He’d said his marchioness would be a woman of polish and sophistication, not a child in the nursery.A spoiled little girl who knew nothing of the love of a person, only the love of a novelty.A child who needed to grow up.How could he possibly love a child like that?
Fiona swallowed hard as the old pain welled up in her once more.
“Oh dear.”Ilona patted her hand consolingly.“That must have hurt.”
She agreed with only an abrupt nod.It had been devastating and should have sent her to her knees, but oddly enough, even after having her heart trod upon so cruelly, it had only served to anger her.Her Scots temper had exploded.
* * *
There was nothing heregretted more in his life than the cold-hearted bastard he had become that night.He’d been drunk but not drunk enough.Desperate to escape temptation, but even all that could not excuse his reprehensible words.It would serve him right if Fiona could never forgive him.If she could never bring herself to love him again.
“That was about it,” Aylesbury said.“She slapped me—quite hard, I might add.She’s got a hell of an arm on her—and then I walked away with her cursing me as I went.”
* * *
“...slapped him with allI was worth, instead.”
“Oh, my goodness,” Ilona gaped.“You hit him?And what did he do?”
“Nothing.”A chuckle of disbelief escaped Fiona as she brushed away the tears on her cheeks.Tears she hadn’t even known were falling.“He bowed like the consummate gentleman he is and walked away.Naturally, I could not manage a ladylike and contained response even after he had laid me so low.Instead, I ran after him and yelled at him that he had had his one and only chance with me and that one day he would be sorry.”
“Oh, my goodness.You always did have such panache!”
* * *
“Ye deserve a fair beatingfor being such a callous bastard.”
“I do,” Aylesbury said just as agreeably.
Glenrothes did not act on what might be taken as his permission to be used as a punching bag.Instead, he was silent for a long moment before he asked, “Were ye lying?When ye said that it meant nothing to ye?”
“Only to myself,” Aylesbury admitted.“Looking back, I wish I had handled it all differently.”
“How differently?”Glenrothes asked with a menacingly raised brow.
“Nothing untoward, I promise you.I was lucid enough by that point to keep my head.”Examining his nails for a moment, he considered his next words carefully.“I was a fool, but the truth of the matter is that I was quite taken with Fiona almost from the moment we met.She was everything that the ladies of thetonwere not.Honest, open.Natural.It was admittedly intriguing.It was everything I could do to remind myself of her position, her age...including reminding her of it.Again and again, as if that might make it all simply go away.”
Everything he said to her that night was meant to drive her away.Each word worse than the one before when they proved ineffective.He had needed to make her hate him, and it had worked all too well.
“I deserve some kudos, all things considered.I kept my distance.I stayed away.”
“I appreciate that.That single fact probably saved yer life.”
* * *
“He left Edinburgh afew days later, and I hadn’t seen him since until that night at the ball.All that time, I hated him for breaking my heart so cruelly.It is still the one thing I have not forgiven him for, but lately, I have begun to see it all from his side,” Fiona admitted, staring down at his ring.
“His side?”
“Aylesbury is an honorable man; I should have known he would never seduce me or allow himself to be seduced.Still, I threw myself at his head, and he did everything he could to let me down gently.Before that night, at any rate.I suppose, in the end, I deserved him having to be so blunt about it all.He has said that I am tenacious to a fault.I suppose I provoked all his slights by not backing off graciously.He must have been truly desperate to go on as he did.”
Looking back, it was incredible that she could see it all so differently.With a sigh of regret, she lifted haunted eyes to her friend and sister.“Oh, Ilona!Is it possible?Did I leave him no choice?”
* * *
Aylesbury laughed atGlenrothes’ softly spoken words.“It would have been worth it, I think.Fiona was...istemptation personified.Yes, I fought it.Fought her.Fought myself.I was incredibly attracted to her.She lived so passionately, taking the world on her terms.Her effervescence was contagious.And despite her tomboyish ways, lingering on the fringes of womanhood as she was, she was lovely, feminine.Fiery.I wanted her badly...Perhaps I should not have admitted so much to you.”
Glenrothes shifted uncomfortably.“Perhaps no’.”
