But will it?
Josie sent Melanie a wince before disappearing, and Caroline, determined to maintain an air of confidence, gave a tight smile. “You can do this,” she murmured, and then leaned down to whisper, “We’ll be right outside.”
Before Melanie could offer any objections, her entire family had filed out, not quite closing the door behind them.
She waited until the silence settled, but before she could speak, the duke crossed the room and pulled the door shut firmly.
“I don’t imagine you slept well,” he said when he crossed back to the fireplace. “So I won’t bother asking.”
She felt her jaw relax at the almost casual tone of his remark. What ought to feel terribly awkward, suddenly didn’tfeel awkward at all. There was a peculiar ease between the two of them, and left alone, her mood inexplicably shifted.
“Won’t you sit down?” she asked. Her smile was tight, but without her entire family’s eyes upon her, her throat seemed to loosen. The words didn’t feel quite so heavy.
The duke studied her for a moment, then crossed the room with that familiar, confident stride. Then, turning one of the high-backed chairs so that it faced hers, he made himself comfortable.
"You’re being remarkably calm about this," he remarked, arching a brow.
Melanie’s lips twitched. “Perhaps it’s the shock,” she replied, only half joking.
She met his gaze directly, noticing tiny flecks of blue in his silver eyes. In all the time she’d been watching the street—his house—she never, not in a thousand years, could have imagined becoming friendly with him. Let alone…
He grimaced. “Bloody impossible situation.”
“It is.” Did her voice sound as breathy to him as it did in her own ears?
They were silent for a moment, the mantel clock ticking steadily in the background. And then the duke leaned forward, shaking his head. “Nothing good ever happens at a ball, right?”
“You didn’t even get to dance.” Was she teasing him, or simply delaying the inevitable?
His brows shot up, and she thought she spied a glimmer of amusement in his eyes.
But then he exhaled and frowned. “According to your brother, I am at fault for last night’s... incident.”
“Well, you were the one who followed me into that library,” she interjected, all joking aside.
“Because I owed you an apology—for taking steps to prevent you from risking your reputation again.”
It was Melanie’s turn to stare at him in disbelief.
She could have sworn she caught a flicker of sheepishness on his face—though with him, it was hard to tell.
“Look how that turned out,” Melanie insisted, a little irritated. “If not for you, I wouldn’t have been forced to reenter Society. And if not for that…”
Pausing, she tilted her head.
“Right,” he said, drawing the word out longer than necessary.
Staring back at her, his mouth was set in a thoughtful line, the faintest hint of a smile pinching the corner, as though he found her arguments both frustrating and amusing. “But you were the one who fell—would you have preferred it if I hadn’t rescued you?”
This point wasn’t as easy for Melanie to argue. Because, yes, she had been the one to trip on her gown, and no, she would not have preferred to fall into the fire.
Her cheeks warmed at the memory. “No,” she admitted. “And I do appreciate you protecting me—in that instance.”
“Instead of laying into me like he did, your brother should have thanked me,” he went on. “Though I daresay the scandal wouldn’t have been any less severe had you landed in those flames.”
A strange sort of laugh bubbled up in her throat—unexpected, almost absurd. Because half her family had perished in a fire.
Perhaps she was, in fact, in a state of shock.
