Chapter 3 #3
“You did not expect much of me at all, I think, Your Grace, for we do not know each other, and you have mistaken me for another—which makes this conversation rather difficult to continue, you’ll agree.”
The lies came so easily it shocked her. Their parish priest would have been horrified. Rosalie was a good and serious woman most days. But I cannot admit to something that would doom my family and me forever. My soul is forfeit and likely was the moment Emily asked me to kiss her betrothed.
“Difficult, why?” he asked.
“I cannot give you what you want.”
“On the contrary. You will give me exactly what I want.” The duke clasped his hands behind his back again.
Rosalie had the sense of being circled, though he had not moved an inch.
“I have met many young ladies who would like to secure a duke by whatever means necessary. A compromising kiss in a dark garden, discovered at a convenient moment... It is not the most original scheme I have encountered, but it is far from the least effective, and worth talking about, definitely.”
Heat flooded her face. “You believe I meant to trap you?”
“It is not beyond the realm of possibility.”
“Then perhaps you should read more books. It would be a foolish plot for all concerned. To accuse me of something like that is beyond the pale. You insult my intelligence by suggesting I would come up with something so base and unoriginal.”
He looked at her from above. His face was arrogant now, which made him less appealing but not less infuriating. Evidently, this gentleman was used to thinking he was the most clever and desirable man in the room—used to getting what he wanted from women, just like he said.
“Are you suggesting I imagined you there?” He tilted his head menacingly to the side. “Five minutes to midnight. A pink mask. Oh, heavens no. Shall we bring your parents back and ask where you were at that time? Whether my description of you sounds familiar?”
“No!” Her voice shook, her body going cold and hot. She couldn’t feel her hands and balled them tight. “I did not know it was you. Is that what you wanted to hear? I did not intend to kiss anyone at all that evening, let alone a duke!”
She stopped herself before she said too much and Emily’s name slipped loose. But the rest of it was out in the open for the taking. And the duke looked eager to seize what was his.
“At least we have that out of the way,” he said.
“It was a mistake. I am sorry for it, and for lying, too. I should like very much never to discuss it again.”
“A mistake?” He said the word slowly. “That is not quite the word I would have chosen.”
Rosalie bit the inside of her cheek. “What word would you choose?” she said through gritted teeth.
“I’m not sure. I am out of practice being kissed by women who did not mean to kiss me.” His mouth curved into a half-smile. “Most of them mean it a great deal.”
“I am sure... that must be so terrible for you.”
“Oh, you have no idea.”
Rosalie pressed her lips together, torn between the urge to laugh and the urge to weep. “If you have come only to accuse me and then mock me for defending myself, Your Grace, I confess I do not see the purpose of this visit continuing.”
His eyes sharpened, as though she had said something unexpectedly interesting. “You are the first young lady in some years to ask me to leave rather than beg me to stay.”
“I would not comment on the company you have kept, Your Grace,” she managed to say before her head started pounding. “But, I beg you not to say a word of this to anyone, for my sake and yours. You desire, from the sounds of it, a marriage to me no more than I desire a marriage to you.”
He studied her for a moment longer, and she made herself hold still under his gaze, her chin lifted, though her heart was beating so hard she feared he might hear it.
“Very well, Miss Winthrop,” he said, stepping back.
“I will trouble you no further this morning. But I hope you will forgive me if I confess that I am unsatisfied with these developments. I do not care for mysteries in the slightest. And there is a mystery here.” He leaned in to whisper in her ear.
“Why you let me suffer your kiss at all if you never intended to tell me the reason.”
The feeling had returned to her fingers, and she dug her nails into her hands. “I am afraid you shall have to learn to bear the unknown, Your Grace.”
He gave a real laugh at that, obviously startled out of him, and it changed his face so much that Rosalie forgot for a second to be afraid of him.
Without saying anything, he bowed and crossed to the door. He paused there with his hand on the frame. “For what it is worth, Miss Winthrop, I do not think you are a schemer necessarily. Which begs the question: What are you?”
He was gone before she could answer, his footsteps receding down the hall, his voice already low and pleasant again as he took his leave of her parents.
Rosalie stood frozen by the hearth, her hands pressed flat against her skirts to keep them from trembling, and she thought, with a sinking, certain dread...
This will not be the last of him and me.