Carfield looked uncertain. “Tonight? But the ball…”
Nathan glowered down at the Viscount, who cowered before him.
“Yes, tonight,” he growled. “Whatever it takes to keep Rosalie safe.”
Safe from one of us, at least,he added to himself.I can keep her safe from Lord Cain, but I’ll never be able to keep her safe from myself.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“Icannot believe that bastard!” Iris fumed, slamming a teacup down on the table so hard that it cracked and tea spilled out over the wood surface.
“Iris, be careful,” Violet said, frowning at her as she signaled for the footman who had brought the tea to bring a rag.
“Why should I be careful? It’s my own china, and I’m furious. I’m allowed to be furious!” Iris was, indeed, furious. Watching her, Rosalie was sure that her sister was more angry on her behalf than she herself was.
Maybe I’m still in shock. It hasn’t really hit me yet that my husband has thrown me out of my own home and decided that we will not live as husband and wife any longer.
“You are allowed to be furious,” Violet said patiently, “but you’re scaring Henry.” She nodded at her son, who was sitting in her lap and had clapped his hands over his eyes at the sound of thecup breaking. “And we’re here to support Rosalie. It might not be helpful to her for us to be angry. She’s still processing.”
Iris twisted her lips, as if trying to hold in a rebuttal, then sighed and nodded. “You’re right. I’m sorry, Henry.” She reached out and patted the top of her nephew’s head then turned to Rosalie. Her eyes narrowed. “Is it helping you if I’m angry? Or not? Because if it’s helpful for you, I’m happy to continue.”
“You can feel whatever you want,” Rosalie said mechanically. “It’s helpful for me to see people expressing emotions because right now, it feels as if I don’t have any.”
“It’s still too raw,” Violet said at once. “It only happened yesterday after all. Soon, you’ll begin to feel all the emotions you’re supposed to feel.”
“Be glad you’re not feeling them yet,” Iris said. “Because trust me, heartbreak is the worst feeling in the world.”
“How do you know?” Rosalie asked, her interest piqued despite the fact nothing had piqued her interest since Nathan had sent her away yesterday. “You’re happily married.”
“Yes, but it wasn’t all roses when we first got married,” Iris said mysteriously. “Believe me, we had our fair share of conflict. It was only through hard work and learning to trust one another that we were able to overcome them and find our way back to each other.”
“Which is exactly why we shouldn’t condemn Nathan just yet,” Violet said. “This may be a similar moment when he and Rosalie have to work to trust one another. We wouldn’t want to make that harder by calling him a—” she glanced at her son, “b-a-s-t-a-r-d.”
“Well, he is,” Iris said, folding her arms. “At least, he’s being one right now. If he shapes up, then I will retract my statement. But for now, I am going to call anyone who hurts my sister a?—”
“Careful!”
“Ayou-know-what.”
Violet shook her head. “Really, Iris, you shouldn’t swear even when children aren’t around. It’s very unladylike. Unduchess-like.”
Iris rolled her eyes. “Everything about me is unduchess-like. I don’t care. And neither does Eavestone.”
Rosalie felt herself shrink further down into the sofa where she was sitting across from her sisters. The last thing she wanted to hear right now was about her sisters’ marriages, especially the good parts. She wasn’t sure she could bear it.
Violet, however, seemed to notice, and she quickly changed the subject.
“What I’m curious about is what happened. One second, from what you’ve told us, he was happy to continue the marriage. We both saw you two dancing together! You looked like a happily married couple. And then the next—” She shook her head. “It doesn’t make sense.”
“I think it was the threat of Lord Cain,” Rosalie said. Her throat hurt from how much she had been sobbing the night before, and she didn’t enjoy speaking. She tried swallowing, but it didn’t help much. “After Lord Cain cornered me, he seemed to think that he was putting me in danger and that it was for my own good that we separate. But it wasn’t even his fault!”
“Hmm.” Violet frowned. “That doesn’t really make sense.”
Rosalie nodded, trying to fight off the feeling of guilt. She knew the other reason Nathan had pushed her away, but of course, she wasn’t going to share with her sisters what he had confessed to her. Part of her was tempted to do so. Perhaps one of their husbands knew the whole story, and they could get him to tell Rosalie.
But she also felt that it would be a betrayal of Nathan’s trust to tell Violet and Iris. They were family, but still… what he had told her was serious. He could be hanged for it if it were true. And truthfully, she was afraid to say the words out loud. She was scared that if she did, then what he had said he’d done would become real. Maybe she would even start to believe that it was true.
But she felt guilty for not being able to tell her sisters the whole truth of what had happened. They couldn’t really help her if she didn’t tell them the truth.
