
“I suspect that Mr Colton was not the right match for me,” Melody admitted with a shrug of her shoulders. It was then that Petunia’s eyes narrowed with suspicion.
“You say that as if you believe there is a right match for you,” Petunia said in such a demanding tone that Melody could easily guess what came next. “Was the engagement called off because you have another suitor?”
Of a sort.Melody couldn’t say the words aloud. Instead, she pursed her lips and shook her head. “No, there is nobody.”
