“Maybe.” Lady Marianne stood tall as she said it, as if she needed to prove the point to herself. “We don’t need money. We don’t needthings. We will have one another, and that is enough.”
Rose snorted. “I assure you, as romantic as that sounds, it is not practical.”
“It is!” Marianne cried. “And what would you know, anyway? It is not as if you have ever been in love! You know nothing of how I feel.”
It was subtle, but Rose glanced at Christopher. “I know more than you think.”
“I won’t come home,” Lady Marianne took a step back and shook her head. “I will not. And you cannot make me.”
“As I said, I don’t want to make you do anything. I came here to make you see how foolish this is.”
“It is not foolish.”
“It is the height of lunacy, Marianne. Why can you not see that?”
“Why can you not see that I don’t care!”
As the two sisters argued back and forth, Christopher stood awkwardly in the room. He had come here to help Rose, but he sensed that his presence was only making things worse. His marriage to Rose was clearly a contentious issue, and Lady Marriane was using it against them. Worse, while he was in the room, Rose could not be truly honest with her sister.
Christopher might have liked to have stayed, to have stood by his wife and shown Lady Marianne how wrong she was. But he knew sometimes being supportive meant knowing when to step back, and this was one of those times.
“If I might…” Christopher stepped forward to take attention onto himself. “I have a feeling that we won’t be sorting this out tonight.”
Lady Marianne scoffed. “We already have. Because I am not changing my mind.”
“My meaning is that the two of you have much to speak of, and I fear that I am only getting in the way.”
“You aren’t,” Rose said immediately. “Christopher, I want you here.”
“And I am here…” He walked to Rose and, on instinct, he took her hand. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw Lady Marianne start at the gesture, clearly confused by the showing of companionship. “How about I organize some rooms for us to stay in tonight, while you and your sister talk alone.”
“Are you…” Rose looked at his hand, still holding hers. “Are you certain?”
“If you need me, I’ll be right outside.” He squeezed her hand as he looked into her eyes, letting her know that he was there for her.
She nodded. “Yes, maybe you are right.”
He was quick to leave after that, taking note of how confused Lady Marianne suddenly looked. That single display of affection, clear proof that they were more than she had thought, was playing havoc with her sense of reality and what she thought she knew about marriage and love.
If Lady Marianne is confused, that is nothing compared to how I feel.
Nonetheless, Christopher did as he promised and went downstairs so that he might organize two rooms for them to stay in. At least that was the idea.
As he was quick to learn, only a single room was left to rent for the evening, meaning he and Rose would need to share it. For many, that would make little difference, for they were married, and sharing a room was not such a huge thing. For he and Rose, however…
Sharing a room together went beyond what Christopher thought he and Rose were ready for. Husband and wife, they might havebeen, but they were nowhere near comfortable enough with one another for this.
They also had no choice.
As Christopher was shown the room, he wondered how Rose was going to react. Rightly so, he got the sense that this right here would be a defining moment in their marriage, and that based on what she did and what she said when she found out, he would know once and for all how she felt about him.
And then, I might finally know how I truly feel about her. Or rather, I might be willing to finally accept it.
CHAPTER TWENTY
“How is she?” Christopher asked Rose the second she walked into the room.
Rose exhaled loudly and let her shoulders slump as if they’d spent the last hour holding up a great weight. “How do you think?”
