“Do you really think so little of me?”
She winced. “I… I don’t want to.”
“But you do, Miss Norleigh. After everything you have seen of me, everything we have been through, you cannot bring yourself to see things from my point of view. To accept that I did the rightthing, even if the way I did it was wrong.” He paused and let that sit between them. “What I want to know is why.”
Yvette started. “Why? Why what?”
“Why are you so determined not to understand?”
“But I do understand,” she said, still not looking at him. “That is the entire point.”
“No…” He took another step across the room. “You are angry, that is fair. You are upset, and I will not hold that against you. But this…” He exhaled. “This is beyond mere anger. This feels personal. Tell me that I am wrong.”
“Maybe it is personal.”
“But why?” he pleaded. “There is no need for this. I am sorry, Miss Norleigh. You have no idea how much I am. If I could take it back, I would. I cannot do that, as much as it pains me. All I can ask is that you forgive me. That you…” He swallowed. “That you know me well enough to admit that I did as I did not to hurt you. You know me well enough to understand how much it kills me to know that you have suffered. I thought…” She heard his voice crack. “I thought that you are, I… that you were different.”
Yvette turned around, anger flaring through her. “That I was different?”
He balked when he saw the fire in her eyes. “That you would understand why I –”
“This is not about that,” she snapped, unable to stop herself. “And do not dare try to turn it around on me, as if I am overreacting.”
“I did not mean –”
“That’s exactly what you meant!” she threw her hands in the air, and the dress went flying. “You came here to apologize, and yet you have turned that apology around so that I am in the wrong. That my inability to forgive you makes me the one who should feel guilty.”
“No!” he pleaded. “I did not mean… that is not what I…” He looked at her desperately. “I just want to know how to fix this. I have apologized. I have admitted fault. Tell me, please. What can I do to make this right?”
Yvette sighed deeply.It might have been easier if I had just accepted his half-hearted apology and left it at that. Dammit, why do I have to be so stubborn?
She had hoped to avoid this. And while Yvette was indeed upset with the Duke for lying to her, that was a fraction of what lay at the heart of all of this.
As she now knew, she had fallen in love with the Duke, just as she suspected that he would never feel the same way about her.How could he, when he did not see her as someone worth falling in love with? Two different worlds, so close and yet so far, that they would never come together.
Yvette did not want to put herself out there like that. She did not want to tell the Duke the truth of it. She wanted to leave now, let him think that she was mad at him for silly reasons, saving her the heartache and the embarrassment.
But the Duke looked at her with desperation. His eyes watered. Confusion written clearly in his expression. He wanted answers, and while Yvette could not say whether he would like them or not…perhaps he deserves them, nonetheless?
I have been happy to accuse him of lying to me, so why is it fine for me to lie to him? And once he knows, and once I hear it from his own lips, maybe then I can finally move on.
Yvette withheld the urge to wince at the awkwardness that was sure to come. This would not be easy, or enjoyable, or a memory to cherish in the future.
“You want the truth?” The anger left as her shoulders slumped with defeat. “You wish to know why I must leave?”
“Desperately,” he said. “I want to make this right, Miss Norleigh. Please, tell me how to do so.”
“This isn’t something that you can just make right,” Yvette sighed. “No matter how much you wish to.”
“And why not?”
“Your Grace…” She sighed and shook her head as she felt her emotions bubbling to the surface. “I am not leaving because I am angry with you. I was upset that you lied to me. And I was upset with how that made me feel. But that is not the whole reason. It is merely proof of why I must leave.”
“I don’t understand.” He took another step towards her. “What is it proof of? What did I do wrong?”
“Nothing,” she said. “You did nothing wrong. You did as you have been raised, and I cannot fault you for that. Just as I cannot ignore what it means.”
“Miss Norleigh…” He was halfway across the room, and he reached out as if praying that she might take his hand.
