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He ran his hands through his hair.
“Even if I told her I love her, she would not accept me. She doesn’t trust me. Plus, she believes those lies that are being spread about me by Lady Marcia.”
“Not just her.”
“What are you talking about?”
Frederica sighed.
“I wasn’t entirely sure about it before but then I heard Dorothy and Gabriel talking a few days ago. Gabriel was telling Dorothy about the women you’ve been … associated with since she rejected your proposal.”
Lucas stared.
“What?”
“He even gave names of women in the area, mentioning that he saw you out with one of them. A married woman.” Frederica shook her head. “I told Gabriel he shouldn’t make up such lies as it would be detrimental to everyone involved, but he simply said he wasn’t the one doing anything wrong. From the look on her face, Dorothy really didn’t want to believe him, but Gabriel can be convincing when he wants to be.”
Lucas couldn’t believe what he was hearing. It was bad enough that Marcia had been telling lies about him and spreading them around, but Burville as well?
“I’m going to have a lot of angry husbands coming after me if they actually believe this nonsense,” he muttered.
“At least duelling is illegal.”
“You think that’s going to stop anyone, Frederica? I’ll have ruined multiple reputations and marriages if anyone actually believes these ‘rumours’.” Lucas felt nauseous. “All this to keep Dorothy away from me? That’s just … I don’t know what the word is without saying something that would make your ears burn.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’ve heard it all,” Frederica said dryly. She touched his hand. “I wish I knew what I could do to help you. I’ve tried to stand up for you and talk to Dorothy about it, but she keeps pulling away. She gets upset when she hears your name being mentioned.”
“I didn’t think she would turn like that.”
“She’s scared, Lucas. Dorothy is in love with you, but everything between you is unstable. She is struggling with whether she can trust you or not.”
“Unstable? I didn’t think it was unstable.”
“This is what I’m gathering from my interactions with her. She wanted to keep her distance from you initially, especially after hearing what Marcia was saying about you. Even when you two were together, Dorothy believed that once you got what you wanted, you would end things and go on your separate ways.”
Lucas felt like he was in a strange dream which was turning into a nightmare. Dorothy had thought about him all this time?
“She … she really thought I would do that to her?”
“Given the rumours she had heard, why would she think anything different?” Frederica pointed out. “Even with her misgivings about you, and she can’t trust you, she’s in love with you.”
“If that’s the case, why did she turn my marriage proposal down?”
Frederica watched him closely.
“How did you phrase it? Dorothy only said your reasoning made it clear you didn’t care about her that way.”
“I just said that it was the right thing to do.”
Frederica flinched, and Lucas shifted, wishing he had a bit more space to squirm.
“I said the wrong thing, didn’t I?”
“Of course you did! Did you seriously think she would accept you when you talk about marriage like a transaction? Dorothy’s had enough of those, and she’s not about to be seen as an obligation.”
“Frederica …”
“Do you love her, Lucas?” Frederica demanded. “Do you actually love Dorothy?”
