Page 10 of Her Beast of a Duke

Her interest stirred at the first man to gift her with a comment resembling kindness tonight.

“There is no need,” she told him. “To leave, I mean.”

“Ah, but I fear I must.”

He gave her a secretive smile, as if they both did not want to acknowledge the rules of propriety but had to. The man nodded at her once and went to pass, but as he approached her, he stopped.

“Lady Isabella, is it not?”

Her cheeks colored. “Yes. And you are?”

“Lord Peregrine,” he introduced. “I… I could not help but hear your name circulating through the ballroom. I… Well, how are you? This cannot be easy.”

He was being kind in alluding to only recognizing her name from the ballroom. She knew her sad story had been splashed all over the gossip sheets that week.

Isabella sighed, leaning against the wall of the balcony, not quite approaching the balustrade yet. “I have been better.”

Lord Peregrine nodded, his grimace tight. “Thetonis rather ruthless, is it not?”

Wearily, she nodded, closing her eyes for a moment. When she opened them, he was giving her a softer smile than she thought anyone would bestow on her that evening.

“I could not help but notice you have yet to join in the dancing,” he noted. “Do you plan to?”

“One cannot dance without a partner, and no one seems to be lining up tonight.” Her half-hearted joke sounded a little too sad, but she gave a small lift of her shoulders, attempting to brush it off.

“Then perhaps I can be first in line,” he offered. “I can come and find you once we return separately inside.”

Her breath caught, her hope rising.

Perhaps all was not truly lost.

“I would like that,” she answered truthfully, looking at him a little longer.

“Then again, from what I have heard, you will likemostthings,” Lord Peregrine laughed.

The sound changed everything between them, as did his smile. The soft curl of his mouth turned harder, and the blue eyes that had gazed at her now seemedwatchful.

“What do you mean?” Isabella frowned, her heart beginning to hasten.

“Well, I have ears,” he mocked. “I hear what they say about you in there, as well as in Hyde Park and the theaters. I have not visited any place this week whereLady Isabella’sscandal has not been discussed. You ought to hear the long list of reasons why you were left at the altar, my lady.”

Her ears began to ring as she stared out at Lord Peregrine. At her sides, her hands shook as he turned to her, too close—muchtoo close—for a man who had, only moments ago, been offering to leave her in privacy.

Now, there was a horrible leer on his face that she feared. He shifted just enough to block her path into the ballroom. She did not want to go back in there, but staying out here was treacherous, too.

“My, the things they say…” He shook his head slowly. “It is enough for a man to grow heated, if you understand what I?—”

“If you do not move out of my way, Lord Peregrine—” Isabella cut him off, thankful her voice remained steady. “Then I shall scream.”

He laughed at her, low and mocking. “Go on, then, my lady.Do it.Scream to your pretty heart’s content, for it will only do wonders for your reputation. Your fiancé left you at the altar; your innocence is surely questionable, for why else would he do something so humiliating?”

“My innocence?—”

“Your innocence is of no consequence to me, my lady,” he continued, mindless of her protests. “But—if you scream—only think of what people will say when they find us together.”

Her eyes flitted uselessly around them, searching the shadows even as she knew there would be nothing there that would help her escape.

And he was right. She could not scream, for nobody would believe her. If anything, the people of thetonwere hungry to add more fuel to the fire. She could not give them anything.