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Isaac asked, “Is there a problem with your estate?”
Her cheeks were sucked in.“No.”
With those issues ticked off, he asked the last and probably the most crucial question of all. “Is it that you played with men, toyed with them like puppets until they have all left you, and I am your only recourse?”
“Of course not,” she said.
“Then why are you here, Helena?” he asked and felt the taste of her name on his lips for the first time in a long while—and it lacked the bitterness he would have thought it would come with. “Do you truly love me, or are you just looking for a statement?”
Her eyes dimmed, and she looked away, prodding Isaac to inquire,“Let me guess, most of your friends are already married off, and the men you have cast off will not pay you any mind, so you have come to me. Or is that you do have someone lingering in the wings, but you are hoping for a better catch, and now that I am a Duke, you think it is now best to cast your net?”
Helena’s face paled. “It is—it is not like that.”
“Then what is it like?” Isaac pressed. “Am I just a statement for you to parade around? To show off to your friends andfor you to congratulate yourself on making it to the heights of society? Is that all I am to you? I suppose I should have known back then, as you were ready to throw me away for the pomp and poshness you could have had in the Parisian circles. Isn’t that right?”
“I never meant to hurt you,” she whispered, but Isaac heard no remorse at all and felt sickened to the lengths she was committed to gotoget him to fall for her tricks.
Standing afar off, he swiftly broke his vow not to ask her for answers.“Tell me, Helena,why?”
He knew exactly what he was referring to, and her eyes dropped to the floor. “I was weak, and you were gone so much—”
“Helena,” Isaac snapped. “Forgive me for being uncouth, but do not give me that drivel.Your mock humility is not impressing me in the least.”
She darted from her seat, her face red. “Must you cast all blame on me, Isaac? I told you I was young, and I faltered. Men paid me so much affection and attention that I thought—I thought that I could do whatever I wanted and notface any consequences.”
“You were with him,” Isaac concluded.
Her head fell.“Yes, but when he offered to marry me, Father said no. He said that the only way I would marry him was after he was dead.”
“Is that the truth?”
Helena’s prolonged silence told him enough, and Isaac let out a huff. “And you are lying to me again. Helena, if you cannot be truthful to me, I am dearly sorry for you. Just tell me the truth.”
“Fine.” She stood, and this time she looked at him; there were no hints of deception in her gaze. “None of them were you, Isaac. None of the men who came to me, who promised me the world and morehadnothing on you. They did not have your charm or your…”
“Status?”
She winced.“Yes, that too.”
“No,” Isaac said. “That is the only thing, Helena. I have realized that you care little for anyone else but only for yourself. Now that I reflect, I realize that maybe your infidelitywasa boon. I realize that I would have a hard time looking over my shoulder for your next indiscretion. My life with you would have been one without comfort,andI feel that though it hurt, you did me a favor.”
Sinking back to her seat, Helena covered her face, and a long empty silence tinted the air sour. When she pulled her hands away, her expression was resigned. “I suppose you are right…” Her eyes flickered up. “You would have had a very difficulttime with me.”
For the first time since she had come into this home, Isaac felt the truth in her words. He leaned against the walland crossed his arms over his chest. “I think that we both know that our time is done, Helena. There is nothing for us now.”
She stood and nodded with her shoulders slumped. “I know. I just need to ask, are you courting?”
“No,” Isaac said, for her benefit. “I am not in love with anyone now, and I do not know when, or if I will be.”
