But he couldn’t lie and suggest that what she felt was real. What she felt was sexual for the first time in her life. And that was so easily confused with love.
So he had done the honorable thing. He had explained as clearly as possible what was happening, and he had left her alone rather than ravish her, as he desperately wanted to do. And now, he would take her home.
He found a hackney quickly enough. It was the time of night for sordid liaisons to end and light skirts to be sent home. That anyone might class Mellie as that kind of woman made him ill. That he was the one who had done this to her made it even worse.
So he was grim-faced when he went back upstairs. He said nothing as he settled the cloak about her head and shoulders. And he was as courtly as he could possibly manage as he helped her into the carriage and slipped into the dark beside her.
She said nothing and try as he might, he couldn’t find a way to break the silence. Every conversational gambit he thought of sounded stupid or insulting. So he remained silent. He didn’t even touch her, though God knew he wanted to. But he didn’t want to offer her more of an insult, so he stayed away. And in his head, he flayed himself alive for being a bastard.
Twenty minutes later, he discovered that he needn’t have castigated himself so hard since Eleanor was more than happy to do it for him.
She’d been waiting up, even sending Seelye to bed so that she could open the door herself when he and Mellie knocked. She pulled open the door, gestured them inside, and quietly shut it behind them. Then she turned on him like a distempered rabbit.
“Did you violate her? Don’t you dare think of lying to me, Trevor. Did you touch her? How could you do this? Damn it, everything played out exactly as it ought. A little faster than we planned, but perhaps, that’s for the best. It all falls wrong if you touched her. All of it destroyed, Trevor, and I will never forgive you for it.”
He had no answer, no way to mitigate the righteous fury in her eyes. So he stood there mute in his misery. It was Mellie—generous, sweet,innocentMellie—who came to his rescue.
“Nothing has happened, Eleanor. Trevor was simply upset, and we walked. I’m used to living in the country, you know. It’s the easiest way to talk—on a long, quiet walk.”
“A walk in the city?” Eleanor huffed, though her tone was a great deal softer than before. “Don’t be daft, Melinda. There are dangerous footpads everywhere.”
“But we came across none of them. I am fine.” Then she made a mistake. She shrugged off her cloak, revealing her badly pinned hair, her dress without feathers, and the lumps caused by her badly tied corset. To anyone with eyes—especially someone as smart as Eleanor—she was exposed as a woman who had been ravaged.
“You fool!” hissed Eleanor, rounding on Trevor. “You damned—”
“She can still marry,” he said, though even to him his words sounded like a weak excuse. The kind of thing said by immoral men who used women without conscience.
“My God, Trevor!” Eleanor cried, but again Mellie interrupted.
“I am still a virgin, Eleanor. Calm yourself.”
Mellie didn’t know it, but no one ever told Eleanor to calm herself. The woman was made of ice, her aristocratic heritage demanding nothing more than total nonchalance of the titled elite. To tell her to calm herself was akin to a slap across the face, and Eleanor reacted according to her training: with any icy fury that could destroy all of Mellie’s chances.
She pulled up to her full height, she drew in her breath, and she…did nothing. Trevor was about to leap into the breach, to take all the blame onto himself—which is where it rightly belonged—but Eleanor simply stared, long and quiet. Then she spoke two words in an eerie kind of tonelessness.
“What happened?”
“We went for a walk—” Mellie began, but Trevor took over. It was best if Eleanor’s rage was directed at him.
“I broke with my grandfather.”
Eleanor sighed. “I know that, Trevor.Everyoneknows that.”
“We did go for a walk, and then…” He shook his head. He would not be made to report like a small boy confessing to an angry parent. “Eleanor, she is still a virgin. She can still marry whomever she wants. She is still totally and completely herself. Nothing untoward has occurred.”
Eleanor spent a moment staring hard at him. Inside, he squirmed with guilt, but he kept his expression impassive. And then she turned her icy glare onto Mellie who looked equally impassive. Though she did break enough to give her confirmation.
“He has not lied, Eleanor.”
The woman snorted. “You will learn, Melinda, that there is the truth, and then there is agentleman’struth. Something momentous has occurred, and I should like to stand as your friend. Rest assured, whatever has happened, I will still sponsor you as I promised. I lay all ill things at his feet.”
It took a moment for Trevor to understand exactly what she’d said. First, he realized that she was taking Mellie’s part and would not abandon her. That was wonderful news, but the rest was rather painful to hear. What she said, in fact, was that she would take Mellie’s partagainstTrevor, and as much as he deserved every word, it was still hard to hear. So when his words came out, they were more tart than he intended.
“So you won’t abandon hernow? What about this evening when she was all alone?”
Eleanor rounded on him, her eyes narrowed. “Whatever does that mean? She was never alone. Good God, do you know how many people were about her every moment—”
“You left her alone to Mr. Rausch and his friends. When I found her, she was dancing with him.”