Page 141 of Courting the Wrong Duke

Despite herself, Rosalind almost smiled. “Considerably.”

Isabella was silent for a moment. “And William knew nothing?”

“So he says.”

“You believe him.”

Rosalind hated how quickly the answer came. “Yes.”

Worse, she did not merely believe him because she wanted to. She had seen his confusion beside the pond. His shock when she told him about the carriage had been too immediate, too genuine. Whatever Algernon had done, William had been as ignorant of it as she was.

She almost wished he had lied. Anger would have been so much simpler if he had deserved all of it.

Isabella tilted her head. “Then why are you angry with him?”

“Because I trusted him.”

“That does seem an unfortunate quality in a courtship.”

“Isabella.”

“I am attempting to understand.”

Rosalind resumed pacing. “I trusted him when he told me Algernon had left London. I trusted him when he suggested I might have mistaken another gentleman for his brother. I trusted what William knew because I trusted him, and now I discover that William does not know his own family nearly as well as he believes.”

That silenced Isabella.

Rosalind wrapped her arms around herself. “I cannot keep telling him everything we discover when I have no idea what Algernon might learn from him. William does not have to betray me deliberately to place Papa in danger.”

“No,” Isabella admitted. “He does not.”

“And I hate that.”

The words came out quieter than Rosalind intended.

Because she did. She hated that everything she had learned about Algernon and Augusta had done so little to change how she felt about William.

Distrusting him would have been easier.

Instead, she believed him when he said he had known nothing. She believed his surprise, his confusion, even his hurt.

And none of that made him safe.

The safest thing she could do for Papa was keep William at a distance.

Rosalind was beginning to despise sensible things.

Isabella watched her for another moment before sighing. “Men.”

Rosalind looked at her.

“All of them,” Isabella declared. “Hopeless.”

“You were defending Gabriel’s intelligence only this morning.”

“I have reconsidered.”

A reluctant laugh escaped Rosalind.