Still, he was reluctant to send Ernest away so easily. There was still much to be sorted.
“Not just yet,” he said, rising from his desk with newfound resolve. He needed to speak with Lady Melanie; no doubt her family would have thoughts about the article’s insinuations, and he had no intention of letting the matter spiral beyond his control.
Any more than it already had.
“If that’s all, then,” Nell murmured, already backing toward the door.
He gave her a vague wave, barely aware of her departure as his thoughts turned to the conversations he’d need to have. Then, shrugging into his jacket, he stepped out of his office. “Is the carriage ready out front?” he asked Mr. Huxley.
“It is, Your Grace,” his secretary replied, rising halfway from his desk. “Shall we expect you back this afternoon?”
Malum paused, considering. Until he spoke with Lady Melanie, he couldn’t be certain of what lay ahead—particularly given her family’s already precarious footing in Society.
The thought that they might have already spirited her away to the family’s country estate ought to have been welcome. Indeed, it would have spared him the burden of this vexing scandal—and his unwelcome role within it.
Yet, why did he feel this persistent urge to hurry across town to see her?
“I’ll return when I return,” he muttered, more to himself than to Huxley, before striding into the hall.
He could dispatch a coach after her, if necessary. Standish might very well be her brother, but it would be Malum who decidedwhen—andif—she should be sent to the country.
He was so consumed with his thoughts, eyes fixed on the floor, unseeing as he moved along the walkway overlooking the gambling floor, that he didn’t even see her. If he hadn’t glanced up at that precise moment, he might have bowled her over.
As it was, he stopped so suddenly he nearly stumbled.
“You.”
There, poised with a matching sense of urgency, stood Lady Melanie.
Melanie.
A surprising sense of satisfaction flickered through him—she was just as eager to confront this mess as he was. Even better, he wouldn’t have to dodge her family’s inevitable meddling to have this conversation.
But then reality struck—where they were, and what it could mean if anyone saw her here. It was her previous visit that had set all this in motion in the first place.
His gaze flicked around the corridor, noting two patrons ambling along the opposite balcony. Without another thought,Malum acted on instinct, guiding her swiftly into the nearest room where they could speak in private.
Fortunately, it was unoccupied.
On the other hand, and perhaps unfortunately, the room he chose happened to be one of the private parlors.
As he closed the door behind them, even Malum had to admit that bringing her in here was a step beyond the pale.
Although his fiancée appeared startled, she also looked around with more than a little interest. Her crystal-blue eyes, wide with curiosity, took in the massive canopied bed, the sumptuous furnishings, and even the mirrored ceiling—a particular detail he might have hoped she’d overlook. Yet as he watched her take it all in, Malum found his attention shifting from the room itself to the lady within it.
And for a moment, heat flooded his veins.
But then she lowered her chin and fixed him with a steady gaze.
“You were planning to cancel our drive this afternoon, weren’t you?”
He had to admit, it was impressive how she cut to the heart of the matter.
A faint smile tugged at one corner of his mouth. “Not at all,” he replied smoothly. Then, with a slight tilt of his head, he added, “Were you?”
UPPING THE GAME
Melanie felt her pulse quicken. Perhaps it was because of this room, the heavy velvet drapes and that… bed, which seemed to loom larger with each passing second.
