The Duke of Shadows by Meredith Duran

Author:Meredith Duran
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Man-Woman Relationships, England, London (England), British - India, India, Contemporary, British, Fiction, Romance, Historical, General, Love Stories
ISBN: 9781416567035
Publisher: Pocket Star
Published: 2008-03-25T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

Chapter 12

« ^ »

She stopped at the bottom of the stairs to the ballroom. It was time. She could do this. She had vowed to see it through.

I am not a coward.

A tide of chatter was rushing down the staircase. Delphinia's hand at her back was pushing her into it. All these voices, merging indistinctly. A sea of people. Belied, bright skirts interspersed with the standard gentlemen's blacks. Lounging indolently seemed to be a London custom; the stairway was crushed with loiterers. "I'm all right," Emma said to herself.

"Of course you are." This from Lord Chad, who had Delphinia's other arm. "You look quite smart, Emmaline."

"Absolutely dashing," said Delphinia.

Yes. She would not underestimate her cousin again. Delphinia had spent an hour closeted in conference with the seamstress. The result was a very low-cut gown with a transparent lace fichu that accented her décolletage. Fashionable and provocative. But the silk itself was a dull navy that drank the light, with sleeves that fitted tightly down to the cuffs of her wrist-length gloves. It left bared no skin that an admirer might feel safe to stroke. The dress was bold, but it also made her untouchable.

Sometimes her cousin understood her very well.

The skirts were another matter. Such excessive width was still viewed in Durringham with suspicion, and so she had no practice with it. She felt like a small moving planet. Perhaps the feeling should encourage her. She could go smashing through the crowd, her own force of gravity.

Instead she was being pulled up the stairs, her feet clumsy with fear. The sight of a dark head made her stumble.

The man turned. Unfamiliar face. Their gazes slid past each other.

Would it be like that, if she saw him here? Would he pretend not to know her?

She'd imagined it a million times, until she thought herself quite unmovable. Hardened into indifference. She would be sophisticated, cool, perhaps slightly amused. The peccadilloes of our youth. He would not see how he'd nearly destroyed her. How she'd argued with herself, during that slow, shuffling journey east to Calcutta, that he would come. After what she had done in Kurnaul, she'd traveled under Anne Marie's name. He would be asking after Emmaline Martin. But he would come looking, and when he did, his notoriety would cause the civilians among whom she hid to remark, "The infamous Marquess has come to camp in search of someone," and she would go to him.

So she listened, and waited, and every morning when she rose she asked whether anyone had visited the camp overnight. But no one had ever remarked on the Marquess. He had never come.

The army had moved them to Calcutta so slowly. Death everywhere, villages burning, unburied corpses, safety uncertain. And as the weeks passed, her anger had grown. You said it was safe, you left me to die. You said you would come for me, and here I am, alone. Her fear had grown too. Are you dead? Are you hurt? I will wait for you.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.