“You need to come home, Rose.” For all his natural jocularity, Timothy was uncharacteristically serious. “You have a life in England that you can’t ignore because it’s grown inconvenient.”
Hot shame climbed her throat. “I’m not ignoring my life, I’m simply…”
“Pretending it doesn’t exist.” Timothy huffed a sigh as he scraped the last remnants of the pie from his plate with the edge of his fork. “You have responsibilities and people who need you. This…lifeyou think you have here, it’s not real. It’s make believe, a childish game. I won’t ask about your living situation, but I can assume you’re not being properly chaperoned.”
When she said nothing, Timothy nodded and pursed his lips. “If word got back to London about your… circumstances here, it could ruin you. And before you tell me that will never happen, an ocean does not separate the upper echelons of society. I had supper last night with a dozen men who attended Cambridge with me, and your exploits would make for juicy gossip fodder back home.”
The hot shame turned cold, settling like a weight beside the pie in her stomach. “I don’t care about my reputation, not like I did before.”
“But your mother and father do. If they have any chance of digging out of their troubles, they can’t have a scandal. And your sister Violet—”
Nausea threatened to send the contents of her stomach back up. “Violet knows where I am.”
“Then I’m sure she knows what would happen toherprospects if anyone knew about your adventures here.”
Violet. How had she forgotten to think about her unmarried sister, a woman who had already been tossed over by a fiancé, then nearly lost her life to carry a baby fathered by a man who wanted nothing to do with her? If rumors swirled about Rose, it was only a matter of time before Violet’s indiscretions came to light and destroyed any chance she had of finding a husband, let alone happiness. “I hadn’t thought of that.”
“I’m not here to make you feel badly. My role in your life is to be the devil on your shoulder. But fun and games can only last so long.”
Her breath caught in her chest. How had she been so blind to the consequences of her actions? She was a fool to think she belonged in the excitement of New York, that her dalliance with an impossible man would have no repercussions. Timothy was right; she had been attempting to make a real life out of a fairy tale. But could she turn her fairy tale, her life in Brooklyn with Ben, into reality?
Chapter 29
RoseWaverlyneverentereda room without some fanfare. Ben wondered if she was even aware she did it, if she knew how the air shifted when she walked in. As though wherever she stood was made better with her presence.
So when she stepped into his—their, as he had started to think of it—apartment with her eyes down, closing the door behind her with a gentlesnick, he rose without thinking, ready to bow at the feet of his queen.She hesitated in the entry for a moment, her expression dull, before she looked up.
She said his name softly on an exhale, as though relieved to find him, and he crossed the room in quick strides, pulling her into his arms as alarm sparked across his nerves. “What happened? Are you hurt?”
“No,” she whispered as she buried her face in his neck and inhaled, filling her lungs.
Ben exhaled and pulled her closer.Thank God, thank you for keeping her safe. He had never been a man of prayer, but if divine intervention had brought her here, perhaps a higher power could protect her.
The apartment had felt empty without her, as though some essential force had been removed. With her return, the universe was balanced again, at peace and whole. Or perhaps it was his heart healing, the final shard clicked back into place and allowing the entire mechanism to function properly again.
With a start, Rose pushed back and walked to his bedroom, unbuttoning her dress as she walked. “I want to change, but I need to tell you what happened.”
Ben followed her with his heart in his throat. Somethinghadhappened, had taken the light from her eyes, and he wanted to destroy whatever had hurt her. “Tell me now.”
She said nothing; her back was to him as she tugged at her corset. Impatient now, he crossed the room in two strides, lifted her fingers from the laces, and released them. Unable to wait a moment longer, he guided her shoulders around so she faced him in just her shift. “Please, will you tell me?”
With a brisk nod, she took a wrinkled paper from the bed and held it out. “I asked Stewart to show me Linden’s office, and I don’t know if it’s anything, but it may be.” Her hand trembled as she pressed the paper into his waiting palm.
Ben’s eyes scanned the page, and the breath pushed from his lungs. “This—I think this is it. The supporters he needs to convince for his bill to pass.”
Rose had her lower lip pulled between her teeth when he looked up, her evergreen eyes hopeful as she watched for his reaction.
“God, this could change everything.” But any elation he felt with the new information was abruptly smothered by fear. “Rosie, does Ruffgate know you have this?”
Her perfect mouth worked for a moment. “No.” She hesitated as she avoided his gaze. “I don’t think so, at least. He didn’t see me take it, but he may have been distracted because he asked to court me.”
Ben’s stomach fell through the floor. “Court you?”
“I said no, of course.” She put her hand on his chest as a tremulous smile spread across her lips. “But aren’t you proud of me? I thought—”
He stepped back and raked his hands through his hair, pulling at the strands. “He’ll know right away this is missing, and that you were the only person who could have taken it.” His pulse thrummed at a feverish pace, his senses heightened until his nerve endings burned. “And now he’ll be angry you refused him, and—”
“Stewart doesn’t even know my real name, let alone where he can find me.”
