How to Entice an Earl by Manda Collins Page B

to tempt fate.”
    “A good idea,” she agreed. “I suggest that I go inside first, and then you follow in a few minutes.”
    Christian nodded, and gestured for her to leave first, which Maddie did, albeit in a daze of astonishment.

 
     
    Six
     
    Unable to face her cousins’ curiosity upon her return to the ballroom, Maddie instead made a beeline for the ladies’ retiring room. Unfortunately, she encountered someone far worse: Amelia Snowe.
    As she was already over the threshold, it was too late for Maddie to leave when she saw the icy beauty. Besides, she didn’t wish to give Amelia the satisfaction of knowing her presence had rattled her.
    “Why, look who it is,” Amelia said from her usual position—before the looking glass, “it’s Lady Madeline Essex, who was so unfortunate as to be caught in a gaming hell this week.”
    “Do tell us, Lady Madeline,” she said, turning with what Maddie could only assume was great reluctance from her own visage to cast her gaze upon the other girl. “Was it worth ruining your reputation, this escapade of yours? For I doubt any gentleman of true social standing will look twice at you now.”
    Her constant companion, Lady Felicia Downes, tittered at her friend’s words. “I do not think they would have done so before the gaming hell incident, Amelia. No offense meant, of course, Lady Madeline. But you know how unpopular you are with the gentlemen.”
    Since she knew good and well that her reputation was bruised rather than broken, Maddie knew better than to let them draw her into their discussion. She also knew better than to believe Lady Felicia’s backhanded apology. Instead, she didn’t speak at all, simply moved before an empty mirror and assessed her hair for disarray. If Amelia and Felicia but knew how she’d just spent the last quarter hour they would have real ammunition to use against her. But Maddie trusted Gresham implicitly on that score, so she knew they would never know about the interlude on the terrace.
    “Cat got your tongue?” Amelia asked coolly, though Maddie could tell from the twitch in her nemesis’s cheek that she was annoyed by Maddie’s refusal to engage with her. “I would think that someone with a brother on the brink of ruin and two cousins who were forced to marry in haste would take every opportunity to prove her own innocence.”
    “How are your dear cousins, Lady Madeline?” Felicia slipped closer to Maddie, the proximity making her uncomfortable. Felicia had been a bully as long as Maddie could remember, often resorting to pinching and other underhanded bits of violence to exert her authority. Now that they were adults she could hardly inflict physical pain, but she knew as well as anyone just how discomfiting an invasion to one’s personal space could be. “I vow I was never more shocked when we learned the true extent of your cousin Juliet’s infirmity,” she said. “It’s a wonder poor Deveril didn’t apply for an annulment as soon as he learned of it.”
    “Then, of course,” Amelia said, picking up her henchwoman’s thread of discussion, “there is Cecily. I suppose she must have been quite overset to learn just how … close her mother had been to Lord Geoffrey Brighton. It’s such a shame that he went mad like that. You don’t suppose it runs in the family, do you?”
    The rumors about Juliet’s injury, and the speculation over Cecily’s parentage had circulated through the ton for weeks now, and were laughable to those who knew her cousins. But even so, Amelia and Felicia were just the sort of gossipmongers who had kept the talk going. Her cousins were now happily wed and the rumors were given less credence every day, but even so there were still some people who could not let the gossip die.
    “Still she is silent,” Amelia continued. “I cannot warrant it, Felicia. I was given to believe that Lady Madeline was the least able to contain her temper of all three cousins. I guess the talk is wrong. Or