Page 13 of The Duke’s Hidden Duchess

“We have not.”

“No,” Rowland agreed slowly. He removed his hand from Georgiana’s back without appearing conscious of the movement. “And yet there is much in a face that one does not choose. The set of the eyes. The manner in which the mouth holds itself when it means to yield nothing. I knew a family once whose mouths were set in just that fashion. Proud people. Matters did not end well for them.”

“You are telling me a great deal about the families you have known and nothing about the young woman standing beside you.” Selina placed herself squarely before the private room. “I am Lady Georgiana’s companion. My business in this corridor is concluded. You may return to whatever supper you arranged and eat it alone.”

“You are very certain of your business.” He no longer smiled beneath the mask; his mouth had narrowed to a bloodless line.

“I am sufficiently certain of yours. You encouraged a young woman to correspond with you in secret, then brought her towards a private room in a house where no one would think to object. I require no greater understanding of your intentions than that.” Her hands remained folded before her. “I have seen enough of such performances to recognise the opening act. A more accomplished man would at least have chosen a quieter house.”

Something ugly moved behind the green mask, visible for an instant before it disappeared. “You possess a bold tongue for a paid companion.”

“I possess a bold tongue for a man whose hand is upon a young woman too uncertain to remove it herself.” Selina did not turn. “Georgiana, take my arm.”

The girl crossed to her in three quick steps, the domino slipping from one shoulder. Fright appeared in his sister’s face at last, an hour later than it ought to have done. She took Selina’s arm in both hands, as a much younger child might have done. Selina allowed it without once looking down at her.

Nathaniel stepped out of the shadows.

“Georgiana. Come to me.”

Three faces turned towards him. His sister’s crumpled with relief and shame together. Selina’s expression did not alter. Rowland inclined his head without haste, like a man who had already decided that the evening was postponed rather than lost.

“Wexford,” he said. “I had heard that you kept early hours. How fortunate for your sister that you abandoned the habit.”

“I do not know you, sir.” Nathaniel placed Georgiana behind his shoulder.

“No,” Rowland said pleasantly. “You do not. No one in this corridor appears to know anyone, and I find that most convenient for us all.”

Nathaniel did not answer. In committee rooms filled with men cleverer with words than with facts, he had learnt that the surest way to lose to such a man was to enter into trade with him. He took Georgiana by the arm, caught Selina’s eye and turned them towards the entrance hall. He did not look back, because looking back was precisely what Rowland wanted.

Rowland did not permit them a clean departure.

He followed at an unhurried distance, near enough to be heard but far enough away to claim that he merely happened to be walking in the same direction. The entrance hall was not empty. A stout, unmasked matron in purple stood beside the great mirror with two other ladies. Her attention fixed upon the little party the moment it appeared, for the arrival of a duke retrieving his runaway sister was undoubtedly the finest entertainment she had witnessed all evening.

“Miss Gray, is it?” Rowland called, pitching his voice to carry. “How curious. I once knew a Calvert with just that look. The very image. But Calvert is a common enough misfortune, and the lady is called Gray, so I must be mistaken. One so often is at a masquerade.”

The matron in purple turned her head. One of her companions leant towards her. The names Calvert and Gray had been placed within the same breath in a hall full of attentive ears. Nathaniel could almost see them beginning their journey from the mirror to the door, and thence into every drawing room in London before Thursday.

Selina’s hand tightened upon Georgiana’s arm and drew the girl a step nearer the entrance.

“You will forgive us, sir,” she said, her voice carrying precisely as far as his had done. “Lady Georgiana has taken a chill from the draughts in these fine new rooms, and her brother wishes her taken home. I am certain that a gentleman so interested in faces will not detain three of them at the door.”

“I detain no one, madam.” Rowland had not moved a step nearer. He had no need to. “I merely observe.”

“Then observe us leaving.”

***

Nathaniel got them into the carriage. Afterwards, he could not remember precisely how. He remembered only that his hand had remained steady upon the door and his voice steady as he gave the direction, though neither seemed to bear any relation to what was happening inside his chest.

The matron in purple had followed them as far as the steps to watch them depart, just as another observer had watched from another flight of steps four days earlier. The two images settled one over the other in his mind and refused to come apart.

Georgiana wept quietly in the corner, exhausted, frightened and nineteen. The borrowed domino still hung from one shoulder, and she lacked the presence of mind to remove it. After a moment, Selina reached across, unpinned it and folded it over her own knees. Then she sat back, composed, her hands resting upon the silk and her gaze fixed on the darkened window.

Nathaniel lowered the glass by two inches, raised it again, and discovered that his fear had gone nowhere.

“You should not have entered that house alone,” he said to Selina.

“And left your sister inside it?”