Her voice lacked warmth, and he knew that she was only appeasing him, so he decided to press her. “But you don’t forgive me?”
She grew silent. “The truth of the matter is that you hurt me very deeply, and I have yet to recover from it,” she eventually murmured.
He let out a slight huff. “Pardon me if I don’t believe you, since you are engaged to another.”
Her eyes flashed. “That is none of your concern.”
“No?” he asked. “You moved on rather quickly, did you not?”
“If you’ll recall, you broke off our engagement, not me,” she replied, her voice terse, “and I waited more than four years before I accepted another proposal.”
“Good for you,” he said dryly. “I hope you will be happy marrying a dandy.”
“Lord Eastwood is not a dandy,” she countered. “He is just meticulous when it comes to his clothing.”
“My apologies, then,” he mocked.
Her chin tilted, and she looked away. “Not that it is any of your business, but Lord Eastwood and I are no longer engaged.”
“You aren’t?” He knew he shouldn’t be, but Colin felt elated by the news.
Arabella shook her head. “We each wanted different things.”
“Which were?”
“Lord Eastwood wanted to carry on with his mistress, and I wanted a man who would be faithful to me.”
“What a scoundrel.”
A small smile came to her lips. “I am not going to disagree with that.”
“How are you faring?”
All hints of a smile disappeared, and he watched as she pressed her lips together before answering. “I am well.”
“Liar,” he challenged.
“Why do you say that?”
“Because whenever you lie, you press your lips together first,” he revealed. “It has been that way since you were a little girl.”
“I had no idea.”
“It is just one of the many things that I know about you.”
Her eyes grew guarded. “I am not the same girl you knew.”
“Is that so?”
Arabella shifted her gaze away from his. “I have had to grow up a lot since you left,” she revealed.
“Is that not for the best?”
She met his gaze, her eyes fiery. “You broke off our engagement and left me all alone to deal with the repercussions of it.”
“I apologize—”
Arabella put her hand up, stilling his words. “I could handle the stares and whispers, but it was my father’s disappointment I was not prepared for. He blamed me for the broken engagement.”
