She forced herself forward anyway.
“My lord.” Her voice emerged steadier than she’d dared hope. “I owe you an apology.”
“An apology.” The words came out brittle. Sharp. “How terribly civilised.”
The crowd around them had gone silent. Every ear straining. Every eye fixed. The weight of society’s judgment pressed down on her shoulders until she could scarcely breathe.
She lifted her chin regardless.
“You have shown me nothing but kindness,” she said softly. Meant it, despite everything. “Respect and consideration. I am truly grateful for the honour you’ve done me in seeking my hand.”
“But?”
The single word emerged cold. Controlled. But beneath it—beneath the polished surface—she heard something dangerous stirring.
“But I cannot accept your offer.” The confession tore from her throat. “My heart... it belongs elsewhere.”
For three beats of her racing pulse, he simply stared. She watched comprehension dawn. Watched humiliation and rage chase each other across his features in rapid succession.
“Elsewhere.” His voice had gone very quiet. Very dangerous. “To him? To your brother-in-law?”
The accusation hung between them like poison.
“Yes,” she whispered. “I’m sorry. I never meant to hurt?—”
“You’resorry?” He laughed then. The sound was ugly. Bitter. Nothing like the warm, cultured tones he’d always shown her before. “How delightfully considerate of you.”
He took a step forward. She held her ground, though every instinct screamed at her to flee.
“Do you have any idea,” he continued, voice rising now, “what you’ve just done? The humiliation you’ve subjected me to?”
Another step. Close enough now that she could see veins standing out in his temples. Could smell brandy thick on his breath.
“I opened my home to you. My heart. Offered you security, respectability, everything a woman in your position could possibly desire.” His hands had curled into white-knuckled fists at his sides. “And you throw it all away for what? For that wastrel? That fortune-hunting rake who’s spent his entire life disappointing everyone who ever believed in him?”
The venom in his voice shocked her. This wasn’t the courteous gentleman who’d taken tea in her drawing room. Who’d spoken so kindly of Henry. Who’d seemed so perfectly, reassuringly appropriate.
This was someone else entirely.
“Lord Ashbourne, please—you must understand?—”
“Oh, I understand perfectly.” Another step. Far too close now. Close enough that she could see the fury blazing in eyes she’d once thought kind. “You’ve made a fool of me. In front of half of London. Do you think I’ll simply accept this? Simply walk awaywhilst you parade your scandalous liaison for all of society to gawk at?”
His voice had risen to a near shout now. People around them gasped. Several ladies raised fans to conceal shocked whispers.
Amelia’s heart hammered against her ribs. She’d never seen this side of him. Never imagined it existed beneath all that polish and propriety.
“You will regret this,” he hissed, leaning in close enough that only she could hear. “When he tires of you—and he will, make no mistake—when he casts you aside for his next amusement and leaves you ruined and alone, you’ll come crawling back. Begging for the security you so foolishly rejected.”
“I don’t think?—”
“No. You don’t think. That’s precisely the problem.” His lip curled with contempt. “Stupid, emotional creatures, the lot of you. My late wife had the same failing. Always thinking she knew better. Always questioning, defying, making things more difficult than they needed to be.”
Something cold slithered down Amelia’s spine. The way he’d saidlate wife—as though her death had been an inconvenience. As though the love he had had for her… was part of a ploy. A plan.
“Until she learnt her place, of course.” His smile was terrible. “Until she understood that a wife’s duty is obedience. Submission. I would have taught you the same, given time. Would have moulded you into something appropriate. Something befitting my station.”
Horror bloomed in her chest. This was what she’d almost chosen. This man—with his cruel smile and possessive fury, with his talk of teaching and moulding and breaking women into submission.
