Page 45 of His Duchess' Wicked List

His hands balled into fists. Who on earth knew they had been meeting in private? And who wished to cause them harm by leaking it to a common scandal sheet?

Maddie gaped at Lady Darnley as the full impact of her words crashed over her. She couldn’t breathe.

There is an unmarried couple spending time alone together every night… after the rest of the party are abed.

She felt beads of sweat break out on her forehead. Desperately, she tried not to react. She tried to regain her composure. But it was hard. So hard.

She stared straight ahead, forcing herself to look at the lady, trying to ignore the Duke seated beside her. Only a few short minutes ago, he had whispered to her, alluding to the fact that he knew she was wearing nothing beneath her thin muslin gown.

She blanched. She was sitting in this dining room, surrounded by people, wearing no undergarments at all. What had she been thinking? What lunacy had driven her to behave in this utterly reckless fashion?

But she knew the answer to that question all too well. The answer was seated beside her.

She felt the world tilt and sway. They had been caught. Someone knew they were secretly seeing each other and wanted the world to know. That person wanted to shame them and ruin her.

Who was it?

Fearfully, she glanced around the table, studying each face. They all looked shocked. No one was looking at her in any particular way, though. Whoever it was, they were hiding the fact they knew. They were playing their cards close to their chest.

Maddie felt sick. Was the motivation blackmail?

No one had spoken a word since Lady Darnley’s shock announcement. They all looked flabbergasted.

Lord Christopher cleared his throat. “It is nonsense, Lady Darnley,” he declared crisply. “It is poisonous gossip, that is all. Those scandal sheets are famous for it. I am rather disappointed that you are so avid as to believe a word they say.”

Lady Darnley flushed. “I am only reporting what is written, Lord Christopher…”

“Indeed,” he uttered, his lip curling in disdain. “But I think we should not pay it any more attention than it deserves.”

He turned to Lord Ollerton, who was looking rather confused and befuddled by it all, his spoon suspended in midair.

“Lord Ollerton,” he said, clearing his throat again. “I might take this opportunity to change such a disagreeable topic. I wish to discuss a potential courtship with your lovely daughter, Lady Madeline.”

Maddie gave a small yelp of surprise. Everyone turned to look at her. But all she could focus on was the Duke’s hand on the table next to her, balled into a fist. She could feel the shock and anger running through his body as if it were a palpable entity.

“I see,” Lord Ollerton stammered, looking even more confused. “Yes, yes, of course, we can discuss it, Lord Christopher. Perhaps we can confer after breakfast?”

“Oh, that is wonderful, Lord Christopher!” Lady Ollerton exclaimed, looking triumphant. “I am thrilled at the very thought of it! Our family is honored.”

Lord Christopher nodded, looking pleased. No one had asked what Maddie thought about this sudden turn of events at all. Her parents hadn’t even glanced at her.

Maddie’s head began to spin again. It was all too much—first, the revelation that her illicit meetings with the Duke were gossip fodder, and now Lord Christopher’s sudden public announcement that he wanted to formally court her.

But at least Lord Christopher’s announcement had taken the wind out of what was written in that scandal sheet. For now.

“I am also thrilled,” the Dowager Duchess declared, her eyes sharp, as she looked around the table. “For it means there is the possibility that our families will be bound twice.”

Everyone’s head swiveled to her, looking agog. Maddie thought it was rather like observing a game of tennis, with the ball careering from player to player on a whim.

“How so, Auntie?” Lord Christopher asked.

The Dowager Duchess threw her napkin on the table. “My dear son, the Duke, has declared to me his intention to formally court Lady Augusta Cole as well.”

There was an excited buzz around the table. Maddie was stunned anew. But this time, she knew that she should have seen this one coming. Shehadseen it coming. She had just chosen to ignore it.

She stared at her sister, trying to gauge her reaction. Augusta didn’t look shocked, she just looked resigned. If Maddie weren’t so upset, she would feel pity for her.

Suddenly, it was all too much. She was sitting here, without wearing any undergarments in order to please her lover, while his union with her sister was formally announced. And even though she had seen this particular revelation coming, it hurt the most, out of all of them.

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