Despite the promise he’d made to her brother, he couldn’t be the sort of husband she’d want. It wasn’t practical, not while he managed theDomus Emporiumand continued to head a highly dangerous investigation. He’d already agreed to marry her, as a matter of duty, but she was the one who’d insisted this engagement be temporary.
So instead of closing the distance that hummed with silent promise, Malum took a measured step back.
This line of conversation, in this room, was courting danger.
“I’ll escort you back to Mayfair.” His voice came out gravelly. “But would you like to see Ernest before you go home?”
A flicker of disappointment crossed her face, and for a moment, regret twisted inside him. But then, after a pause and a few quick blinks, the corners of her mouth lifted, and a tender light returned to her eyes.
“I would love to,” she said.
THINGS UNSPOKEN
The carriage wheels rolled over the cobblestones, the rhythmic thrum filling the silence between them. Melanie glanced at Malum, whose expression was unreadable as he stared out the window, and she couldn’t help but compare the relative leisure of this drive to the last time, when he’d ordered his driver to race across the city.
It had been frightening, thrilling even. But now her nerves were frayed for a very different reason.
She’d wanted him to kiss her. She’d thought he was going to, but then… he hadn’t.
Which was probably for the best. She shouldn’t want him to kiss her.
The fact that he ran that… place, that he went there every day and oversaw such activities, lingered in her mind. She clasped her hands tightly in her lap, her pulse betraying her as the carriage rolled toward Preston Hall.
When the duke broke the silence, he spoke almost tentatively. “There’s something you need to know, Melanie. About Ernest.”
She turned to him. “What is it?”
He kept his gaze fixed ahead. “His mother passed away shortly after giving birth. The woman who left him on the step was her sister. She abandoned him because the family…” He paused, the weight of the truth pressing between them. “They want nothing to do with him.”
Melanie’s heart dropped. “So he truly has no one.” And Malum had said he wasn’t the father… “But why you? Why would her family leave Ernest with you?”
Malum shook his head, the ticking in his jaw an unusual show of emotion.
“She was one of my employees at theDomusbefore she left several months ago. Her name was Stella. Stella De la Cour.” His voice didn’t falter, and he didn’t look particularly upset, but still…
“Were you close?”
“Barely knew her.”
“Are you… close to any of your… employees?”
He turned his head and locked his gaze on her. “I never mix business with pleasure,” he said.
“Never?”
“Never.”
Melanie went quiet again. She’d imagined a man who owned a brothel would indulge himself as he pleased, and yet, she wasn’t completely surprised to hear that he did not. And he had no reason to lie.
She believed him.
Still, it was all just… so very sad. For all the façade of glamour, with its gilded moldings and lush décor, theDomus Emporiumwas a place of desperation.
And this man seated beside her, for all his kind words to her and his concession to honor, was ultimately the person who profited from it.
Now, unfortunately, wasn’t the time to challenge his choices.
And yet, hearing that Ernest’s mother had died was a grim reminder of why her brother had been so willing to send her away this morning—why, apart from her mother, no one was truly pleased by this engagement. With those realities in mind, she could almost squash the disappointment she’d felt when he hadn’t kissed her.
