Now she was annoyed. What kind of question was that? She’d been waiting on tenterhooks for five days! “Lucian!” she snapped. “Don’t leave me in suspense? What did he say? Did he give you his permission?”
He laughed, and the sound of it made Rosalie’s blood run cold.
She wasn’t being silly. This… was not a nice sort of laugh.
He confirmed it the next instant. “You actually thought I was going to speak to him? To ask for your hand?” His voice dripped with derision.
“I…” She didn’t know how to answer. This could not be happening! She had given herself to this man, not fully, perhaps. But she had bared not just her body, but her heart to him. He couldn’t be throwing it back in her face. He just… couldn’t.
She lifted her chin. “Of course, I thought you were going to speak to him. This isn’t a nice thing to joke about, Lucian, and I don’t appreciate it. Tell me what he said.”
His eyes held a mixture of mockery and pity. “Oh, Rosalie. I thought you were smarter than this.”
“Stop it!” she cried, her voice rising. “This isn’t funny!”
In contrast to her uncharacteristic emotion, his voice was steady. “You’re right. It’s not funny.” His lips twisted into a cruel grin. “It’shilarious.”
“You don’t mean that.” He made to withdraw his hands, but she clung to them, refusing to let go. “I don’t know why you’re doing this, but?—”
“Did you not note the person who discovered us?Edmund Reeves.” He cocked his head to the side. “Now, why do you think that is?”
Rosalie’s thoughts were flying in a thousand different directions, but she knew one thing about Edmund Reeves, and that was that he always,alwayshad a wager going in the betting book at White’s.
Her voice sounded hollow to her own ears as she asked, “You’re saying it was nothing but a wager?”
“Very good,” he said, voice dripping with mockery. “The legendary brain of Rosalie de Lacy has decided to put in an appearance.”
She shook herself. “But that doesn’t make sense. Edmund would not agree to a wager in which you bet against yourself. In which you bet that youcouldn’tseduce me. You could simply have given a half-hearted effort. It therefore follows thathemust have been the one to bet that I would rebuff you.” She looked up at him, her eyes fierce. “And yet, he seemed delighted upon discovering us. Not like a man who just lost a considerable sum.”
Lucian laughed in her face. “That’s because the bet wasn’t on whether I could seduce you. No one would bet against me on that. The bet was on whether I could convince you that I actually wanted to marry you.”
The orangery tilted. Rosalie’s knees felt weak, and her vision swam.
Suddenly, Lucian was the one clinging to her hands, holding her up. “Rosalie?” he asked sharply. “Say something. Are you all right?”
She fought to cling to consciousness. She had never swooned before, not once in her life. And she certainly didn’t mean to start over Lucian Deverell!
When she had regained enough composure to look at him, she found a different expression on his face. The mockery was gone, and for a split second, she thought she saw concern.
It was enough to give her hope. Words tumbled from her lips before she had time to consider them. “Lucian… please. I don’t know why you’re saying this. But I know you don’t mean it.”
He blinked, and his face turned hard. “Of course, I mean it. You were a fool for ever thinking I was sincere.”
She shook her head. “I didn’t imagine what passed between us that night. It was special. You were right when you said that some things are meant to be.Weare meant to be. I know we are!”
He looked at her with pity mixed with disgust. “Come, Rosalie. Show a little dignity.”
“Hangdignity!” Tears had started to stream down her face, which was humiliating. But she was beyond the point of caring. “There are a thousand insults you could hurl at me. But I’ve never been a coward, and I’m not afraid to fight for my future. Forourfuture!”
He pulled his hands sharply downward, managing to slip from her grip. Rosalie curled her hands against her stomach, feeling strangely bereft now that they were empty.
“Our future.” His voice dripped with cruelty. “You might as well dream of a bridal trip to Atlantis, or a wedding present of a unicorn. They’re all the sorts of things that only a silly girl would wish for.”
Reality washed over her like a frigid ocean wave. This was not an ill-thought-out jest. If it had been, he would have stopped long ago. Although her mind protested at the notion that she was a laughingstock and a fool, she could no longer ignore the overwhelming evidence that that was precisely what he had rendered her.
“I see,” she said, her voice clipped. She dabbed at her damp cheeks with her sleeve. “Well, I hope the fortune you earned from your wager with Mr. Reeves was worth the stain on your soul.”
Lucian snorted. “Fortune? The bet was for three pounds.”
