Rose stopped and stared back.
“You could leave the castle at dawn andnotmake any arrangements.” Rose urged.
“I could, but it would seem rather unlikely that I had been called away on business in the dead of night.”
“Leave at breakfast then,” she hissed angrily. “Just go!”
Why was he responding to everything she said so laconically? As if nothing mattered. As if she didn’t matter.
“Rose. Are you saying you have decided you do not want to marry Ernest and wish to break off the engagement?” Will asked then.
Am I saying that? Rose thought. Could she say that if there was nothing else for her to go to? She needed to know his intentions before she could reveal her own. But he was giving nothing away.
She let out an angry “arrrrggghhhh” and walked over to the window. She could feel his eyes boring into her back.
“Don’t you care?” she asked, speaking to the curtains.
It was the first crack in her voice, in her emotions, that she had allowed. Did he truly care about her? Because nothing he was saying or doing gave the impression he did.
“I care very much,” he said from right behind her. He had gotten out of bed, and she realized he was standing right by her left shoulder. Rose did not dare turn around, imagining him totally naked less than a foot from her. Instead, she fled across the room, and then when she had steeled herself to look back at him, she was relieved to see he had swathed himself from the waist down in the sheet from the bed.
“Well,” Rose said, stalling, as she tried to cover how rattled she felt. “It does not look like it to me.” She jutted out her chin and wished she had not come in her nightgown. She felt emotional and vulnerable.
“I care that you are happy,” he said huskily. “I care that you have the life you want.”
“Really?” She challenged.Because none of this is what I want.
“Yes. Really. You have made it clear you will marry Ernest, come what may, and that it is advantageous for you.”
“And are you saying your relationship with Ernest is not advantageous for you?” Her voice was rising.
“It has its advantages. We have much in common.”
Rose resisted a juvenile urge to stamp her foot.
“Is that why you are here now?” She challenged him to say no, that he had come for her, to see her, to convince her not to marry Ernest but him, and to whisk her away. She waited for him to offer her the fairytale. He didn’t.
“I came because Ernest asked me to come.” He moved to the end of the bed, and she took a step backward. “I accompanied him. Having the opportunity to see you was a bonus.”
“A bonus!” Now she was shouting. “Is that what I am to you. A bonus!” Not an integral part of your thoughts, your desires, your life?
He put out his arms to calm her. “Sssh, or someone will hear.”
Rose truly didn’t care as she glared him down.
“I would never miss an opportunity to see you, to be in your life, Rose. If staying close to Ernest facilitates that, then I see it as an ideal course of action.”
So, he intended to let her marry Ernest, and then seek stolen moments with her; no commitment, no partnership, no union. It was clear now.
“And, of course, you can get rich at the same time.” She flung at him.
“Richer,” he corrected, smiling at her. Rose thought it was an excellent thing she was standing a good distance from him as the anger which rose in her was volcanic.
“I am glad I served some purpose,” she said icily.
A different Rose, a much more rational and reasonable Rose, was telling her that expecting Will to beg her to marry him when it would jeopardize his entire business dealings with Ernest, and no doubt any chance of a coat of arms, was naive, as was expecting anyone she had hurt to trust her again. Occasional passionate nights were one thing, but committing one's life and fortune to someone who had been so disloyal was quite another.
But, even if Rose listened to her and understood, after all those kisses, looks, touches, after nights spent in her bed, holding her, he could at least show her some level of disappointment that her wedding to someone else was thirty-six hours away, and not seek to propel her down the aisle even faster than was necessary.