Page 93 of The Shadows Between Us
“I just need a moment to gather my courage.”
Orrin nods in understanding. “Doing the right thing is not always easy. And being the bigger person, the first to reach out with kindness, takes great strength of character. You needn’t fear, though, Alessandra. Doing the right thing is never the wrong answer.”
Orrin has an oddly twisted sense of right and wrong. He lies to me about his business trip. He steals from his peers. Are those not wrong?
And then I hear it. Soft footsteps on the carpet and the deep baritone of male voices.
Oh, thank the devils.
“Thank you,” I say. “I needed to hear that. However, perhaps you wouldn’t mind entering the room first? Maybe I could follow your lead in this instance?”
Sympathy alights in his eyes. “Of course.” He turns and taps three times on the door.
“Come in!” calls Melita’s bright voice from within.
Orrin lets himself into the room, and I continue walking down the corridor as the voices grow loud behind me.
“The poor dear!” Rhouben’s father is saying. “Do you suppose we should have the cook send something up?”
“Best to check on her first,” Rhouben says. “If it’s a stomachache, we don’t want to make things worse by sending up food.”
“Quite right,” the viscount responds.
I round the next corner as I hear the door to the room open.
“What the devils!” the viscount booms. “Melita! What—what are you doing?” There’s a sound of shuffling feet.
“I—I don’t know what’s happening.” That’s Orrin.
“You were kissing my son’s fiancée! That’s what was happening.”
A voice clears. “I’m sorry, Lord Thoricus,” Melita says. “I didn’t mean to disrespect you or your son.”
“Oh, this is far past disrespectful. How dare you ruin yourself while engaged to my son! What would your father say? This is a horrid scandal, and we will have no part of it! I can’t believe you would tell him you were ill so you could meet up with your lover!”
“I still don’t know what’s happening,” Orrin says. “I came to support Lady Stathos. Lady Xenakis just threw herself at me!”
“Lady Stathos? Are you dallying withtwopromised women, then, Eliades? Shame on you,” Thoricus says. “And you, Melita? I can’t even imagine how disappointed your father will be. Come, Rhouben. Your engagement to Lady Xenakis is officially over.”
And then the two men depart the way they came, Rhouben with far much more spring in his step, I imagine.
“Are those flowers for me?” Melita asks.
“Yes, but they’re not from me,” Orrin says. “They’re from Alessandra. She should be right out in the hall. I—I have to go.”
I still can’t see anything from where I hide around the corner of the corridor, but the viscount must have left the door to Melita’s rooms open, allowing me to hear the voices of the two still inside.
“No, we must talk,” Melita says. “I never knew you cared for me so! Why didn’t you tell me sooner? Was it seeing me with Rhouben? Did it make you so jealous? Oh, Orrin you are one of the most handsome men at court! Of course I would choose you over Rhouben. Rhouben doesn’t care for me one whit.”
“You are mistaken. I don’t even know your given name.”
“But of course you do! You wrote it in your letter.”
“My letter?”
There’s a sound like paper unfolding.
“It’s remarkably close to my handwriting and that’s my seal, but I’m afraid I didn’t write this.”
