Conrad chuckled.
Sage met his steady gaze in the reflection.“Yes, I suppose you may.”
“Why did you come to the house party when being around Roger and Wyndham is so painful for you?”
“Oh.”
His voice was so soft that Conrad hastened to add, “You needn’t answer.Forget I asked.It’s just something I’ve been wondering.”
“No, I can tell you.You probably deserve to know, considering the way we’re?—”
“You owe me no explanations, Sage, regardless of our arrangement.”
“Nevertheless, I think I’d like to tell you.”Sage sighed and slowly turned back around to face him.“Roger and Wyndham’s engagement was sudden and…unexpected.One day I’m in Wyndham’s bed, and the next I’m reading that he’s to be married to someone else.Or at least that’s how it felt at the time.There had been no warning, no indication that the relationship was…”
Conrad was deeply regretful of having asked the question.“I’m so sorry,” he said softly.
“I was angry.And…hurt.”
“Understandable.”
Sage gave a humorless huff and looked away from him.“Less understandable, perhaps, were my actions.I knew Wyndham was working on a project with Roger.It was all over theTribune.But the two of them had never gotten along.I always thought Wyndham despised the man.And I told him so.”
Conrad slid the bar of soap between one hand and the other.“You told Roger that Wyndham despised him?”
“Yes.And when the engagement was announced, I was even less gracious to him.”
“You were still in love with Wyndham.I don’t know if graciousness was to be expected of you.”
“Cruelty wasn’t either.I was intentionally cutting.”
Conrad thought of the way Roger always seemed a little jumpy when discussing Sage and felt some of the pieces clicking together in his mind.“What happened next?”
Sage drummed his fingers on the vanity surface.“Wyndham found out about it, of course.And he told me that he wouldn’t speak to me again unless I apologized to Roger, and Roger accepted it.”
“Oh,” Conrad said, brightening.“That’s good then.”
Sage frowned at him.“I fail to see what’s good about it.”
“That’s why you’re here, isn’t it?”
“I have yet to apologize.”
“So you’re here to apologize and make things right again?”
“I’m here because Roger is giving me a chance to make things right.”
Conrad smiled warmly.“Thatisgood.”
“It is more than I deserve, I’m sure.But I do not know if I have it in me to apologize to the man who stole the heart of the only person I’ve ever loved.”
Conrad hummed and slid the soap over his arms.
Sage looked up at him.“What?”
“I think if that were true, you wouldn’t have come in the first place, and you certainly wouldn’t still be here.”
“I suppose,” he said slowly.
