Page 104 of Courting the Wrong Duke

Nelly's eyes sparkled with quiet amusement. “I've always found servants rather more observant than gentlemen.”

“So have I.”

The carriage slowed as it entered the square, and Rosalind instinctively glanced through the window.

William was already waiting.

He stood near the center of the square, scanning each arriving carriage with an intensity that immediately unsettled her. Even from a distance, there was something profoundly different about him. His shoulders seemed heavier than they had the previous evening, his posture unusually rigid, and his face was so pale that it stood out starkly against his dark coat.

He looked like a man who had not slept.

More than that, he looked like a man carrying a burden too heavy to bear alone.

A knot tightened low in Rosalind's stomach.

Before the footman had fully lowered the steps, she was already gathering her skirts. She acknowledged the few familiar faces strolling through the square with polite smiles, but her attention never truly left William.

He saw her at once.

Ordinarily, he would have smiled. This morning, he only stood waiting.

By the time she reached him, her pulse was beating hard enough that she scarcely trusted her own voice.

“What has happened?”

William looked at her, and for a moment she thought he could not bring himself to speak. His jaw tightened, his hands trembled almost imperceptibly, and whatever words he had prepared seemed to die before they reached his lips.

Rosalind's heart sank.

Whatever had happened during the night, it had changed him.

Chapter 15

For several moments after Rosalind reached him, William found himself unable to speak.

He had spent the better part of the last hour deciding precisely what he would say when she arrived. He had arranged the facts in his mind, considered where to begin, even rehearsed how he might explain what he had learned without allowing his own feelings to interfere.

Now, standing before her in the middle of the square, every carefully chosen word deserted him.

Rosalind's concern deepened. “William?”

He drew a breath and glanced around them. Morning had brought the square fully to life. Carriages rattled over the street beyond the iron railings, while ladies wandered between shops accompanied by maids and footmen. Somewhere nearby, a vendor called out to passing customers.

Far too many ears.

“Walk with me.”

Whatever she saw in his face prevented her from arguing. She merely nodded and slipped her hand through his offered arm.

They moved slowly toward the quieter edge of the square. William was conscious of Nelly following at a respectable distance behind them, close enough to satisfy propriety but not close enough to overhear.

Only when he was certain of their relative privacy did Rosalind speak.

“You are frightening me.”

William looked down at her. “I do not mean to.”

“Then tell me what happened.”