Page 13 of Never Love a Duke

I need you, he wanted to shout at her. But he didn’t fully understand why. Nor did he fully understand what she was about. Had their shared moment confused her? Was it even possible she didn’t feel the same way?

And due to all the questions, he spoke a few more enlightened words. “I don’t understand, Mirabelle.”

And he swore she muttered, Neither do I, before she actually said, “I have responsibilities, Gabriel. As you can see, I have the spinster sisterhood to manage. There are women who need me. And I need to talk to the owner of Greene House so that I can finally buy it and move forward with these plans.”

In hindsight, he probably—definitely—should not have scoffed at her statement, but well…hindsight was not what he had in the moment. He hardly had sight of any kind that wasn’t blurred in red with some dull black hazing out the edges. “Buy Greene House?” he scoffed. “That’s not going to happen.”

She scrambled out of the bed and hopped to her feet, looking like a frenzied forest fairy. All she was missing were some twigs in her bedworn hair.

“I will buy Greene House. I don’t care what you think—”

“You may not care what I think, but you’re not buying it from me.”

“I have enough money—wait. From you?”

“Yes. That’s what I said.”

“B-but…I-I—y-you…What do you mean? Why would I have to buy it from you?”

“I’m the owner.”

“What?” she screeched so loudly that half the Londoners fifty miles away heard her.

“I’m the owner,” he repeated. “It’s not a well known fact, but since—”

“It’s not a well known fact?” she echoed mockingly. “It’s a no-known fact. When did you buy it? How? Why?”

Those were questions he didn’t intend on answering. He hadn’t meant to release the fact of his ownership either, but that had slipped out in a moment of weakness.

“I own it, and I don’t want to sell it.”

“B-but…I need it.”

Look who needs something now, he wanted to say, but he didn’t. Instead he chose the mature route. “You can’t have it.”

And that’s when she growled. A rather adorable growl if he did say so himself, but a growl all the same.

“You insufferable, odious man. Is that what you do? Run around ruining women at any chance you get? Or do you just save that for me?”

“Me ruin women? That’s hypocritical coming from you—”

“Of all the—”

“You ruined a young woman, forcing her into marriage by spreading unnecessary rumors about her.”

“She asked me to!” she exploded, and he reeled back. His world shaken. His orbit thrown off course. Steadying his feet took effort while his head spun. He squeezed his eyes shut. It couldn’t be true. It couldn’t be that he’d had it wrong this whole time. That he’d wasted all this time.

Floundering, he said, “There are other ways to save a woman with child—”

KNOCK. KNOCK. KNOCK.

“Mirabelle?” Iris’s voice called softly through the door. “Can you hear me?”

“Yes, Iris. What is it?”

It took a full minute of Iris not replying for Mirabelle and Gabriel to receive the message.

“We’ll discuss this later,” Gabriel lowered his voice so only she could hear him.