“No,” Finn said. “The man loves you and he has his pride, which has just been sorely wounded at seeing you come to my room. Give him overnight to think on it.”
Then Rose felt his hand touch her arm, and she whirled around to face him, feeling all her sadness transform in a flash to anger.
“Youdid this to him!Youstayed away until he’d asked for my hand, and then you wouldn’t let me tell him. I will never forgive you for this.” Rose cared not at all for the people who paused or looked at her during her tirade. Let them stare.
Finn ran a hand through his hair and then said quietly, “You should not have come to my room.”
“Oh,” She stomped her foot. “Are you blaming me for this mess? I thought it best you knew the extent of the danger you’re in and that you’ve put me in, as well. I certainly wasn’t inviting a repeat of the manhandling from the last time I visited you.”
“Manhandling?” he asked, his expression hardening. “Is that what you call our kiss? I suppose next you’ll say I forced you to marry me and had my way with you. Except, wait, you’re still a dried up, prudish virgin.”
“How dare you!” she roared causing an entire family to shy away to the far edge of the sidewalk. He was being entirely unfair since she’d never been a prude. As for dried up—
“Perhaps you’re no longer an innocent!” Finn was now in high dudgeon, his voice as loud as her own. “Did you give your precious virtue away to Woodsom, knowing your family would accept him as your deflowerer far better than they ever would me?”
Without waiting for her next comment, he turned heel and went back inside The Parisien, barely limping, his back ramrod straight.
Rose stared after him, taking gulps of air and waiting for her emotions to settle, along with her racing heart.
In the span of minutes, she’d had both the men in her life walk away from her in anger.Was she to blame for all of this chaos? Or was Finn?One thing was certain — William didn’t deserve the pain he was in.Would he ever forgive her?
