Page 50 of The Duke's Spinster

If the night sky had been dark before, it was black now. Her vision blurred. Her heart dropped to her slippers. Thunder rolled in her ears, fuzzing the rest of the chatter. She didn’t hear any more of it. It was all just a bet? By The Betting Buddies? Bumping into her was planned? That first night at the ball? That’s why he endured their outrageous courtship? Hehadto stick it out?That’swhy he proposed? What the hell was going on?

Oh my God.It was so much worse than anything she had imagined. He could have been aftersomeappealing attribute of hers, something. Anything. Status. Fortune. Beauty. She winced. No. He was after none of it. He was pursuingherfor no reason. A bet. A deuced, damn bet.

She wanted to step out from behind the door and thrash him. She wanted to call him out and duel. She wanted to hurt him the way he had just hollowed her out. She would never allow herself to hope again.

But there was no fire in her spirit to do any of that. Instead, she smoothed her skirts, and stepped out from behind the door.

Without looking at any of them except Wesley, she raised a hand to quiet their murmured surprise.

Her eyes seared into him. She didn’t give any credence to the disbelief and—was that pain?—in his eyes.

There was only thing to do. Only one word to speak. It wasn’t a clue. It wasn’t a secret. Nothing was hidden anymore. It was the godawful, plain, ugly truth.

“No.”

*

With the codeword,Bucephalus, Boudicca’s sisters asked no questions but hurried her home. It wasn’t until they were seated in her room and gathered on her bed did they wait expectantly for a coze on what had happened. None of them suffered a weak constitution, but if Boudicca was using their highest emergency code word, they all knew something of great proportions had happened.

Surprisingly Joan, not Mimi, broke the silence. “No one’s had to use that code word since…” Her eyes flitted around the sororal circle.

“Since that bastard tried to sneak Boudicca off into the gardens?”

“Mimi, language,” Nobi chided.

“Well, he was one. The set down was as accurate when I said it then as it is now.”

“You’re lucky no one heard you back then,” Nobi said.

“Not for lack of trying,” Mimi smirked.

Boudicca let her sisters banter while she collected her thoughts. A thousand thoughts of fluff had flown through her briarbush of a mind, and now the trapped fuzz was impossible to see through.

It was all fake. It was all a lie. She had been duped. He was just like every other man. But a million times worse. Her heart had not stopped racing. A pulse that was impossible to sustain. It was wearing on her nerves and draining her energy. She felt a fool to allow her heart to trust him. Him. Of all dukes. The most particular duke of them all. Why had she thought that there was something special about her?

No, she knew her worth. Why had she thought that he was something special to notice her worth when all men had ulterior motives? Why should she feel down about herself when he was the one who had been lying?

“Boudicca?” Joan rubbed her forearm. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine.” She didn’t want their pity.

“What can we do to make that true?” Joan asked. “What…what did he do?”

She opened her mouth to dismiss their concern but clamped her jaw shut. Why should she cover his actions?

“It was all a lie.” Traitorously, the corners of her eyes stung, and she shrugged in an attempt to will them away. “It was a bet.”

“What was a bet?” Nobi asked.

“Me.” A couple of tears spilled out. “I was the bet. None of it was real.”

“You can’t say that. We saw the way he looked at you,” Mimi said.

“Whatever you saw was fake. He might be a damn good actor, but I can assure you it was all an act.”

“But he proposed? Why would anyone offer a betrothal to win a bet? It makes no sense,” Mimi pondered.

“I don’t understand it. I won’t pretend to either. All I know is what I heard. I’m the butt of their joke.”

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