“I didn’t see anything, miss, but I did hear a scream.” Leigh assured her. “Perhaps it was a trick of the light? It’s easy to see things that aren’t there in the dark. And these alleys can carry an echo in odd ways on cold nights. Might it have happened somewhere else?”
As if to prove that point, they heard a steady tap-tap-tap grow louder, only there was no one to be seen. Then the source of the sound shifted, back towards the house.
“Leigh? What’s all this about?” Darius demanded, his cane tapping lightly on the ground as he appeared out of the night before them.
“I saw something in the mews, I’m sure of it,” Meredith said. “Two people were fighting, and we both heard a scream. Oh Darius, please, will you go look with me just to be sure?”
Darius glanced at the footman.
“I already looked, Your Grace. I did not see anyone.”
“Stay here,” he ordered Meredith. “I shall go.” He was in the mews for a good minute or two before he returned, a slight frown upon his lips.
“You say you heard a scream?” he asked.
She nodded.
“It was possible it was a horse. They can scream quite loud, especially if startled.”
“It was human. A woman. I’m certain of it,” Meredith insisted.
Darius’s gaze softened. “Whatever it was, it must’ve been nothing serious. Now, we really must go. The Prince Regent is allowed to be late, but not us, and I’ve called in all of my favors to ensure you will meet him this evening.”
Meredith glanced toward the dark alley once more before she allowed Darius to help her back into his coach. She had seen something. Something terrible, she was certain. What had happened there?
Darius would think her mad if she continued to obsess with this matter, so she focused instead on what should frighten her, the fact that she was going to meet the Prince Regent tonight.
“Well, well,” a voice chuckled. Darius’s friend Warren Burville had joined him at the refreshment table. “You’ve created a stir tonight with the little gem you’ve brought to the ball.”
Warren’s jade green eyes fixed on Meredith as she spun in a circle while dancing with a young man. She was on her seventh dance already, and her card was completely full. If Darius hadn’t claimed the final waltz before he had set her loose in the ballroom, he would have had no chance of dancing with her tonight.
“What are they saying about her?” He trusted Warren to be honest with him.
“That she is far too pretty to remain unchaperoned under your roof. There is much speculation about that. Some say that she must be someone special, an orphan with a gilded pedigree or some such thing. Why else would the illustrious Duke of Tiverton parade about such a treasure? More than a few of the matrons remember your mother and those diamonds your father gave her on their wedding day, and how those very diamonds now rest on Miss Montague’s skin as if they belong there.” He grinned devilishly at Darius over his glass of punch.
Darius frowned as Meredith and her current dance partner twirled past again. When the young fellow met Darius’s black gaze, he stumbled the second step and hastily recovered.
Warren nudged Darius with an elbow. “Careful man, your green is showing.”
“He was holding her too close,” Darius muttered. “It’s not a bloody waltz.”
“You know, Darius, she would make a good wife, assuming you are interested in the lady, of course. She is beautiful, kind, and intelligent, according to Suzannah. She has been singing Miss Montague’s praises this evening.”
“Whether I’m interested or not does not matter,” said Darius. “Any woman I choose must have impeccable breeding and unquestionably respected family lineage.”
Warren narrowed his eyes in silent judgment at Darius’s words.
“Oh, don’t be like that,” said Darius. “It’s not snobbery. It is because my bride will be judged by everyone. If she is found wanting in the slightest way, rumors will grow, and her invitations will dwindle to nothing. She would be without friends, without a circle of support. I cannot watch a woman I care about whither from the loss of sunlight like that. You know how cruel society can be if they think they have an interloper in their midst.”
Warren sipped his drink again. “So you hope to marry her off to a man who could offer less protection than you could from society’s cold reach?”
“No, it wouldn’t be like that,” Darius argued. “With a lesser man, she would not be seen as a schemer. She would be more than suitable for wealthy tradesmen, or the wife of a doctor or barrister. But a man of title? That would be more of a curse than a boon to her.”
Even as he said this, the words tasted like ash in his mouth. He didn’t want Meredith to belong to anyone but him. But because he cared for her and for his uncle’s memory, he could not turn her into his mistress. Meredith deserved marriage to a kind, respectable man who would honor and respect her. Darius would see she had that, even if it damn near killed him to keep his hands off her.
The dance came to a sudden halt and a wave of excited whispers announced that the Prince of Wales had finally arrived.
Darius grasped a champagne flute from a passing footman’s tray and downed it before he gave the flabbergasted servant the glass back. It was time to see Meredith make an impression upon the gentlemen present tonight.
