Carver sent his hand raking through his already disheveled hair. He looked frazzled. “Rose,” he said and then looked to immediately regret the slip of her real name.
“Carver,” she said with a reprimanding tone.
“Kitty?” Oliver asked.
“I meant, Daphney!” Carver unsuccessfully recovered.
“Daphney?” Asked Oliver. “What is he talking about, Kitty?”
This was madness. Never had so many names been flung around one room before. “Stop,” she said a bit too loudly for the space and both men’s eyebrows shot up. She took a breath and smoothed her skirt. “Now, can we all just take a deep breath and collect our senses?”
“No time, love. We need to be at the dinner table soon or they will grow even more suspicious.”
“Love?” Oliver’s bright blue eyes bounced wildly back and forth from Rose to Carver.
It was time that she confessed. She wasn’t entirely sure why that thought made her shake. It wasn’t as if Carver didn’t already know she was a con woman. But now he would learn she was a con woman who had scammed his best friend out of five hundred pounds. Would he want to still marry her after that?
“What’s going on, Kitty?” Oliver asked again.
Rose sighed, turned around, and shut the d
oor. She might be about to confess everything to Oliver but she didn’t wish to enlighten the whole family simultaneously. “I am not Kitty,” she said while turning back around to face him. She looked briefly to Carver and could relax a little when she saw him smile. “As Carver accidentally pointed out, my name is Rose. Rose Wakefield.”
Carver crossed his arms and his supportive smile turned amused. “I suppose this is a belated question, but do you two have a prior acquaintance?”
She narrowed her eyes. “Don’t think I don’t see your lips twitching, Carver. Yes, we are already acquainted, and this is not at all funny.”
“It’s a little funny,” he said tipping his head to the side. Actually, it was a little funny. She had to fight her own smile.
Oliver stepped closer to both of them and waved his hand as if they had forgotten he was in the room. “Can someone please tell me the joke?” Humor didn’t reach his voice. He reached out and grabbed one of Rose’s hands. “Why did you pretend your name was Kitty?” Rose pulled her hand away as fast as she could.
“Mr. Turner—,”
“Wait,” Carver said with wide eyes looking back and forth between her and Oliver. “Olly, is this?…Do you mean to tell me that this is her?”
“Yes, of course it’s her!” said Oliver. “And will someone please tell me what she is doing here?”
Now Rose felt bewildered. “Who is her?”
“You,” both men said looking a little pained.
Rose resisted the urge to growl. “Not this again.” She turned on her heels and moved to sit on the sofa in the middle of the room. The fire was lit in the grate and she wished it wasn’t. It felt difficult to breathe. She placed her hands under her legs and bit her lips trying to find the right words to explain their unfortunate situation. “Mr. Turner—”
“Oliver,” he and Carver both corrected once again in unison.
“Very well.” She looked back and forth slowly between the men, unsure whether to feel amused or frightened by their seemingly connected thoughts. “Oliver,” she directed her attention to the blue eyed man. “I am…”
“A criminal,” Carver answered her pause unhelpfully. She flashed him a tight lipped look, but he just grinned back at her reminding her of the unaffected rake she had originally thought he was.
“More specifically,” she turned her gaze back to Oliver, “I am a con woman—a swindler if you will. I focus my attention specifically on hoaxing gentleman out of their money.” Did he see where this was going yet? “And I am by no means pleased to tell you that…”
His face went pale. “Don’t say it.”
She winced and then looked at him. “I pretended to be Kitty in order to scam you out of your five hundred pounds.” She paused and pointed a finger at Carver. “And if you keep snickering like that, I’m going to shoot you.”
“My dear, you can only threaten something so many times before it loses its edge. Now, tell me, Olly, did you decide to marry her before or after she relieved you of your burdensome money?”
Oliver stepped toward Carver. “Did you decide to steal my woman before or after I told you I was going to marry her?”