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“Tell him I do not want to see him,” she said into the bed.
“My Lady!” Elsa exclaimed.
“Yes. In fact, tell him that I said he should stop coming to call on me,” she continued.
Elsa said nothing but simply waited for her rage to pass. Finally, she spoke.
“My Lady, I do not think we should do anything that would anger your father further. You already have correspondence restored with the Marquess. May I suggest we keep up with answering Lord Rockgonie so nothing will affect our correspondence with Lord Walsrock?”
There was wisdom in what Elsa had said.
“Fine! Tell him I’ll be down in a bit as I need to get ready. Next time he should send a message ahead or else I will not attend to him.”
“Yes, My Lady,” Elsa nodded even though Rose knew her lady’s maid would never deliver the last part of her message.
She went about preparations, Elsa coming back to join her, and was out in under one hour.
“Lady Rose!” Lord Rockgonie said
“Lord Rockgonie,” she responded.
Her father was nowhere in sight and neither was her mother. Lord Rockgonie had waited all by himself while she got ready. Maybe that was the reason why she hadn’t gotten a sweet compliment as she had last time.
“Shall we?” he said, without wasting a moment.
It seemed to her on this occasion that it was he who wanted to be done with his call on her as quickly as possible, even more than she.
“Is everything all right, My Lord?” she asked.
“Everything is fine, My Lady,” he responded with indifference.
She kept quiet till they had gotten to the garden before she spoke again.
“My Lord, what seems to be the matter? Are you displeased with me in any way?” she asked, even though she didn’t care much for his answer.
He paused walking, turned to look at Rose, and spoke.
“I do not want to marry you, My Lady.”
Rose could have sworn she left her sense of hearing back in her chambers. She almost choked on her breath as her eyes grew wide.
“I beg your pardon,” she asked in confusion.
“I do not want to marry you, My Lady. But I’m afraid I have no other choice but to marry you.”
For the first time, Rose actually saw the distress in his eyes and her heart went out to him. Still, she treaded with caution.
“After our last conversation where you had let slip about some irregularities, I went home and confronted my father,” Lord Rockgonie said. “It was obvious we had both been lied to by our fathers about this pending marriage. They had set us up together against our wishes and I wanted to hear him tell me why.”
Rose simply continued to stare.
“Why he rejected my choices of a bride and lied to me about you. So I confronted him. His response was that if I did not marry you, he will disown me and I will lose everything.”
“Well, it seems you are backed into a corner, My Lord. So why don’t you want to marry me and ensure you do not get disowned?” she asked in as innocent a voice as she could muster, even though her insides were already flipping in excitement.
“Because I am in love with another. I am sorry if I’m hurting you,” he said simply, his voice laden with sincerity.
He must have confused the smile on her face with her going mad because he began to apologize profusely.
