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“You can’t be serious.”
“I am, Lily. There’s no other way to deal with this.” Rose shook her head. “I’ll wait until after Auntie Iris’s wedding. I don’t want to rain on her parade. She’s waited long enough for happiness. But after, I’ll ask Evan to take me to Gretna Green.”
“What if he refuses?”
“He won’t. He…he wanted me. Of course, he refused to bed me…”
“What?”
“I was just trying to… Lord, I must sound like a little strumpet! It wasn’t like that. It wasn’t.”
“I know, I know. Tell me.”
“Cameron—he rejected me.”
“He did what?”
“You heard me. He made love to me, and then he sent me away. He told me he loved me. He was so gentle and tender. But the next day, he told me he had lied to me so I would sleep with him.”
“That scoundrel! I’ll have Daniel throttle him!”
“No. No, you couldn’t anyway. He’s gone.” Rose wiped her nose. “But what I started to tell you is that I… Well, I wanted to feel that way again, so I tried to seduce Evan. He responded at first, but he wouldn’t take me to bed.”
“He’s a gentleman. Unlike some others.”
“I’m glad he didn’t, Lily. I really didn’t want to sleep with him.”
“But you’ll have to now, if you insist on going through with this ridiculous plan of yours.”
“Yes. I will. It won’t be so bad. He’s very attractive and very kind.”
“Rose, you’re talking in fragments. I think it might be best if you told me the whole story, from the beginning. I’ll order some tea.”
Between gulps, sobs, and a bit of laughter, Rose poured out the whole story, beginning with meeting Cam by the stream and Kat’s illness up to their last encounter in the hired man’s cabin and Evan’s proposal.
“He left me, Lily. He and his mother and the girls are gone. They took everything. Everything except the bed where we made love.”
“We’ll find him.”
“No, we won’t. He doesn’t want to be found.”
“If they’ve vacated the Lybrook land, they must have sent notice to Daniel. Likely it’s buried in his correspondence somewhere. Perhaps they left forwarding instructions. I’ll have him look for it.”
“No. Don’t. I don’t want Daniel to know about this.”
“Rose dear, Daniel is a very powerful man. If anyone can find Cameron and make him do right by you, it’s Daniel.”
“I don’t want to force him to marry me. I…I’d rather have Evan. He’ll be kind and gentle. Cameron will hate me for trapping him.”
“You haven’t trapped anyone. This is just as much his responsibility as it is yours.”
“I’m afraid society doesn’t see it that way; Lily. You know I’m right.”
“Nonsense. I don’t give two figs what society thinks. You are the sister of the Duchess of Lybrook. I dare any of them to say one vile word against you!”
“Please, I can’t have you ruining your own reputation in a futile attempt to save mine. What will Daniel think?”
“Daniel loves me, Rose. You know that. And he doesn’t care about reputations. Remember, he had a renowned one himself before I made an honest man of him.”
