Isla huffed and looked away. “This is ridiculous. It’s clearly for the best.”
“For the best?” Ronan echoed in disbelief. He rubbed his chest and shook his head. “What is happening? One of us has clearly lost their minds. You care for me, and I care for you! Why would you leave me? What has changed?”
When he started toward her, Isla flinched. The reaction made him freeze. She’d never behaved like that toward him before. Did she think he would hurt her? His hands balled into fists as a storm of wild emotions swarmed inside of his soul.
“It’s merely time,” Isla snapped through gritted teeth.
“Time for what? We were dancing just last night,” he ground out. “I danced for you; you wanted to dance, too. I know it.”
“You don’t know anything!” She retorted.
“Wait!” Ronan called when she started back toward the door. She wouldn’t even give him the decency of looking him in the eye any longer. Panic swept through him. “At least tell me why.”
She merely shook her head.
“No?” He shouted. “You won’t say it, or you don’t have a reason? This isn’t a game, Isla! What the devil has happened? Are you scared? Is that it?”
Isla’s hand shook as she touched the door. “Only a fool isn’t scared,” she muttered. It sounded like nothing but a riddle to him.
Tugging at his hair, Ronan felt like he was suffocating. He removed the cravat. He grabbed the nearest thing, a book, and threw it against the bookcase in frustration before turning back to her. Isla wasn’t even trying to do anything. She wasn’t trying to stay, wasn’t trying to talk to him.
“I’m willing to fight for us,” he growled in frustration. “Why aren’t you? Talk to me!”
“I never wanted this,” Isla told him suddenly. “I never wanted you.”
A strangled sound escaped him. His body was limp and useless as he looked in disbelief. He didn’t want to believe a word she just said. But it hurt. There was a knife twisting in his heart. He couldn’t take it out. All he could do was watch.
Her head ducked down so she couldn’t look at him. No, so he couldn’t see her. Like she was denying him one last glance. “Good bye, Your Grace.”
A strangled groan escaped him. She couldn’t even say his name. “Fine! Leave! Get out of my sight!” Then he collapsed on the nearest chair, the fallen book at his feet, feeling awfully alone.
Numbness spread from his heart through to his toes, the tips his fingers, and the top of his head. He sat there in the chair unmoving for hours. Whether anyone came by, Ronan never noticed.
The evening passed into morning.
He struggled to his feet eventually and went to the stables. A ride would help clear his mind. Ronan saddled his horse before taking his leave, never bothering to change.
His world was crashing down around him. He couldn’t get Isla’s words out of his mind. Though he had tamped down the emotions, there was the threat of something heavy inside his soul.
Nothing felt right. It didn’t make any sense. Ever since his sister’s death, Ronan had been so careful to close himself to the world. But then he’d brought Isla into his life. He had dared to hope.
She left me. Everyone leaves me.
It wasn’t long before he had left London behind for his estate.
“Your Grace, back so soon?” Hobbes asked cheerfully upon Ronan’s arrival. The butler’s cheer hesitated when he looked at him. “Oh dear. Is something wrong?”
“I need to be alone. Leave me be.” Ronan brushed past him, starting down the hall. He meant to go to his rooms to collapse in an empty sleep if he could manage it.
But he stopped in the large hall with the tall windows that revealed a corner of the garden. He noticed Anne first, smelling the flowers. And where he found Anne would surely be…
There was Oliver, spinning in a circle with a wide smile on his face.
Ronan stopped. He slowly dropped to his knees as he realized he wasn’t the only one who was going to be hurt. What had he done? How had he left Isla leave? For this, Oliver would be the one to pay the price.
CHAPTER 31
Isla clapped both hands over her mouth when she left Ronan’s study, hurriedly running down the hall in case he dared follow.
