“I know.” He tightened his hold. “I will talk to Clarissa. She needs to know.”
“And will we be able to live with ourselves when she is the topic of every gossip?”
“We will be talked about, as well,” he reminded her.
“Except, we will have each other. And we won’t be able to stay here, Ned. If you think you were branded for having a courtesan for a mother, wait until you feel the burden of having destroyed someone as innocent as Clarissa. Especially in a place like Maidenshop.”
She was right. He dropped his arms and stepped back. “What do we do now?”
Gemma gave him a sad smile. “We don’t meet like this again.”
“No.”
“And no kisses. Because seeing you alone like this, I feel as if my heart is being broken all over again. Ned, we must stay apart.”
“That won’t be easy.”
“It is what you owe your wife... and your children when you have them.”
He thought of the baby she’d lost, of her alone.
“Gemma, I love you.”
“And I love you with a passion so fierce it frightens me—but we can’t.” And then, as if to belie her words, she kissed him. One last kiss.
This was madness, a glorious one.
He loved this woman. She was a piece of him that had been missing. However, she was right. He owed Clarissa his loyalty. Honor demanded it.
Ned just wanted to hold Gemma a heartbeat longer—
A soft gasp was all the warning needed.
Gemma heard it, as well. The kiss broke, they turned, and found themselves looking at Clarissa.
Chapter Twenty
Time stopped. Gemma couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. Now she understood why women swooned. Anything to escape this terrible moment, and yet, she was made of better stuff than that.
For her part, Clarissa stood poised as if caught in midstep. Her eyes were wide and round, as if she couldn’t understand what she was seeing, until she did. Her brows came together. The confusion left her expression and just as suddenly as she had arrived, she turned and sprinted off.
Gemma pushed against Ned.“Clarissa.”
He held her firm. “I’ll talk to her.”
She frowned. “She’ll never forgive me.”
“You did nothing wrong.Ifollowed you out here.”
“When you speak to her, what will you tell her, Ned? How can we explain? I don’t want to hurt her.”
“No, that isn’t who we are, is it? We live forothers. Come, let me be certain she isn’t inside denouncing us.”
“If she is?”
“Then we brazen it out. If she isn’t, it means she wants the marriage.”
“Ned—”
