“So long as you live, they will be talking about your dalliance with the Duke of Avon. It does not matter whether anything really happened. You are tied to him for life—and no doubt he knows it too.”
Amelia groaned. The sound of Mr. Moore’s real name did little to alleviate her distress. When she had awoken in the carriage after the ball, Mary-Ann had wasted no time telling her where they had found her, collapsed and convulsing, and withwhom.
It had taken longer than she cared to admit for Amelia to realize the truth.
Mr. Mooreand the Duke of Avon are one and the same and always have been. He used me, toyed with me. And for what?
She rose from her seat and wrapped her arms around herself, trying hard not to think of the duke, how close she had been to him without knowing. If she had known Mr. Moore’s true identity, she would never have allowed herself to be alone with him.
The Duke of Avon, one of the worst rakes to have ever lived in Oxfordshire. And me, a madwoman.She shivered.Not a story they are likely to forget anytime soon, just like Mary-Ann said. I was foolish to hope otherwise, if only for a moment.
She glanced at her preening cousin. “Why do you look so happy? You realize this will affect us all? Uncle Benjamin, Aunt Beatrice… I fear even you will not be able to charm yourself out of this one. And I’m so sorry.”
“Save your apologies for a woman who feels they are her due,” Mary-Ann exclaimed. Her smile intensified. “Let’s just say, I have a feeling that—”
Before she could complete her thought, someone tried and failed to enter the room. Amelia’s heart clenched as she walked toward the door.
“Amelia?” came the muffled sound of Uncle Benjamin’s voice. “A word, if you would.”
She could barely stand the thought of looking her uncle in the eye. She may not have been compromised in the way they thought, but she was still guilty of following a gentleman outside, of failing to heed her guardian’s warnings.
In the hallway, her uncle stood motionless. He looked like he had not slept at all that night, his hair in disarray. Amelia opened her mouth to say something, but her uncle interrupted.
“You have a caller.”
Who would have come at a time like this?
“I do not wish to see anyone,” Amelia mumbled, swallowing hard. “Uncle Benjamin, please… Do not make me go down.”
Her uncle shook his head almost imperceptibly, proceeding down the hallway and expecting Amelia to follow.
She glanced back at Mary-Ann, who turned with wide eyes from the window.
“Youreallyshould go down,” she sputtered, “if that carriage below belongs to whom I think it does.”
Overtaking Amelia on the stairs, Mary-Ann waited giddily at the bottom, bobbing up and down in excitement. Amelia’s hand clenched around the railing, each step swaying beneath her.
“No,” Benjamin warned, holding up a hand to Mary-Ann as she tried to follow him into the drawing room. “Amelia and I will attend to this alone.”
It was only when the drawing room door closed behind her that Amelia dared to look up.
What she saw, quite took her breath away.
Mr. Moore—the Duke of Avon—stood before the drawing room windows, staring out at the rain. The overcast sky cast a grey pallor on his figure. He scarcely moved as Amelia entered behind her uncle.
But her whole world shifted.
Despite everything that had occurred the night prior, the sight of him set her on fire with more than fear.
“She has come to you,” Benjamin intoned, gaze trained on Amelia as she moved unconsciously toward the Duke. Her uncle grabbed her by the wrist, stopping her from drifting toward him like a ghost, and guided her down into an armchair.
“Why…” Amelia paused, her fragile words catching in her throat. “Why are you here?”
“I thought that much at least would be obvious,” he answered after a moment of silence. He glanced behind him toward her uncle. Benjamin had retreated into the shadows by the hearth, allowing them a modicum of privacy. “Do you know who I am?”
Someone else might have interpreted the question as a threat. But Amelia knew precisely what he was asking: had she realized that he had lied to her?
“Yes, Your Grace. I know who you are.”
