While Lucian’s friends clapped him on the back, Rosalie kissed her father on the cheek. She was startled to see him pull out his handkerchief and dab at his eyes. She had never seen Papa cry before, not once in her life.
She stepped forward and gave him a hug. “It’s all right, Papa! Don’t be upset. I’ll come over all the time. I promise, I will!”
The duke had the good humor to chuckle at himself. “I know you will, Rosie-Roo. I do know that. I’m happy to see you wed to a man who so clearly adores you. But, well. You know. Things will never be quite the same.”
Rosalie squeezed her father more tightly.
Her mother strolled over. “I daresay I know one thing that will bring you some comfort, Arthur.” She gave Rosalie a pointed look. “The pack of grandchildren we will soon be welcoming.”
Rosalie laughed nervously as she released her father. “I don’t know about apack.”
The duchess’s whisper was waspish. “Well, if you mean to continue the way you’ve started, I can assure you, a pack will soon follow.”
“Don’t embarrass her, Henrietta,” her father admonished.
Her parents began softly bickering. Rosalie glanced over at Lucian to see if he was ready to depart, only to see that Mrs. Beauclerk had accosted him. She was speaking to him sternly about how he was to treat his new bride. Lucian was submitting to her lecture with grave sincerity.
Robin stole up beside her. His expression was fraught.
Rosalie gave him a quick hug. “Oh, Robin! Don’t look so glum. I’ll miss you, too, but I’ll come to visit. And I hope you know you’ll always be a welcome sight at Deverell House.”
“I need to speak with you,” he whispered urgently.
Rosalie dropped her voice low. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s about your investigation,” Robin murmured.
“My…” Rosalie could scarcely believe her ears. Her investigation was over! She had learned that Lucian wasn’t the beast she had long believed him. To be sure, he had made that cruel bet with Edmund Reeves, but the joke was on him, because while he had been busy charming her, she had charmed him right back, and he had come to regret choosing the three-pound payoff over her.
She trusted him!
Mostly.
Oh, all right. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that she was working on it. And, considering the circumstances, and the fact that she honestly thought he was the only man with whom she stood even a chance of finding happiness, she had gone ahead and married him.
And made that marriage irrevocable by consummating it in a closet.
And so, in spite of the fact that she only trusted Lucian approximately sixty-three percent, he was the star to whom she had hitched her wagon, her only hope of happiness at this juncture.
If Robin had discovered something horrible… she wasn’t sure that she could bear to hear it.
Her brother did not seem to have intuited all of this from her stupefied expression, because he was still speaking. “Something occurred to me the other day. I went down to White’s to perform some additional investigating, and you won’t believe what I learned!”
“I’m not sure that I want to!” Rosalie hissed.
Robin drew back, startled. “This is important, Rosie.”
“It’s too late!” she blurted. “Can’t you see? It’s too late. It doesn’t matter what he’s done. I’m stuck with him, ‘til death do we part!”
Robin seized her hand. “It’s not too late, Rosie.”
She laughed, and it came out sounding slightly hysterical. “Oh, but it is.”
Robin cursed. “That’s not what I meant. You’ll want to hear this. I swear. As I was saying, I went down to White’s, and this time?—”
“What’s going on over here?” Her mother’s voice cut through the air of the foyer like a whip. The duchess took one look at her daughter’s face and fixed Robin with an accusatory glare. “You’re not upsetting Rosalie on her wedding day, are you?”
“Of course not!” Robin protested.
