Page 203 of Courting the Wrong Duke

“You might consider listening to me occasionally.”

“That seems an unreasonable condition for courtship.”

The words escaped before he could think better of them, and the easy amusement between them disappeared.

Rosalind’s hand remained wrapped around his, but she went very still.

William did too.

Courtship.

For one foolish moment, he had forgotten that there was no longer any such thing between them.

The memory of the pond returned with painful clarity. Rosalind standing before him beneath the summer sun, hurt and angry because he had trusted his brother when she had asked him to trust her.

The courtship is over.

William looked down at their joined hands.

She had believed him about Bryn Hir. She had trusted him enough to travel across Wales with him and leave her father in his care while she went for Gabriel. She was here now, exhausted from apparently spending two days beside his bed.

But none of that meant she had changed her mind about them.

The realization hurt in a place the bullet had missed entirely.

“What have you all been doing here for two days?” he asked.

For a moment, William wondered whether she would let him escape the subject so easily.

Then Rosalind’s expression softened. “Isabella and I have been working our solstice magic.”

Relief came with the change of subject, though William suspected it was only a temporary reprieve.

“Have you?”

“Very important work. Papa has been supervising us, although he is terrible at it. He keeps attempting to leave his bed.”

“And you keep ordering him back into it, I assume.”

“Naturally.”

William regarded her solemnly. “Your solstice magic has always been quite tyrannical.”

“You have benefited greatly from it.”

Before he could ask what precisely that meant, the bedchamber door opened and Isabella entered carrying a small parcel beneath one arm. She had taken only a few steps into the room before noticing that William was awake.

“Oh, good.”

William waited for some further expression of relief.

None came.

“Your concern overwhelms me, Miss Hartwell.”

“You have had quite enough concern directed at you already.”

She crossed the room and set her parcel on the table, allowing William to notice that she was still wearing the same sort of masculine clothing she had worn throughout their journey.