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Or maybe not. Cameron had rejected her, after all.
“You weren’t born a commoner, and neither was I.” Evan fastened the last button and turned her to face him. “You’re lovely, and I would be lying if I said I didn’t want you, but it isn’t right for us to do this.”
“Of course it’s not,” she said. “You’ve just made me realize what I’ve known all along. A person can’t change who or what he is. Not for all the gold in the world.” She sighed. “I want to go to bed.”
“You don’t mean you want me to—”
“Heavens, no. I wouldn’t dream of asking you to come to my chamber. Your high morals certainly wouldn’t allow that.” She smoothed her dress. “But tell me, Evan. If I looked the same, had the same mind, the same brain, the same body, but instead of a lady of the peerage I was a servant or a peasant girl, and I wanted you to bed me, would you?”
“Rose, I’m…not going to answer that.”
Rose snorted. “You just did. Good night, Evan.” She turned and walked away from the kennels, back toward the main house.
* * * *
“Thank you, my lord,” Iris said quietly, her heart raging beneath her breasts.
David laughed softly. “Iris, call me David. Please.”
“That’s hardly proper. We haven’t seen each other in twenty—”
David brushed a stray curl behind her ear.
“—years.”
“I’m sixty years old, Iris, and a widower. I hardly care about the proprieties at this stage in my life.”
“I was truly sorry to hear about the countess,” Iris said. “I know you…cared for her.”
“Yes, I did. Ours was a good marriage. We were content.”
“I know.”
“And you, my Iris?”
My Iris. Her belly fluttered.
“You were never content, were you?”
She looked at the ground. “I’m afraid I wasn’t.”
“You never told me much about Longarry,” David said, touching Iris’s arm lightly. “Only that he wasn’t always kind. But I did some asking around…after. I found out some things that…disturbed me.”
“Rumor and innuendo travel more quickly than the rail, my lord.”
“David. Please.”
She closed her eyes and let out a breath. “David.”
“Why didn’t you tell me he was mistreating you?”
Iris looked at her feet. “What would have been the point?”
“I could have helped you.”
“How? And how did you find anything out? I never told anyone. Not even Flora.”
“Flora had no reason to pry. I did.”
