“You’ve ruined her,” her father said.
Understanding flared, clear and angry, on a wave of pain he would not acknowledge. King spat his reply. “Except it seems she had quite a hand in the ruination.”
Pain flashed in her blue eyes, and he almost believed it. “King—I don’t want this.”
“You did, though, didn’t you? You wanted to trap me.”
Betrayed by the woman he loved.
She shook her head. “I didn’t. I swear.”
“You wanted to trap me,” he repeated, hating the way his throat tightened around the words. They way they reminded him of another woman. Another time. Another love that wasn’t love at all. “You wanted to be a duchess.”
“No,” she said. “I was leaving.” He could hear the distress in her voice. It sounded so honest. “I told you, I was leaving!”
“You were leaving to be caught,” he said. “So I could be caught.”
“No!” she cried.
“You lied to me.”
She wasn’t leaving.
She hadn’t planned one final night.
She didn’t love him.
It was the last that destroyed him. He met her gaze. “You lied to me.”
Her eyes went wide at the words, at the anger in them. “I didn’t,” she said, coming toward him, reaching for him.
He stepped back. If she touched him he did not know what he would do. He’d never felt so broken. Not even the night Lorna had died.
He’d never loved Lorna like he loved Sophie.
The realization stung worse than any blow.
“You wanted to marry me.”
She swallowed. “No,” she said.
He heard the lie and it wrecked him. He was unable to keep himself from thundering, “Stop lying to me!”
Her father stepped between them. “Shout at her again and you won’t be alive to marry her.”
“You arrange to trap another duke using your daughter as bait, and now you rush to protect her?” King did not have a chance to punctuate the question with a fist into his future father-in-law’s face, however, as Sophie was shouting herself, now.
“Fine! I did want to marry you!”
He shouldn’t have been shocked, but he was.
He shouldn’t have been devastated, but he was.
Even as he’d heard the lie, he’d hoped it was true.
I wished to say that I love you.
What an idiot he’d been. He’d never in his life wanted to believe something as much as he wanted to believe that she did love him. But he couldn’t. She’d betrayed him, Ariadne and the Minotaur in the labyrinth. And like the goddamn monster, he never saw it coming.
“I wanted to marry you. Yes. No woman in her right mind wouldn’t want to marry you. You’re . . .” She paused, her eyes glistening with unshed tears. “You’re perfect.” She was destroying him with her simple words, with the way she spoke them, her voice rising just slightly, as though she couldn’t quite believe them herself. “You don’t have to marry me. Think of all the others—you never married them.”
He hadn’t ruined the others. He’d never touched them. He’d never known the feel of their soft skin or the way their hair fell across his bedsheets or the way their lips looked, red and lush, covered in strawberry tart and kisses.
He hadn’t loved the others.
He considered her for a long moment, hating her for her tears, for the way they clawed at him even as he dealt with her lies. Hating her for making him love again. For making him love her. For making him hate loving her.
“You might not be the prettiest or the most interesting, but you’re the most dangerous of all the daughters, aren’t you, Sophie?” he said, hating himself for the words as she went rail straight.
He imagined he’d be hating himself a great deal over the course of this marriage.
He wanted to punish her as she had punished him. To give her everything she’d ever wanted, and then snatch it all away.
King looked to his future father-in-law. “You’ll have your wedding,” he said, before turning away, stalking to his desk, extracting paper and pen. “Now get out.”
King summoned her to the drive of Lyne Castle the next afternoon.
Sophie arrived coiffed and dressed in a deep, beautiful purple that Seleste had provided—her sister had sworn that the gown—tighter than Sophie might like—would be flattering enough to draw King’s attention. It was a stunning gown, all lush satin skirts and low necklines, with slippers to match.
They, too, were too tight, but Sophie was willing to do anything necessary for a chance to convince King that she hadn’t lied, so it seemed that being trussed into a new frock and uncomfortable shoes was a small price to pay for it. Perhaps, if he found the dress attractive, he’d allow her to explain what had happened. Why she’d come to him in the night. Why she’d left.
Perhaps he’d let her go.
Let her walk away, and free him of her. Give him a chance to find another woman. One whom he believed.
He waited for her on the riding block of his curricle, two perfectly matched handsome black horses stomping in the dirt. She looked up at him, jaw set, hat low over his brow, reins in hand. “Your curricle is returned.”
“Not the wheels,” he replied without looking at her.
Guilt flared. “I am sorry.”
“I find your apologies rather vacant, Lady Sophie,” he said casually, setting the reins for driving. “Come on then, we haven’t much daylight.”
It was three in the afternoon. “Where are we going?”
He turned to her then, his gaze cool and unmoved and . . . un-King-like. “In, my lady.”
This man, this tone, none of it was familiar. Sadness consumed her, along with no small amount of frustration, She looked for a block to climb up. There wasn’t one. He did not reach over to help her in.
She met his gaze, and he raised a brow in challenge.
She wouldn’t back down. Not now. Instead, she lifted her skirts high—higher than any proper lady should—revealing her legs and knees, and taking hold of the massive curricle wheel, hauling herself up next to him.
He said nothing about her movement, instead flicking the reins expertly and setting them on course. After long minutes of silence, Sophie decided that this was a perfectly reasonable time to explain herself. “I’m sorry.”
He did not reply.
“I never intended for this to happen. I didn’t care that you were a marquess. Or that you were to be a duke.” She paused, but he gave no indication that he had even heard her. “I realize you don’t believe me, but everything I told you was the truth. I never wanted to return to London. I never wanted to marry an aristocrat.”
And then I fell in love with you.
She wanted to say that to him. But she couldn’t bear his disbelief.
She couldn’t blame him for not believing her, either.
“I ruined my family,” she said. “Seraphina has been exiled from Haven’s house, with child. None of my other sisters has a suitor worth his salt. My father’s lost the titled investors for his mines. Because I acted rashly. Yes. For a moment, I considered trapping you into marriage. But only because I wanted you so desperately. It never had to do with the title. Never with my family. Never for any reason but that I wanted you.” She paused, and whispered the last. “Forever.”
“Don’t ever say that word to me again.” The reply was cold and angry. “We do not have a forever. Neither of us deserves it.”
The words stung, but she refused to cry. Instead, she watched the road, rising and falling before them. “When I knocked on the door last night—”
I only wished to tell you I love you.
She didn’t say it. “—I’d already changed my mind. I don’t wish to marry you,” she said, instead, not knowing if the words were true or false. “I don’t wish for you to be saddled with me.”
“I shan’t be,” he said, the words cold and distant. “You needn’t worry.”
She
did not care for the certainty in his words. “Where are we going?”
He did not reply, instead turning off the road and onto a smaller road, and then a drive that wound up to a great stone castle that rose up out of the landscape like something out of the Knights of the Round Table.
Outside the keep was a coach and six, hitched and ready, as though someone had just arrived. King pulled the curricle to a stop behind the coach and leapt down to bang on the door to the keep. Seconds later, the door opened to reveal the Duke of Warnick and a young woman draped in a green and black plaid.
Warnick stepped out of the keep with a smile, clapping King on the back heartily before turning to her. “Lady Sophie,” he said, coming forward to help her down, “Your husband-to-be is already neglecting you, I see.”
Sophie blinked. “Husband-to-be?”
Warnick tilted his head to one side, watching her with curiosity before turning back to King. “You haven’t asked her? A little late for that, no?”
King did not look at her. “She knows we’re to be married. She’s simply playing coy.”