Page 16 of The Duke’s Defiant Love

"Good night, Miss—" He stopped himself, the ghost of a smile touching his mouth. "I still do not have your name."

"No," she agreed. "You do not."

She held his gaze a moment longer than was strictly proper, long enough to see something shift behind his eyes, something that looked almost like reluctance to let the moment end. Then she turned, climbed the remaining steps, and let herself inside without looking back, though she stood in the darkened hall for a long moment afterward, breathing rather harder than the short walk from the street could account for, listening for the sound of his footsteps finally retreating.

They did not retreat immediately. She counted nearly a full minute before she heard them go.

CHAPTER FIVE

The house was dark but for a thin line of candlelight beneath her own door, and Amelia stood in the corridor a moment before entering, still catching her breath from the walk, and still entirely unsure how she meant to explain any of this to anyone, let alone to Mary.

She needn't have worried about catching her unprepared. Her younger sister was curled in the window seat in her room, exactly as she always was on nights Amelia came home late, knees drawn up beneath her nightgown, one of their mother's shawls wrapped round her shoulders, a book open and unread in her lap. She looked up the moment the door creaked.

"There you are!"

Mary set her book aside so quickly that it nearly slid from her lap.

Amelia paused in the doorway. "You are still awake."

"Of course I am still awake. You were not supposed to be home yet."

Mary shifted across the window seat, making room for her, her soft brown hair already loosened from its evening arrangement and falling over one shoulder. She looked entirely too pleased to see Amelia, which Amelia suspected had less to do with concern and considerably more to do with curiosity.

"I have been waiting for you for nearly two hours."

"That sounds very dramatic."

"It was very dramatic." Mary patted the space beside her. "Come here. I want to know everything."

"Everything?"

"Everything. Who was there? Was Lady Fenwick wearing the blue silk? Did the Fairmonts have the new musicians? Was the supper any good? Did you dance? How many times did you refuse to dance? And why," she added, narrowing her eyes with sudden suspicion, "are you home before the ball has even finished?"

Amelia laughed despite herself and crossed the room.

"Good evening to you too."

"You are avoiding the question."

"I was sent home."

Amelia sat beside her, drawing her skirts neatly around her knees.

Mary looked at her expectantly.

"Well? Was it dreadful?"

"The ball?"

"Yes."

"It was perfectly pleasant."

Mary groaned.

"That is the least interesting answer you could possibly have given me."

"It was."