The Golden Songbird

by Sheila Walsh

  The face seemed strangely familiar. But yes ‒ there was a picture of Satan in the prayer book she had as a child with just such a face ‒ high-moulded cheekbones and a hooked nose with deep etched lines running down either side of a full, sensual mouth. And the eyes! Mon Dieu! Such eyes. She shivered deliciously, remembering how she had feared that portrait.

  When he stood at last before Madalena, she was able to observe that the Duke’s eyebrows also had a curious upward flick, so that one might imagine them to be horns!

  Kit performed his introductions. Phoebe blushed prettily and murmured something unintelligible, but Miss Varley, being included as one of the party, was much more willing to engage the Duke’s interest. However, beyond a brief nod, he paid her scant attention; his brilliant blue eyes were fixed with a curious intentness upon Madalena.

  She returned the look with a complete lack of shyness and challenged in mock reproof, ‘Monseigneur le Duc, you have been staring at me!’

  He agreed imperturbably. ‘I hope you do not mean to take exception, mademoiselle, for you will have noticed that I am continuing to do so.’

  Madalena gurgled with delight and Miss Varley’s lips tightened visibly.

  The waltz was announced and amid a buzz of mingled excitement and disapproval, Lady Serena took the floor with Lord Palmerston.

  Above the swell of the music Devereux said abruptly, ‘Do you waltz, mademoiselle?’

  ‘But of course, monseigneur. I regret, however, that I am already claimed.’

  ‘That can soon be arranged.’ He took her card and scanned it casually. ‘Ah, it’s only Freddie Egerton.’ He turned to an eager young exquisite who hovered anxiously at his elbow, and bent a commanding eye upon him. ‘There you are, Egerton ‒ you won’t mind giving up your place to me, will you, lad?’

  Without waiting for answer, he swept Madalena on to the floor, where some four brave couples were now dipping and swirling to the pulsating rhythm of the music.

  ‘Freddie will not love you, Duc,’ she protested breathlessly. ‘He has waited so patiently to show me his waltz.’

  ‘My heart bleeds for him!’ he drawled. ‘Shall I restore you to him?’

  Her huge, gamine grin flashed swiftly. ‘No, no, I beg you, for I am sure your performance is so much superior!’

  Devereux laughed, and his arm tightened just a fraction, causing her to feel even more breathless. Madalena sighed, and abandoned herself to the ecstasy of being whirled round in strong arms.

  ‘You are very masterful, are you not?’ she sighed.

  His eyes glinted down at her. ‘And you are a most provocative young lady. Tell me, mademoiselle, do your partners always have to wait in line for the favour of a dance with you?’

  Madalena chuckled. ‘They are just silly boys. It is that I am French, you understand. I think they all mean to be in love with me, but it will not last, for I am not a great beauty or a wit even.’

  It was said without guile; was she then so totally unaware of her own attractions? Devereux accorded her the benefit of any doubt as she presently whispered with unholy glee: ‘See how the dowager ladies frown upon us! Is it that they consider me too jeune fille to waltz with such panache?’

  ‘Very likely,’ he said, amused. ‘Though the waltz itself is sufficient to sour their humour. It is still frowned upon by some of the Patronesses of Almacks ‒ and theirs is the criterion by which all such social niceties are judged. Have you visited Almacks?’

  ‘No. One must have vouchers, you know. Tante Vernon hopes to obtain them and Phoebe speaks of it with awe, but in truth it sounds a very dull place.’

  ‘It is ‒ excessively dull, but obligatory if one would be fashionable.’

  ‘Then I shall not repine if we do not go! Perhaps,’ she persisted wickedly, ‘the dowagers frown because I am with you?’

  ‘That is also entirely possible. Does their disapproval distress you?’

  ‘No!’ It was a too vehement denial. For a moment the laughing mouth trembled and then it firmed again. ‘Already there are many who shun me. Not everyone, you see, loves me for being French.’ She shrugged philosophically.‘ One cannot blame them.’

  One satanic eyebrow flickered upwards in surprise. He said softly, ‘Yet I, mademoiselle, was impatient to renew our acquaintance.’

  Madalena stared, her hurt forgotten. ‘But we have not met. No! It is impossible that I should forget such a one as you!’ she continued with amusing frankness. ‘It was perhaps my brother, Armand. We are very like.’

  ‘No. It was not Armand.’

  ‘Then you will tell me please,’ she demanded, ‘where was this mysterious meeting?’

  On an impulse he said, ‘Ride with me in Hyde Park tomorrow at midday ‒ and I will tell you.’

  Madalena looked up, considering him through her lashes. ‘I do not at all believe you ‒ and I do not think that I should ride with you. Tante Vernon would undoubtedly consider you not at all a respectable person for me to know.’

  She became aware that the music had come to an end and that everyone was leaving the floor. ‘Monseigneur le Duc!’ she entreated. ‘People are staring. Please to take me back!’

  The Duke tightened his hold and smiled down at her in such a way! ‘At midday,’ he repeated softly. ‘Your promise, mademoiselle?’

  ‘Yes … yes!’ she agreed in a panic. ‘I will come!’

  ‘Good.’ Imperturbably he escorted her across the now deserted ballroom floor, watched by the entire assembled company.

  ‘See what you have done!’ Madalena muttered. She walked very straight, trying not to blush. ‘It would serve you very right if I did not come tomorrow.’

  ‘But you will. Your curiosity will not allow you to stay away.’

  They had by now arrived back beside a speechless Phoebe.

  The Duke took Madalena’s hand. ‘You do not play fair, Duc,’ she reproached him with a rueful grin.

  ‘Oh, hardly ever, my dear!’ He raised the hand to his lips. ‘A bientôt. Your servant, Miss Vernon.’

  Lady Serena was waiting in the doorway to steer him away from the card room. She linked an arm casually through his and her laugh trilled out as she chided him good-naturedly.

  ‘Dev ‒ you are a fraud! After all your protestations, you lay siege to our little émigrée ‒ a positive babe!’

  ‘Ah, but one, you must admit, who is quite out of the common!’ he murmured with the faintest glimmer of a smile. He realized he was being manoeuvred into a quiet corner and added quizzically, ‘Why are you abducting me, Serena? Did I not know you better, I might imagine you to be jealous.’

  Lady Serena’s manner became a little abstracted; she appeared to be examining minutely a mammoth arrangement of spring flowers. ‘You have a visitor,’ she said quietly.

  The Duke’s expression hardly altered. ‘Leclerc?’ he muttered. She nodded.

  ‘Damn him for a fool!’ he exploded softly. ‘Has he no more sense than to show himself here when the house is full of people?’

  ‘I gathered it was urgent. He was not seen, except by my servants ‒ and they know how to be discreet. I have had him shown into the small back parlour, but you had best go to him directly or he will work himself into a state!’

  The Duke descended the staircase without apparent haste. He waved away the two footmen who sprang forward at his approach and walked to a door at the back of the hall.

  As he opened it, a taut figure ‒ slight, with a pallid face, curiously scarred — paused in the act of pacing the floor and threw up his hands in a torrent of French.

  ‘Taisez-vous!’ the Duke rapped out in a voice that Madalena would have instantly recognized. ‘Do you wish to lay all we have worked for in ruins?’

  Continue reading Madelena by Sheila Walsh

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