Marcus’ own eyes were blurring with tears now. He sniffed sharply, doing his best to stop it.
He could have told her what a mess she and her friend had made for the pair of them. That after this their reputations would be tarnished, but that all seemed to pale in comparison to what was happening between them.
The heartbreak was more acute and overwhelming than he could have possibly expected it to be.
“I made love to you,” she whispered between her cries, lowering her hands at last. “I do love you, Marcus. Me, Alaina.” She walked towards him with sudden purpose, her eyes swollen and her face blotchy red. “What do you wish to know about me? I’ll tell you everything. I’m an orphan and grew up in the earl’s household as staff and Caroline’s friend. I have always wanted a family. That dream I told you about, of wanting a family of my own, that was all true. The fact I love poetry; that was true too.”
“You cannot make this better.” He shook his head. “You can’t. I need … I need to think.” He stepped back as she reached out to touch him again, away from her touch.
“Please, Marcus –”
Yet he couldn’t bear to hear his name on her lips. He ran towards the door as quickly as he could, avoiding her completely. In the doorway, he didn’t even glance back at her. He was not sure he could stand looking at her anymore, though her cries followed him into the corridor.
He stumbled out, only coming to a halt when another woman in a gold dress with a gold mask entered the corridor. They both stopped abruptly, facing one another with wide eyes and equal alarm.
It was the real Lady Caroline. She was pale like the shining moon, her hair wild about her.
“Where is she?” she asked in a husky breath. “Alaina?”
He jerked his head towards the door behind him. Lady Caroline walked around him, heading for the door.
“Why did you do it?” he called to her, stopping her just before she could lay a hand on the door handle.
“Why did I kiss David?” she asked. “Because he is unlike any other man I have ever known.” Her lips trembled, and she bit it to stop that movement. “I had no idea we were going to be seen.”
“No, that’s not what I was asking.” He shook his head. “Why did you do this?” He waved between the door behind which Alaina was hiding and himself. “Why did you swap?”
“Because you wanted a dowry,” she said stiffly, “and I didn’t want to be the ornament thrust into your grasp in order to get it.”
“You would have always had a choice,” he threw the words at her through gritted teeth. “I never would have ordered a woman to the altar.” He turned and marched away, determined at that moment never to lay eyes on either Alaina or Lady Caroline again.
He walked all the way to the other side of his house and his study, where he strode inside and slammed the door shut behind him, only to find the room wasn’t empty.
His aunt stood by the window, jumped at his entrance, and the man who sat by the fire lifted his head and looked straight at Marcus.
“Gregory?” Any other time, Marcus would have run to his friend and embraced him, but his heart was too much in turmoil for his body to move at all. “You came?”
“I did.” Gregory slowly stood, brushing back the dark blond hair from his forehead as he looked at Marcus with a sorry smile. “From what I hear, much has happened tonight. Are you all right, my friend?”
“No, I’m not all right. Not at all.”
***
“I’m so sorry, Ally, I’m so sorry,” Caroline muttered the words over and over again as Alaina hid in her shoulder and cried.
Alaina wasn’t sure she’d ever be able to stop crying now. The pain was unbelievable, shocking in its power. All she wanted was to find Marcus, to hear him say that he still loved her and that maybe they could find a way to be together again.
That will never happen now.
She didn’t think she’d ever forget the way his green eyes had flashed at her with sizzling anger.
The door to the library opened and slammed shut again. Caroline lifted her head an inch, but Alaina continued to hide in her shoulder. She knew the tread of the man walking into the room so well that she didn’t need to lift her head to know it was the Earl of Woolworth.
“Well, Father?” Caroline said, her voice surprisingly quiet. “What do you have to say to the pair of us?”
Alaina now lifted her head, trying her best to dry the tears from her cheeks as the earl, incandescent and purple with rage, looked between the two of them in their identical gold gowns.
“Get your things. We leave as soon as you are packed.” It must have taken great self-restraint to speak so. “You two have done plenty of damage to both my family’s reputation and the duke’s own reputation. Believe me, you’ll not be let out of my house again.”
