Page 31 of Dropping the Ball

Moments later, a rather handsome woman with honey-blonde hair who must have been approaching forty strode into the house. Bernadette and Lady Muriel followed close behind her.

“Where did he go?” Lady Muriel asked, glancing around.

“Napoleon?” Bernadette called out, craning her neck to look up the stairs.

“He dashed into that parlor,” Lady Chessington said with a sour look. “What sort of a creature was it?”

“My beloved,” the handsome woman said, tilting her chin up and heading toward the parlor.

“Good Lord, who invited that woman to this event?” Waldorf exclaimed in a huff.

The handsome woman–Alden recognized her from Cedric and Lady Muriel’s wedding–froze, nearly causing Bernadette and Lady Muriel to tumble into her, and whipped to face Waldorf. As soon as recognition dawned in her eyes, she pulled herself to her full height, chin tilted up.

“Lord Waldorf,” she said in a devastatingly flat voice.

“Lady Katherine,” Waldorf greeted her just as frostily in return. “We meet again.”

Lady Katherine narrowed her eyes and said, “More’s the pity,” before sweeping on into the parlor.

The brief exchange left Alden utterly stunned. He wasn’t the only one. Bernadette looked at him with a puzzled expression, as if asking whether he had the slightest idea what the exchange had been about.

Alden could only shrug slightly. Bernadette echoed his shrug, then headed on into the parlor with her friends, presumably to search for the cat.

“You cannot tell me that you would stoop so low as to consider marrying a woman like that,” Waldorf said, his voice still rife with disdain.

Alden turned back to him, prickling with offense. “I beg your pardon, but Lady Bernadette is the kindest, cleverest, most wonderful woman I’ve ever met,” he said.

Waldorf’s expression changed to regard him awkwardly. “I was referring to Lady Katherine Balmor.”

Alden’s brow went up. “You are acquainted with Lady Bernadette’s friend?”

Waldorf suddenly glanced around as if the walls had grown ears and wished to reveal his darkest secrets. He then stepped forward, catching Alden’s elbow as he did, and marched both of them down the hall until they came to the relative quiet of Alden’s study.

“Lady Katherine is not to be trusted,” Waldorf said as soon as they were alone. “I have every reason to believe that she is one of the deadliest spies Queen Matilda of Mercia has at her disposal.”

Alden had always had his suspicions about Waldorf, but comments like that seemed to confirm his suspicions. “And how would you know?” he asked.

“I know,” Waldorf answered without answering. “I know other things. Things you asked me to find out.”

Every other thought and suspicion was blasted out of Alden’s head. He took a step closer to his cousin. “What have you discovered about Lady Bernadette’s marriage?” he asked.

Waldorf suddenly looked regretful. “Not much, I’m afraid,” he said. “Except that it appears to have happened as you described in your letter.”

The news hit Alden like a bolt to his heart. “She truly was married by proxy to Lord Harold Hethersett?”

“She was,” Waldorf said, looking sympathetic. “Hethersett has become quite influential in the Norwegian court as well. He is a powerful man with a great many friends. The documentation of his proxy marriage to Lady Bernadette was easy to find. I’m sorry, Al.”

Alden let out a disappointed breath and scrubbed his face with both hands. “That’s it, then,” he said as he began to pace the room. “Uncle Gerald will not let me out of his dictates, and the only woman I could ever wish to marry is married to someone else. She would need to be tarnished by divorce for the two of us to be together. Perhaps it would be better for me to inherit the castle and its curse so that my life might be ended sooner.”

“Come off it, man,” Waldorf said, gruff as usual. “Don’t be a lovesick fool, like Cedric. You’ve only known the lady in question for a little more than a month.”

“And in that time, I’ve fallen more in love with her every day,” Alden said.

Waldorf huffed and rolled his eyes.

“Laugh all you want, but when love knocks on your door, time and sense become meaningless,” Alden insisted.

“You’ll never find me falling for anything as ridiculous as love,” Waldorf insisted. “Duty and honor. That’s what it’s all about. Duty and honor are all that matter. Without them–”

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