Page 111 of The Duke's Sinful Deal
Maxwell did not move. He did not look away. For a moment, she could not tell what he was thinking at all.
Then he inclined his head, just slightly.
“I see.”
He did not move when he said it.
The simplicity of it landed harder than she expected.
If he was surprised, he did not allow her the mercy of seeing it. No visible reaction beyond that small acknowledgment. It was exactly as it should be, she told herself. Exactly as their arrangement had intended.
And still?—
Arabella forced herself to continue.
“According to our agreement,” she said, more formally than she meant to, though her fingers had begun to curl against her palm, “this changes things.”
He said nothing.
She pressed on, because she must.
“I will leave for Eleanor’s tomorrow,” she continued. “It is the most sensible course. There is no need for us to continue as we have been.”
The words came more easily now, each one placing another layer of distance between what they had been and what they were about to become.
She searched his face as she spoke, hating herself a little for doing it. She had no right to expect anything. Still, she looked.
But she looked anyway for hesitation or disagreement. For one foolish, impossible sign that he might ask her not to go.
Maxwell’s expression did not change.
“If that is what you believe best,” he said, too evenly.
That was all.
Not a question. Not a challenge. Not even a suggestion that he might prefer otherwise.
Something in Arabella went still. Not broken, exactly. Worse. Finished.
“I do,” she replied.
He nodded once, and she almost hated him for making it look so simple.
“Then it shall be arranged.”
There was nothing else to say.
The space between them, which had seemed so easily crossed only moments before, now felt fixed. Defined. She could not remember when it had last felt this absolute.
Maxwell stepped back then, not abruptly, but with the same measured composure he applied to everything. He did not reach for her again. Did not attempt to bridge the distance she had created.
“Rest,” he said. “You should not overexert yourself.”
Arabella inclined her head, though she was not certain he saw it.
By the time he left, the room felt larger than it had before.
She did not move at once. She stood where she was, her gaze fixed on the place he had been, as though something might still remain there if she looked long enough.
