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But this? To adore a woman with everything within him, and for him to ruin his chances with that woman forever?

That was a different flavor of agony.

“Gwen didn’t tell me what you said exactly, and it’s probably best I don’t know,” said Michael, drawing Ernest back to the moment. “And right now, Gwen has had enough to deal with, with all the gossip stemming from her break from the Marquess of Ravenshurst.”

Ernest started, looking up at Michael who was smiling ruefully. “What the hell do you mean?” She had not gone back to the marquess? He had said he would still accept her, and frankly, there was no need for anyone to ever know she had thought about breaking it off with him. No need for gossip. And then Ernest had ruined things so utterly, he was certain she would do the sensible—the mature—thing and go through with the wedding.

“If you’d only stayed at my parents’ house for another five minutes, so goes the story, you would have been there when the truth was unraveled,” Michael said with a shrug.

After waiting for what felt like an age, Ernest snapped, “Well, man?!”

His friend stared. “What?”

“What are you talking about?” Ernest bellowed.

“Keep it down in there!” came a muffled voice as someone smacked the wall beside them.

Ernest glared at the wall, which in fairness had done nothing to injure him but just happened to be in his way, then turned back to his friend. “What do you mean, ‘the truth unraveled’?”

Grinning in an irritating way, Michael thrust his hand into his pocket and pulled out a letter. It was still sealed. “This is the letter that Gwen wrote to the Marquess of Ravenshurst. She definitely wrote it, addressed it, and everything.”

A furrow crinkled Ernest’s brow. “So why the devil do you have it?”

“Gwen gave it to Mrs. Kinley. Mrs. Kinley is our housekeeper—”

“I know who Mrs. Kinley is; she makes the best chocolate cake in the world!” snapped Ernest, his temper fraying as all his nerves focused on the unsent, and therefore clearly unread, letter being waved below his blood encrusted nose.

His friend blinked. “You… You’ve had a long few days, haven’t you?”

“I apologize,” said Ernest stiffly, trying to take his eyes away from the letter held before him, but quite unable to. “But I don’t understand what Mrs. Kinley has to do with it!”

“Poor old Mrs. Kinley is the very center of it,” Michael said quietly. “Gwen gave the letter, as I said, to Mrs. Kinley to post—but rather unfortunately, Mrs. Kinley never got around to posting it.”

Ernest swallowed. So that was why the marquess had been so confused. He had expected the miscommunication to have stemmed from some mishap, but he hadn’t cared why the man had not known the engagement had been at an end when Ernest had lain with his assumed betrothed. He’d just cared that the man had not known, and Ernest had blamed Gwen entirely instead of taking any of the blame for himself.

And he, Ernest, had shouted at Gwen.

Had berated her.

Had stormed out of her home and stated he would never see her again.

The exact details were hazy, but he was almost certain that was what had happened.

Ernest groaned. “I am a fool.”

“You wouldn’t be the first man to say that,” said Michael thoughtfully. “You’d think, we’re all rational people, we all have mouths and can communicate, but the number of times a simple misunderstanding pushes two people who care about each other apart—”

“But Gwen—I mean, I was so angry with her!”

“Yes.” And his friend was no longer smiling. “I heard about that the second I stepped into my parents’ home. They are not very happy with you.”

Guilt seared through Ernest in a fresh wave, as though he needed any more. He already felt terrible for his words to Gwen, words that felt ever crueler and crueler after days of reflection.

But now his guilt grew and encompassed the entire Pernrith family.

They had opened their home to him, welcomed him in and fed him, brought him with them to invitations and ensured he’d been included in future events… They had not only opened their library to him, but they had trusted him with the honor of their daughter!

And how had he repaid that trust?