“Nonsense. I’m sure you would have had a perfectly lovely time.”
Certainly, if one could call an evening spent among the ton lovely, which Emmeline did not. “Never mind me. I’m content as I am. Now, off to bed with you.”
The sooner Emmeline put this day behind her, the better.
But Lord Melrose refused to be dismissed as easily at that. He haunted the darkest hours of the night, his low, deep whisper in her ear, his soft lips leaving trails of fire across her skin, his quickened breath and the gentle rasp of his beard awakening nerve endings she didn’t even know she possessed, despite her diligent study of human physiology.
She danced along the edge between dreams and memories until light began to peek around the closed draperies. It was only then Emmeline realized she’d left the linen bundle with her ribbon inside stuffed into the pocket of her dress.
She eased the coverlet aside, careful not to disturb her sleeping sister, and tiptoed across the floor to her discarded gown. She searched through the pockets, a relieved breath leaving her lungs when she felt the rough texture of linen under her fingertips.
But her relief was short-lived. The bundle was open, the layers of linen crumpled, and her violet ribbon…
It was gone. Her ribbon was gone.
Chapter
Four
“Tell me once again what we’re doing here, Cross?”
Johnathan rubbed his aching temples, and prayed his skull would have the decency to wait until he returned home before it exploded. He hadn’t ventured out at all today, and now he was regretting allowing Cross to talk him into a meal at White’s.
White’s, of all places. The scene of last night’s crime.
Last night’s first crime, that is. Johnathan vaguely recalled there’d been another. The details of it were hazy, his only clue the violet ribbon he’d been clutching in his hand when he awoke this morning.
Cross didn’t appear to hear him. “Why is everyone gaping at us, Melrose?”
“No one’s gaping at us.” Johnathan passed a weary hand over his stinging eyes. “You’re imagining it.”
“The entire dining room is watching our every move, Melrose. Or rather, your every move.”
“They’re not staring at me.”
Cross glanced around the dining room, his dark brows lowered. “The devil they’re not. Those fools at Lord Quigley’s table have been gawking and sniggering at you like a troop of chattering monkeys since the moment we sat down.”
Johnathan lifted his head. “A troop? Is that what a group of monkeys is called?”
Cross scowled. “I believe you’ve missed my point. I’m telling you, Melrose, something is off. There’s a wager afoot, and I fancy it has to do with you. What in the blazes did you get up to at Lady Fosberry’s ball last night? Do you even remember? I’ve never seen you so deep in your cups—”
“What do you take me for, Cross? Of course, I remember.” Johnathan pinched the bridge of his nose. Good Lord, even his nostrils hurt. “Most of it, at any rate.” Cross raised a skeptical eyebrow, and Johnathan let out an impatient sigh. “Oh, all right. Very little of it, if you must know.”
“That’s what I thought.” Cross set aside his fork, rose to his feet, and went to consult the betting book. He was there for some time, turning over page after page. His face remained carefully blank as he made his way back to the table with every eye in the room upon him, but his cheeks had gone white.
“For God’s sake, Melrose,” Cross hissed as he took his seat. “Were you trifling with some chit in Lady Fosberry’s library last night?”
There had been a library. Johnathan was certain of that much. Logic would suggest it had been Lady Fosberry’s library. As for the chit…
“Not some chit, Cross. Lady Exeter.”
“Whoever you were debauching, it wasn’t Lady Exeter. I saw her leave with Lord Pemberton not five minutes after you left me to go dance with Lady Christine.”
“I’m certain it was Lady Exeter I followed into—” Johnathan broke off, falling silent as snatches of conversation reached him from every corner of the dining room.
“…wouldn’t be Lady Exeter’s first indiscretion with Melrose, but her gown was pink, not purple.”
“Purple?” Johnathan met Cross’s eyes. “What bloody purple gown?”
