Page 122 of The Duke's Sinful Deal
His jaw shifted, though he did not deny it. “She placed herself in the way.”
The answer landed cleanly.
“And so you removed her,” Arabella said, quieter now, though no less pointed. “That is how you justify it?”
His gaze flickered, something unsettled moving beneath the surface before it hardened again. “You misunderstand the situation.”
“Then explain it,” she said. “Because from where I sit, it appears you have abandoned reason entirely.”
The carriage turned sharply, the motion forcing them both to brace. Amos released the frame just long enough to steady himself, but his grip on her did not ease.
“I have done what was necessary,” he said.
“For whom?”
“For you.”
The answer came without hesitation.
Arabella let out a breath that might have been a laugh, though there was no humor in it. “You believe yourself my protector.”
“I know myself to be so,” he said, his voice tightening. “You are not safe where you were.”
“Not safe?” she repeated. “In my own home?”
“Inhishome,” Amos corrected.
Arabella’s expression shifted, something colder settling into place. “My husband’s home.”
“Yes,” he said. “Your husband.”
The word carried weight.
“I wondered,” he continued, his gaze fixed on her now in a way that felt less like attention and more like fixation, “when I heard of it. How could such a match be made so quickly? So conveniently. It did not align with what I knew of you.”
“What you knew of me,” Arabella repeated, her tone sharpening.
“That you would not willingly bind yourself to a man like him,” Amos said. “Not without cause.”
The carriage jolted again, the rhythm uneven now as it moved farther from the main road. Arabella steadied herself, her fingers tightening against the seat as she studied him.
“And what cause have you decided upon?” she asked.
His expression darkened. “That you had no choice.”
Arabella’s brows lifted—not in surprise, but in disbelief. “You have constructed an entire narrative to justify this,” she said. “Have you considered the possibility that it is simply untrue?”
“You do not speak as one coerced,” he admitted. “But that does not mean you are not.”
“And you would know the difference?”
His gaze sharpened. “I know what he is.”
The words landed differently now.
Arabella held his gaze. “Do you?”
“I know what he did,” Amos said, his voice tightening further. “What he was. The company he kept. The choices he made without consequence.”
