Perhaps she’d go peek in on him, see exactly how busy he was. They would need to discuss their story for the ball tomorrow night to ensure they were aligned.
She’d barely started toward the study with a determined gait when she passed the silver drawing room. From the corner of her eye, she spotted a figure, a female figure. She was several paces past the room before she realized who it was…
Veronica froze.
No. It couldn’t be.
It wasn’t.
She swiveled on her heel, her heart beating like a drum in her chest.
Was it?
She took a few tentative steps back toward the drawing room and stopped in front of the open door. She gasped, then quickly snapped her mouth shut, hoping the woman inside the room hadn’t heard her.
There, sitting on the center of the dark-blue settee near the window, rummaging around in her reticule, was none other than…Melissa.
Without thinking, Veronica marched into the room, her arms crossed over her chest. “What is the meaning of this?” she demanded, glancing around to find that Melissa was alone in the room. Where the hell was her errant husband while his mistress visited?
Melissa’s blue eyes widened slightly when she saw Veronica, but she didn’t stand. Instead, she went back to rummaging in her reticule. Veronica let her gaze slide over the woman. She’d seen her before, once, in the street near the modiste. One of her married friends had pointed her out. The last two years had not been kind to the woman. She had several wrinkles across her forehead and permanent frown lines at the sides of her lips, no doubt caused from frequent bouts of pouting and cajoling and whatever else it was that mistresses did.
Footsteps hastened down the corridor and the next face Veronica saw was her brother’s followed closely by Sebastian’s.
“Get this woman out of my house,” she demanded, glaring at Sebastian. She knew she sounded like a madwoman for referring to a place she hadn’t lived in for over two years as her house, but she wholly didn’t care.
“Calm down,” Justin said while he made his way to stand next to the trollop.
Veronica’s gaze flew to Sebastian. The look on his face was a mixture of disbelief and confusion, doused with a small amount of anger as he, too, eyed his closest friend.
“Melissa is your Christmas present,” Justin said next as if that ridiculous statement explained everything.
“What?” Veronica demanded, wondering for a moment if she might be struck dumb with pure rage.
“What?” Sebastian echoed as he gave Justin a look that clearly indicated he was about to toss them both out into the snow if he didn’t make some sort of sense out of this immediately.
Veronica watched Sebastian. His face reflected the same amount of surprise that hers probably did. No matter what was going on, he hadn’t invited Melissa here. No. This was all Justin’s idea. Veronica tightened her arms over her chest and glared at her brother.
Meanwhile, Melissa pulled the strings on her reticule tight and gave Veronica a once-over.
“Explain this, Whitmore,” Sebastian demanded in a voice that brooked neither disobedience nor hesitancy.
“This is Miss Wilson,” Justin explained. “Miss Melissa Wilson and—”
“We know who she is,” Veronica insisted. “What is she doing here?”
Justin arched a brow and shook his head at his sister. “As I said, she is your Christmas gift, you daft girl. Now sit down and listen for once.”
“My Christmas gift,” Veronica echoed, her nostrils flaring and her chest heaving with indignation. She had no intention of either sitting down or listening.
“You’d better start talking, Whitmore,” Sebastian thundered.
Justin smiled tightly at both his sister and his best friend before marching over to the settee where Melissa sat and putting a hand on her shoulder. “Thank you for coming, Miss Wilson. Now, go ahead. Tell them both the same thing you told me this morning when I paid you a visit.”
Veronica turned toward the door. “I refuse to listen to—”
“No, you don’t, Veronica,” came Justin’s simmering voice, with more force than she’d ever heard it. “You’re going to listen this time. Now sit down.”
Veronica stopped, turned, and hesitantly moved farther into the room, exchanging an uncertain glance with Sebastian. They both stepped over to the settee opposite Melissa and Justin and seated themselves.
