Thalia eyed him as would a woman who knew him better than most.
“Why have you come here, Lord Julian?”
“To this ball?”
“No, to speak to us. You have another motive in mind, I am sure of it.”
He dipped his head, placing his hand over his heart as though he was hurt. “I am injured by your lack of faith in my motives, Lady Thalia. However, I do have a question.”
“Yes?”
“How does your brother appear right now?”
Evelyn followed Thalia’s gaze across the room, her own jaw dropping when she took in the duke. He was watching them closely, his jaw tight, his fingers curled around his glass. But it was the way he was staring at his friend so intensely, almost like….
“The duke looks ready to drag Lord Julian outside by his collar,” Verity whispered in her ear, and Evelyn nodded slowly, for Verity was right. But… why?
Julian must have heard their remarks, for he threw back his head and laughed.
“Just as I thought,” he said before walking away, leaving the women shaking their heads after him.
“That was… interesting,” Evelyn said.
“Bizarre,” Verity said with a snort. “Just like him.”
Unsurprisingly, Evelyn didn’t find herself invited to the dance floor for the next couple of hours. Not that she minded. Instead, she spent her time joining conversations, uninvited or not, trying to trace who had mentioned the rumor. Verity aided her, and all they heard were vague guesses that led from one lady to another, circling. Evelyn sighed as she leaned back against the wall.
“It’s useless,” she said to Verity. “No one is going to provide us with the answer we seek.”
“Don’t look now,” Verity murmured, “But Lady Norwood approaches.”
“Perhaps she can give us some information,” Evelyn murmured. “If anyone knows anything, it is Lady Norwood.”
As the woman, about ten years Evelyn’s senior, approached, Evelyn couldn’t help but stiffen. There was something in the way Lady Norwood was looking at her that told her she wasn’t coming this way solely to make her pleasantries.
“Lady Evelyn, I am so pleased you accepted my invitation despite all that is being said about you.”
Verity stifled her laugh by pretending to cough.
“I appreciate you inviting my father and me despite the circumstances,” Evelyn said. “I can hardly understand why anyone would suspect me of such a deed.”
“It is ludicrous,” Lady Norwood concurred. “Best to show a good face despite everything.”
“Agreed,” Evelyn said, walking with Lady Norwood, who had taken her arm.
Verity mouthed a “good luck” before slipping back into the people around them, despite Evelyn’s desperate, silent plea for her to remain.
Finally, Lady Norwood stopped them, just as the orchestra struck up a waltz.
“I was thinking,” Lady Norwood said, “that truly the best way to put this all to rest is to show that there is no reason to gossip.”
“On that note, Lady Norwood, do you happen to know?—”
Lady Norwood didn’t just interrupt her – she interrupted her triumphantly. “You, Lady Evelyn, will lead this waltz!”
“Oh, I really don’t think?—”
But Lady Norwood wasn’t finished.
