“Mynote? You thought I’d sent you a note?”
Her chest clenched as confusion filled her again. “Yes. You sent a letter. You had Simon deliver it to me. But when I arrived at the cottage, your friend was there instead. He’d told me... I mean, he hinted that you believed I had planned to trap you into marriage, and that’s why you’d sent him.”
“What?” Collin’s voice lifted as he threaded his fingers through the hair not covered by the bandage. “My cousin told youthat?”
Her body trembled, but for different reasons this time. She nodded. “Yes. I – I can’t remember everything he said, but he let me know that you would not let me trap you into marriage. He said you had seen through my performance.”
His chest rose and fell quickly, and his nostrils flared. His mouth stretched into a straight line.
“Addie? Were you trying to trap me into marriage back then?”
Her throat constricted as the tears poured from her eyes again. “Y-yes.” She lowered her gaze to her lap. “I was falling in love with you, and I thought you felt the same. I didn’t start that way, but my sister saw Simon deliver the note and she figured it out. I knew she’d tell my father, and I... I did want us caught together.” Her vision blurred, so she swiped the tears away. “I thought you would forgive me and eventually come to love me too.” She breathed through the pain in her chest that made it hard to breathe. “But I suppose the joke was on me, because Lord Kentwood was there, instead. And... my father caught us and forced him to marry me.”
Several unsettling minutes passed as silence filled the room. When Collin’s heavy breathing broke the stillness between them, she hesitantly looked up at him. Disappointment was written over his face now, his jaw was clenched and his lips thinned. He knelt in front of her, locking his gaze with hers once again.
“Tell me, please. Why have you blamed me all this time?”
Her heart twisted in agony. “Because I thought you were the one who sent Lord Kentwood. You had sent me the note to meet you at the cottage, but you weren’t there.” She inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly. “That’s why I was so upset. I blamed you for my miserable marriage, and yet...” She swallowed hard. “I now realize that it was all my fault for trying to trap you. I shouldn’t have done it, and I apologize. But I was afraid you’d leave and I’d never get to see you again.”
Gradually, his face relaxed and he cupped her face. “I didn’t write that note. When my cousin told me that he’d soon be marrying the baron’s daughter, it was as though my whole life crumbled before me. Kentwood tried to tell me that you were the one who’d lured him to the cottage, but it took me a few weeks to realize that you wouldn’t have done that. I knew you were falling in love with me.”
She sniffed back another sob. “All this time I’d thought you wrote the letter and sent him to ruin me.” She shook her head. “I feel like such a fool now. I, too, should have realized you would never have done that.”
A muscle in his jaw jumped. “If my cousin was alive right now... I’d kill him.”
His comment was so unexpected, that she laughed. The tightness in her chest relaxed. “Oh, believe me, I would have gotten to him first.” She expelled a deep breath. “I hate to admit that when I’d heard he’d drowned, I was very relieved. My life would have been so much worse if he had lived.”
Collin’s shoulders didn’t appear to be as stiff as they were a few moments ago. But he soon dropped his hand and stood. She quickly gained strength in her legs and rose.
“I hope you don’t mind, but I need to go lie down. I have so much on my mind right now that it’s hurting my head.”
Frowning, she nodded. “I expect that going from nothing on your mind to everything on your mind would be rather taxing.”
“Indeed, it is.”
She watched him turn and leave the room. Part of her wanted to run after him and help him up the stairs, but then she realized he might be upset with her right now. After all, she’d just confessed to wanting to trap him into marriage. What man in his right mind would not be upset? And... would he ever forgive her?
She finished drying her eyes before leaving the music room. She, too, had a lot to think about. For a year she’d been holding a grudge, only to discover it was all a misunderstanding. Suddenly, he had become the innocent in all of this, and she was the villain. How could she live with herself now?
