Never Courted, Suddenly Wed (Scandalous Seasons #2)(26)

Sophie spun around, and a smile formed on her lips. The Duke of Mallen stood at the center of the marble foyer, a glimmer in his emerald green eyes. “Your Grace,” she said and dipped a curtsy.

He bowed. “I’m surprised to see you here, Miss Winters.”

Sophie tipped her head to the side. Well, that was remarkably insulting. Granted she’d only just come to London Hospital for the first time, but that was neither here nor there.

The duke must have realized he’d offended her for he sketched another bow. “My apologies.”

She waved him off. “This is only my first trip to the hospital.” She reached into her front pocket and pulled out the note from his sister. “Emmaline encouraged me to visit.”

“Ahh.”

She dropped another curtsy. “Good day, Your Grace.” Sophie stepped outside.

She paused at the top step. Her eyes struggled to adjust from the darker interior of the hospital to the sun-filled, cloudless sky. She peered around for her carriage. Drat. Where had Lucy and her driver gone off to? Sophie caught her lower lip between her teeth.

“Are you in need of assistance?”

Sophie’s shriek blended with Duke’s flurry of barking. Her arms flew out in desperate attempt to keep from tumbling down the steps of London Hospital.

The Duke of Mallen moved with a speed Apollo himself would have applauded, righting her before she humiliated herself right there on White-Chapel Road.

Duke growled up at the tall, powerful noble, clearly taking offense with the gentleman’s hand placement upon his mistress. “Thank you,” she said, as the duke removed his hands from her person.

He grinned. “No thanks are necessary. I could hardly leave you to fall, even if you did manage to do so with great grace and aplomb.”

Sophie snorted. She imagined such high praise would have set many a-ladies hearts aflutter. After two Seasons, however, Sophie had no grand illusion as to any gentlemanly interest in her. “Yes. Grace and aplomb, indeed,” she said, with a little wink.

The duke tossed his head back and laughed.

At the Duke of Mallen’s explosion of amusement, her dog barked incessantly up at him. “Enough, Duke,” she scolded.

The Duke of Mallen frowned. “I beg your pardon?”

Duke knelt into a crouching position, and she groaned as the little devil pounced on the Duke of Mallen’s immaculate, black Hessian boots. “Sit, Duke.”

“Wha—?”

She bent and retrieved Duke. “I’m sorry. His name is Duke.”

His lips twitched with what she thought was amusement. “You named your dog Duke?”

She nodded, hugging the dog close. “He is a commanding, arrogant little thing and so it seemed perfectly appropriate…” Sophie swallowed the remainder of her words as she realized the insult she’d dealt the powerful peer. She clamped her lips tight, and looked at her toes. Then at the sky. And out in the street. Anywhere but at His Grace. “Ah, well, I see my carriage. If you’ll excuse me,” she said her voice higher pitched than usual. Sophie dropped another curtsy and fled.





Lady Ackerly’s Tattle Sheet





Miss S.W. and her ill-behaved dog wrought havoc upon a riding path at Hyde Park, nearly unseating the respectable, Earl of W.


8

From within the overly warm, crowded ballroom, the orchestra thrummed the opening strands of a quadrille. Christopher curled his mouth around the flute of champagne dangling from his fingers. He eyed the couples as they completed the intricate steps to the dance around Lord and Lady Cavendish’s ballroom floor. “A single dance should do. A waltz would be even better. Of course if you are feeling very generous then two dances would sufficiently quiet the viscountess.”

The Duke of Mallen glared at him from the corner of his eye and then redirected his attention out around the ballroom floor. “If I’m feeling very generous? I’d say in having agreed to aid you, my actions constitute extreme magnanimity.” A servant materialized with a tray of fresh champagne flutes. Mallen deposited his empty glass and retrieved another. “You’re fortunate my mother is off in the country with Emmaline and Drake, else you’d find yourself on your own with this foolishness.” A shudder wracked his frame. “I don’t even want to consider what my sister will say when she comes out of confinement.”

A momentary twinge of guilt stabbed at Christopher but he pushed it aside. Mallen was his closest friend in the world. There was nothing he wouldn’t do for the other man. “Someday I shall return the favor,” he promised.

“I’ll not have any need of such an outlandish plan as the one you’ve concocted. Nor for that matter would I ever require intervention on your part.”

Christopher grinned. Mallen was entirely too cocksure of himself. Christopher had little doubt that Mallen’s mother was fast tiring of her only son’s marital state. He chose to let the matter rest. Instead, he returned his attention to the crowded ballroom. “Where is she?” he muttered.

Mallen tipped his head toward the corner of the room where a row of wallflowers sat. “The young lady just found a seat.”

Christopher followed Mallen’s focus. Sophie Winters stifled a yawn behind the floral fan in her fingers, and with her bored expression, appeared a good deal less than interested in the evening’s festivities.