Too
Rose
Even the sea, in all her tempests, cannot rival the ballroom—where the currents are crueler, the masks thicker, and a single misstep can drown you.
— From The Mysterious Deep: A Comprehensive Understanding
If I were still in possession of a sword, I would have driven it into the aged man dancing with me. I didn’t resist when he cut in between Oscar and me because this was an inevitability. More than that, it was a battle I’d been looking forward to.
“Why did you side with James?” I asked, as we made our way around the dance circle.
Lord Sebastian Smith huffed out a breath, and I appreciated how winded he was. I doubted he’d danced in years, but his anger was a powerful motivator. His scowl was long, and his blue eyes bore into mine.
“I appreciated his fortitude. It’s as simple as that. Are you aware of the consequences to you and your family for this scheme?” he asked.
A question for a question.
“You’ll find I also have fortitude. If this ends poorly for my family, then you will be ruined as well. Your family name raked through the mud while the crown seizes your title and passes it on to someone more worthy. You’ll be the last of your line.” I said.
“Which was no doubt his plan all along.” Lord Smith panted.
I smirked. “Maybe we should cease dancing. I’d hate for you to die before you can see the destruction of your life.”
The music picked up in tempo, and he stopped, catching his breath. A servant rushed over with a tray of water, but Lord Smith waved him away. I watched his throat bob as he fought for enough air for his next hateful statement.
“You think you know him? You want to judge me, but you don’t even know the half of it. You are a stupid girl who played right into his hands. Do you think he loves you? He doesn’t know how to love. No Smith man ever has. It isn’t in us. One thing is for sure, Miss Bailey, you’ve ruined us all.”
He stalked away, rubbing at his chest as if all those words cost him more than his pride. I might have been grateful if he hadn’t been replaced by the one person I never wanted to see again. I’d never seen his amber eyes this dark. There was tension rippling off him in the way he held his shoulders up and the fists at his side. Almost like he forgot the act he’d perfected over the years.
“What are you doing?” he demanded, even as he held out his hand to me.
For the barest of seconds, I considered refusing him, knowing there were hundreds of people watching us. Eager to see the fallout of a twice-engaged couple as far as they knew. Of course, they would put the blame on me. Though the further James sank, the less that would be true.
Whether because I was a masochist or because this felt like a resolution, I placed my hand in his. He gripped it hard enough to hurt and pulled me against him, closer than was proper. I sawhis game. He was trying to intimidate me and force an image that we were still something. We began the dance more quickly than the last one. Under the coverage of carelessness, I stomped hard on his foot with my heel.
He grunted and took a step back. The smile and self-satisfaction that ran through me were worth enduring his touch.
“You have no idea what you are doing, Rose,” he said.
I used to fall asleep to his voice whispering in my ear. First sweet words meant to soothe quickly turned into barbed wire meant to cut. Now that I was here, I wondered how it took me so long to see what he was.
My eyes caught Bash’s while he was surrounded by a group of ten or more, my sister by his side. If there was one thing I could say about my oldest sister, it was that even when she thought I was ruining my life, she still stood by me.
Bash began to step away, but Ruby pulled him back and raised an eyebrow at me. Did I want to be saved? I shook my head. It was enough for her, and she said something quiet to Bash. This was probably several layers of torture for him, but I could fight my own battles now.
“I know exactly what I’m doing, and I’ve loved every second of ruining you like you intended to do to my family and me. I loved watching your ships sink to the bottom of the sea, knowing it would erode any faith you had as an owner. I loved sending my family enough money to start up a new company that your investors would flock to when they saw how incompetent you were. Most of all, I’ve loved seeing the pitying and judgmental looks from everyone tonight when they see you. A desperate and broken man who either lied about being engaged or was pathetic enough to lose me twice.”
His grip on my hand grew more crushing with every word, and I bit back a cry of pain. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. Heleaned forward and his breath pooled at the base of my neck, making nausea curl in my stomach.
“You don’t honestly expect me to believe any of that was you. I know you, Rose. You aren’t capable of that level of thought. You’re too impulsive and short-sighted,” he said.
Too. Too. Too. That was always how he’d seen me. Too much, too little. It didn’t matter what I said. He would never alter the image of me he held. I could have lassoed the moon and laid it at his feet, and he would have called it a trick of the light.
God, he wasn’t worth the energy it took to speak.
Despite the dance around us, I stopped and attempted to pull away, but his hand on my back and the one crushing my hand held tight.
Pain lanced through my hand, and a low whine broke from me.
