Lady Malmsby grabbed Bella’s wrist. “What is the matter? Are you all right?” she asked, concern writ large on her face. “You look like you have seen a ghost.”
Bella shook her head. “I have to go. I forgot I told my brother I would meet him in the Great Room,” she said again, as if holding on to that notion as a lifeline. “He’ll worry if I am not there,” she said, pulling free from Lady Malmsby.
She looked back once to where Ann and her Duke stood. They were not alone now. Bella fled the room.
* * *
Aidan Nowlton frownedwhen he saw Lady Isabella Blessingame standing near his mother at the entrance to the Red Exhibit Hall. He warranted she saw him too, and that is why she turned around and precipitously left the room.
As well she should, the deceitful trollop.
He thought they’d had an understanding three years ago. He supposed money, social standing, entertainments, and the excitement of foreign service were more enticing than a mere gallery owner—even if said owner was the brother of a Duke.
But to elope with Sir Harry Blessingame, of all people! His best friend! She’d served him an emotional punch that remained bruised to this day. He rubbed a hand across his sternum as if the flush hit had been delivered yesterday, not three years ago. Not that most people would believe the tall, angular miss had knocked him sideways. He hadn’t understood it himself. And he’d never worn his heart on his sleeve. That was not his manner.
He remembered when he first met her, nearly four years ago. He’d been walking in Hyde Park with his mother. The Duchess liked to walk, said it was excellent exercise that helped keep her young.
Miss Isabella Melville, as she was then, was in the company of Lady Amblethorpe and her youngest daughter, Janine. There had been a winsome shyness in Miss Melville’s large dark eyes that vanished the moment Lady Amblethorpe and his mother began speaking of the war effort. She grew quite animated as she told them how she had helped with the war effort. How her brother, knowing how good she was with puzzles and patterns, had brought a captured enemy-coded missive to her to see if she could decipher the message. The best minds at the home office could not do so, and he’d convinced his superior to allow him to give it to her to try. His commanding officer scoffed but allowed him to do so.
It had taken her three days, she’d said, but she’d done it. The message had been about enemy ordnance supply lines. The information she’d deciphered allowed the allies to disrupt the French flow of weapons for their troops. She thought it was fun and hoped she had another opportunity in the future.
They all congratulated her, and she’d radiated her delight. He thought at that moment she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.
His mother had wondered if the War Office knew who deciphered the message. They should know, she’d said decisively, so they could understand that women could do more than sew uniforms, wash the laundry, and nurse the injured.
He knew at that moment that his mother would see that Miss Melville received more opportunities to decipher coded messages—even if she used blackmail to make it happen.
And she had.
She had much to answer for.
“Was that Bella with grandmother?” his niece, Ann Hallowell, asked.
“I believe it was,” Aidan answered stiffly.
Ann did not hear the reluctance in his voice.
“I haven’t seen her since Sicily!” she enthused.
“I wish I hadn’t,” Aidan said under his breath. The Duke looked at him sharply.
Ann tugged at her fiancé’s arm. “Come, let’s follow her. I want you to meet her, Miles,” she said. “Bella, Helena, and I worked together to catalog Lady Travis’s artwork. Will you join us?” Ann asked, turning to Aidan.
He shook his head, though he still stared in Lady Blessingame’s direction. “I’m going to finish my review of the room. See if there are any paintings that I might want to offer to sell on commission,” he told her. “I’m sure I shall see you later.”
Ann Hallowell pulled the Duke of Ellinbourne back toward the Great Room.
“I’m going to try to catch Bella,” she said to her grandmother as they came up to her.
“We were bringing Bella to you when she suddenly said she had to go back to the Great Room,” Lady Malmsby said. She and Lady Oakley turned back to walk with Ann and Ellinbourne.
“It was the oddest thing,” Lady Oakley said. “Her grace pointed to where you were, and she suddenly remembered she’d told her brother she would stay in the main room so he could find her.”
Lady Malmsby smirked. “I think it was seeing my son, Aidan, that had her fleeing.”
The others looked at her.
Lady Malmsby tilted her head. “Three years ago they were doing the courting dance, and I was delighted,” she told them.
