Page 85 of It's All About the Duke
She swallowed hard. Though his words came as a shock to her, she understood why he’d said them. It wouldn’t be proper for him to continue. “I don’t think you ever wanted to be, did you?”
Rath brushed a strand of tangled hair away from her face. “No.” He smiled softly at her. “I’ve decided I do want to be your husband.”
She flinched. “That’s not humorous, Your Grace.”
“I am never Your Grace when I am in your bed, Marlena. And I might be smiling, but I’m not trying to amuse you. I’m serious. I want to marry you. I came to your bed with you for one reason only. I don’t want you going through the rest of the Season searching for a husband when I know you are the lady I want to marry.”
Marlena couldn’t move, couldn’t take her gaze off his face, but that didn’t keep a stab of pain from piercing her heart. Had he actually said the words she most wanted to hear but could never respond to?
“I didn’t expect silence from you,” he said.
“I didn’t expect a proposal. I can’t marry you,” she said, looking away from him.
He took hold of her chin and gently forced her face toward him again. “All right. I suppose I should have first told you that I love you, Marlena.” He pressed another soft kiss to her lips. “I do. And I’m damned jealous, too. I didn’t want any other gentleman dancing with you, bringing you a glass of champagne, but I had to stand by and watch them do it. I knew the first day I saw you I felt differently about you, but I didn’t want to believe it could be true. I still can’t believe you captured my heart so quickly.”
His affectionate words made her want to bury her face in the warmth of his chest, confess everything and hope, or even beg him to forgive her. But she couldn’t face him knowing what she’d done. She’d never wanted him to know what she’d done.
“Don’t say any more, please,” she said, feeling as if her chest were about to cave in on her heart. She tried to move, to get off the bed, but he put his arm around her waist and held her so she turned away from him again.
“Look at me, Marlena.”
It was difficult, but she acquiesced. Rath loving her, wanting to marry her, should be the most wonderful feeling in the world. Instead it was heartbreaking.
“I wouldn’t be asking you to be my wife if I didn’t love you and want you with me and not with anyone else. I hesitated downstairs because I didn’t want to take your innocence. Not because I was unsure.”
Marlena felt tears rushing to her eyes. She hoped theywouldn’t collect and spill onto her cheeks. With everything else she was feeling right now, she didn’t want Rath to see her cry. Her cousins had always said, “She could cry, but she couldn’t let anyone see her do it.”
“Stop,” she whispered. “I don’t want to hear any more. I can’t marry you.”
“I know you love me, Marlena.”
“Yes,” she whispered, feeling as though her heart was crumbling in her chest. “I do love you, but there are things about me you don’t know.”
He gave her a crooked smile. “There are things about me you don’t know, too,” he answered. “Things I wouldn’t want you to know.”
“But I couldn’t live day after day with you not knowing the secret I carry between us, and I can’t tell you because it involves other people.”
“You don’t have to,” he said, staring into eyes now pooling with tears. “I already know who Miss Honora Truth is.”
Chapter 22
He could be a rake if he refuses a lady’s apology.
MISSHONORATRUTH’SWORDS OFWISDOMANDWARNINGABOUTRAKES, SCOUNDRELS, ROGUES, ANDLIBERTINES
Silence stretched between them as she stared into his eyes. She was calmer than he expected her to be when he told her he knew who Miss Truth was.
He understood her not immediately agreeing to marry him. It was what he’d expected. As she’d said, she wasn’t the kind of lady who could marry him with a secret between them. Just as he couldn’t. He had to tell her he knew.
“How did you find out?” she softly asked.
“I admit it took me a while, but I finally figured it out the day Mrs. Abernathy saw the mice.”
Her brows formed a frown. “You waited a long time to tell me.”
“I didn’t want you to know that I knew Miss Honora Truth is really Miss Eugenia Everard.”
“Eugenia? No,” she said unequivocally and rose from the bed.
