Wed in Disgrace (Convenient Arrangements #3) - Rose Pearson Page 0,44

of great pain over what had happened to him. “That is very difficult, indeed, I am sure,” she said with another heavy sigh. “You can think of no one who would wish you ill?”

“None!” Lord Robertson exclaimed dramatically. “The lady—I mean...” He sighed, then looked at her askance. “You must understand, Miss Mullins, the lady I was to meet with in that blue room was merely joining my company so that we might discuss particulars regarding her...” He clearly could not think of what to say to finish this remark and ended up flushing very red indeed, unable to even look at her.

“You need not think that I shall be in any way judgmental, Lord Robertson,” Delilah said quickly, which made Lord Robertson suddenly look directly at her. “I quite understand.” She smiled, and his cheeks lost some of their color.

“I am very glad you understand,” he said, looking as though he was relieved indeed. Looking around as though he feared someone would overhear them, he leaned in a little closer to her. “To be truthful, Miss Mullins, when I spoke to the lady about my ordeal some days later, she did not even seem to realize that I had been expecting her.”

Delilah let out a murmur of surprise, tucking away that particular piece of information and keeping it to tell Lord Coventry later. Given that he was a gentleman, he would find it a good deal easier to discover the name of this particular lady—if such a name mattered at all.

“It is quite astonishing, is it not?” Lord Robertson said as though it was somehow the lady’s fault that she had not known to go to him. “I was quite disturbed by it, I can assure you.”

“Might I ask,” Delilah began, desperately hoping that Lord Robertson now felt comfortable enough in her company to divulge a little more information, “who it was that suggested you meet this particular lady in the blue room?” She widened her eyes innocently as he looked at her sharply. “What I mean to suggest is that they might have simply forgotten to inform the lady that you were waiting for her. After all, it was a very busy evening.”

Lord Robertson frowned hard, and for a moment, Delilah was afraid that he would not tell her the truth. Perhaps he would shake his head and refuse to acknowledge the question, telling her that this was of very little importance.

Instead, he began to nod slowly, and then with all the more fervor as he looked around the room, thoughtfully.

“I believe you may be correct in your suggestion, Miss Mullins,” he said eventually. “That would be quite understandable, then. The lady must simply not have told her that I was expecting her.”

A streak of awareness ran through Delilah almost at once. “You mean to say that it was a lady who spoke to you, Lord Robertson?” she said as Lord Robertson looked at her, nodding as though he had expected her to already understand this. “My goodness, that is all the more astonishing! Why would she not inform her friend of your waiting for her?” Delilah did not even dare to suggest that it was most improper for a lady to do such a thing, even though she was fully aware that it would ruin a lady’s reputation to meet a gentleman in such a manner.

“You are quite correct, Miss Mullins!” Lord Robertson exclaimed as though he had only just thought of such a thing. “I am truly horrified that I had not realized that before. I shall have to speak to her at once and ask if she merely forgot to inform her friend. For if there is an attachment to me there that I am not yet fully aware of, I should be quite frustrated.”

“As I would well understand,” Delilah replied, thinking quietly to herself that Lord Robertson was the most ridiculous fellow she had ever had the chance to meet. She did not dare ask him for the name of the lady in question, fully aware that he had deliberately kept the name from her thus far. Perhaps they would be able to find out the name another way, but she did not think that Lord Robertson would divulge anything further.

“I am sure I would be able to discover such a thing on your behalf,” she tried, gently. “That is, if you wish to keep things discreet.”

Lord Robertson shook his head, and for the first time, she noticed a grim line playing about his