“And you don’t believe love plays any role in that?”
“But what does it matter what I believe?” he asked her. “You are at perfect liberty to hold your own opinions on the subject, Lady Edwina, as I’m sure you do. You don’t need me to agree.”
“You seemed as thoughyouneeded us to agree. I can’t imagine why else you would have argued with me about it.”
“Well, that’s what I wanted to apologize to you for,” the Duke said. “That’s why I asked to be paired with you for today’s treasure hunt. I wanted to be with you so that I could apologize for the argument yesterday because I knew that I was in thewrong. I shouldn’t have spoken ill of you like that. I shouldn’t have criticized your approach to marriage. You’re right—if you choose to remain a spinster forever or you decide to marry for love, it has nothing to do with me. I shouldn’t have mentioned it. Can you forgive me?”
She swallowed. He had guessed correctly that she still harbored hard feelings about it, much as she wished she could pretend otherwise.
“I can let it go,” she said. “We can put it behind us.”
“I’m grateful,” he replied.
“But I meant what I said. I don’t believe you and I should continue to see one another. I think we should let go of each other,” she said.
“Why do you think so?”
“You thought so too. Don’t act as if it was only me who felt that way.”
“I was trying to respect you,” he said.
“No. There was more to it than that. You seemed relieved when I made the suggestion. I would like to know why you reacted that way.”
“And you truly can’t believe that it was just out of a desire to give you what I thought you wanted?”
“I’m not a fool, Your Grace, no matter what you might think. You were happy that I decided to let you go.”
“Happy is putting it far too simply.”
“Then what? Explain it to me. Tell me what you felt.”
“Iwasrelieved,” he said. “I had come to see that perhaps the time we spent together was a losing game, that I would never convince you to abandon your stubborn ideology. You must understand, I’ve never struggled so much to win a lady’s favor before. Usually, I find it very easy.”
“I suppose I’m different from the ladies with whom you usually associate.”
“You’re very different from them.”
“And that made you wish to end your relationship with me.”
“You’re the one who said it first,” he reminded her. “You’re the one who said that we ought to stop seeing each other. There’s a limit to how upset you can be with me for simply agreeing to something that you wanted anyway.”
She sighed. “I suppose you’re right,” she admitted.
“I didn’t expect you to give in. You’ve never given in to anything I’ve said before in all the time you and I have known one another.”
“And can’t you see how difficult it’s becoming for me to maintain that?” She gazed up into his eyes, unable to force herself to look away from him now. Her heart was beating so fast and so hard that she was sure he could to hear it, and her skin was flushed and hot. “I try constantly, Your Grace—I fight so hard to keep you at arm’s length. And I fail. Over and over again, I fail.”
“When have you failed? What are you telling me? Do you mean to say that I charmed you after all?”
“You can’t mean to tell me that you didn’t notice it when I kissed you.”
“I kissed you.”
“I didn’t stop you.”
He was silent for a long moment, and Edwina had no idea what he was thinking. She ached to know, and at the same time, she didn’t want to know at all.
At last, he spoke. “Did you want to stop me?” he asked quietly.
