Felicity shifted slightly, and a great pain came into her eyes. “Lucien and I have both been…unluckyin love before.”
“I see,” Rosalinde said softly. “How so?” Felicity glanced at her and Rosalinde rushed to continue. “I’m sorry. That was forward. If you don’t want to—”
“No,” Felicity interrupted. “It is a painful subject, yes, but not exactly a secret. I’m sure you know that Lucien was engaged once before and it…well, it ended badly. He was brokenhearted. As for me…” She cocked her head. “Well, I think you and I are not so different, Rosalinde.”
“How do you mean?”
“I think we married men who we believed were one thing and turned out to be violently different.” As Rosalinde’s eyes widened, Felicity nodded. “Women in our situation recognize each other, yes?”
Rosalinde swallowed hard. “I’m sorry to hear your marriage was so unhappy.”
“It happens,” Felicity said, her words dismissive but her eyes telling a tale of pain that wasn’t quite gone. “But it’s over now. How did you lose your husband?”
“A fever,” she admitted.
She pursed her lips as she remembered him drawing a last breath, his glaring eyes on her. “I wish it were you” had been his last words, and sometimes they hung in her ears.
“And you?” she asked, turning her face as she tried to wipe clean the pain of that memory.
Felicity’s face drained of some color momentarily before she said, “An—an accident.” She took a few breaths before she motioned to Gray and brought Rosalinde away from her past and straight into her current predicament. “That is why Grayson is our defender, though. He simply wants to see us happy. And he is arrogant enough to believe he knows the only path to that outcome.”
Rosalinde let out a long breath as she tried to keep her annoyance and frustration from her voice. She had enough enemies in this family—she didn’t need to make more by alienating Felicity.
“And he is convinced Celia won’t make Stenfax happy,” she said through clenched teeth.
Felicity’s shrug was answer enough. “Just so you know, I like Celia very much. Gray will get there. Eventually. He is stubborn, not unreasonable.”
But there was something in Felicity’s tone that made Rosalinde stare at her more closely. Made her doubt that the viscountess believed her own words.
“You don’t seem certain,” Rosalinde pressed. “Has he—has he said anything?”
Felicity shifted slightly, and Rosalinde’s irritation turned to full anger. Grayhadbeen talking about Celia to his siblings, that was clear, despite how Felicity immediately began to shake her head.
“Not anything of merit,” she said weakly.
Rosalinde folded her arms. “Does he not think that I wish to protectmysister, as well?”
Felicity laughed at that question. “You two are so alike. You should be friends.”
Rosalinde blanched at that off-hand comment. Felicity clearly didn’t know anything about the relationship she and Gray had. She didn’t know about the passion between them, which was always tinged by being on opposite sides of a battle neither felt they could afford to lose.
“I-I don’t think your brother and I will ever call each other friends,” Rosalinde whispered.
Felicity looked at her for a long moment. “Never say never,” she said, then squeezed Rosalinde’s hand and returned to Celia and Lady Stenfax.
Rosalinde watched her go and then let her gaze shift once more to Gray. He held her stare evenly, his gaze smoldering into hers. Her body wanted so desperately to melt at that look, but then she thought of Felicity’s words. Her anger arced and she turned her back in him, shutting out his gaze, though she still felt it focused on her back.
Desire and connection was one thing, yes, and she could use those against him if she could gain some small control over her own reactions. But the fact that he was speaking about her sister to his family could not stand. And as soon as she could get him alone, she was going to have it out with him once and for all.
Chapter Eleven
The sun was just cresting over the horizon, signaling a new day, as Gray strode down the long, winding path to the stables below the house. A groom rushed to greet him, but he waved the man off.
“I’ll take care of it, Stevens, thank you. Go about your business,” Gray said.
“Yes, sir!” Stevens called out as he rushed off to make preparations with the house staff regarding the guests who would begin to arrive tomorrow.
Gray pursed his lips as he entered the silent and empty stables and moved to prepare his horse for riding. Thoughts of Lucien’s nuptials had been more and more intrusive in the past few days. And yet he made no headway getting his brother to listen to reason.
