Madeleine by Lancaster Mary

Author:Lancaster, Mary
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, Romance, Historical, Anthology
Publisher: Dragonblade Publishing, Inc.
Published: 2020-04-29T16:00:00+00:00

When the dance ended, Roderick was reluctant to release her, more reluctant yet to leave her side. But the ball was not yet over. He could return her to Madame Kosara, shake hands with Deare, who had reappeared from the card room, and walk away from her with a smile, because his arms could still feel her soft, yielding body. Her heady scent lingered in his nostrils. The knowledge of her love, unspoken in words yet openly revealed in her brilliant eyes and in the smile trembling on her lips, all but filled his mind.

But he hadn’t forgotten the rude behavior of the louts outside the ballroom, and he wanted to root out its cause before he left her.

He quietly scoured the ballroom and the cardroom and eventually found what he was looking for on the lantern-lit terrace beyond the ballroom, where several men were gathered in groups, some smoking cigarillos, some just drinking and gossiping. It was among the latter group that he discerned his quarries together with a couple of others to whom they had, apparently, been relating their “joke” on Madeleine. Roderick leaned against an overgrowing tree branch nearby.

“Doesn’t sound very gentlemanly to me,” one of the listeners said with distaste. “Or sensible if word gets back to his grace.”

“He wants it to,” another said wryly. “His sister was favorite to snare the duke before Miss Deare captivated him. He’s hoping a hint of vulgarity or ill-repute will cling to her and repel his grace back to said sister.”

The young lout who’d been loudest flushed with anger and stepped forward as though to dispute the rather plausible reasoning. At the same time, he glimpsed Roderick, leaning against his tree branch and paused.

Don’t, Roderick advised silently. Just don’t.

The imbecile did. He sneered. “What does the Deare girl matter? Everyone knows her brother’s selling her to the highest bidder, and when no one bites, he’ll lower the qualification from marriage to—”

He didn’t need to get as far as he did. Roderick gave him at least a second’s warning as he moved forward from his tree branch. But the fool thought he wouldn’t strike among so many. Roderick’s fist caught him flush in the mouth, sending him reeling back into the low wall. Only his friend prevented him from tumbling over it.

Of course, the violence drew inevitable attention, so Roderick, conscious of the need for a certain amount of discretion, advanced on his victim once more. The young man scrambled to his feet, blood trickling from his split lip.

“How dare you?” he blustered. “Damn it, I demand satis—”

“No, you don’t,” his friend said urgently, seizing him by the arm. “That is Major Usher. And you were out of order. We all were.”

Roderick acknowledged that with a curt nod, but he still took a step closer. “There will be no duels, and absolutely no mention of a lady’s name. If there is, I will find you.”

“There won’t be,” the bleeding man’s friend assured him hurriedly. “It was a bad taste jest gone wrong.

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