Rosalie felt her mouth go dry. She didn’t believe that for a second.
“And it is Lord Cain now,” he added a little smugly. “It turns out that I was the beneficiary of my late uncle’s will, and I inherited not only his fortune but his title as well. He was a baron, you know.”
“No, I didn’t,” Rosalie said stiffly.
Cain glanced at the butler, who was still lingering by the door. “You may go,” he said, rather rudely.
Mr. Martin looked at Rosalie, and she nodded.I’m perfectly safe in my husband’s house, she told herself.
“I’ll be right outside, Your Grace,” Mr. Martin said, and he threw a cold look at Cain before leaving.
“Nasty fellow,” Cain observed, laughing as he crossed to the sofa and sat down on it uninvited. He was skinnier than she remembered and of average height with blonde, almost colorless hair that did nothing to flatter his features. As she seated herself across from him, Rosalie couldn’t understand why she had ever found him attractive.
“It was not wise of you to come here,” she said. “The Duke will not like it, and neither do I. You are not welcome in my home after what you did to me and my family.”
“I saved your sister!” Cain argued indignantly, giving her a hurt look. “If it weren’t for me, Attorton never would have made it to Wales in time to save her from marriage to Lord Redfield.”
“If it weren’t for you, Violet never even would have been in Wales in the first place!”
“I still saved her,” Cain said sulkily. “I switched sides!”
“Do not pretend you were ever on our side!” Rosalie hissed. “You did that only to save yourself because you feared I would never accept your hand in marriage if I knew that you had been in league with my father. And you were right!”
“So that’s why you married the Beast of Carramere!” Cain’s face had twisted into an ugly, angry expression. “Because you associate me with your father?”
Rosalie didn’t want to get into the reasons she’d married the Duke, but she certainly didn’t want Cain thinking he had ever been an option. “There is no circumstance where I would have married you,” she snarled, “whether or not I married the Duke or stayed a spinster all my life!”
Cain stared at her for a long moment, his face still red and furious, and then his shoulders sagged, and his face fell. He looked down at the floor, and a pitiful sob escaped him.
“I thought you would be able to look past what I did,” he mumbled, and she tried not to roll her eyes. “I thought you could forgive me. I wrote to you several times to apologize.”
“And while I am glad if you have seen the error of your ways,” she forced herself to say, “that doesn’t mean I have to forgive you.”
Perhaps she was being harsh, but she didn’t care. The man was a snake, and she didn’t believe this simpering act. Like everything else, it felt designed to get her sympathies, and it wasn’t working.
“I must ask you to leave now,” she continued. “You are not welcome here, now or ever, and I will instruct the butler to turn you away, should you ever come back.”
At once, the furious, resentful look came back to Cain’s face, and he sprang to his feet.
“Fine!” he hissed. “Have it your way. But just know that I’m aware of the real reason you married the Duke: you gave yourself up to him at the Duke of Attorton’s ball! I suppose I should count myself lucky that I avoided marriage to a woman of such loose moral standards!”
“That is quite enough.” Rosalie was on her feet, and her voice, she realized, was filling up the whole parlor. It was harsh and commanding, authoritative; it sounded, if she wasn’t mistaken, like the Duke’s. For a split second, she let herself marvel at this and bask in the new feeling of power that filled her up.
I am a duchess now!she realized.I have the authority to send this man from my sight. I am in charge of my own destiny.
“A man like you, who helped kidnap my sister, who courted me merely to use me, and who aligned himself with my father, has no right to speak to me of moral standards! Whatever I did or didn’t do with the Duke, I am still better than you in every measurable way.”
She couldn’t quite believe her own boldness, and from the look of shock on Lord Cain’s face, neither could he. It only gave her more strength.
“You are to leave now and never come back,” she continued, pointing to the door. To her relief, her hand wasn’t shaking.“Now.”
Cain turned with a flourish of his tailcoat and stormed across the parlor, flinging open the door only to find Mr. Martin there, holding out his hat and cloak.
He grabbed his effects and then looked back at Rosalie. “Have a nice life married to a beast.”
“Better a beast than a snake,” she said, raising her chin defiantly. “At least my beast protects me.”
Cain glared at her then he was gone.
