Page 63 of Her Ruse with the Wicked Duke
“Would you like me to fetch tea, Your Grace?” Maxwell asked quietly.
“I am going to need something much stronger than tea, Maxwell.”
ChapterTwenty-One
Rowan spent the next morning in his study once again, telling the staff he did not want to be bothered. He was entirely tense today, grasping a glass decanter from the table to pour himself a drink with urgency.
There is no reason to be upset, I have gotten all the business partners I desired and more.
He decided to be productive and walked to the small desk in the room, where a pile of correspondence and paperwork sat, silently mocking his dread to begin work on a day like this.
Before he could even sit down, Maxwell opened the door, looking displeased.
“I thought I said I did not want to be interrupted.”
“Apologies, Your Grace, but the Duke of Rutland and the Duke of Rothesay are here to see you. They say they are not leaving until you let them in.”
Rowan should have known that his friends would come to see him, after everything that has been circulating about him and Alice the past few weeks. He had not spoken to her since his rejection of her suggestion to keep their ruse intact, which he knew was for the best.
She claimed she had fallen in love with him after he had repeatedly told her the boundaries of their arrangement. How could she be the one who was upset now?
He sighed, running his fingers through his hair. “Let them in. Ryder will bang on the doors until someone caves in from insanity and lets him in any way.”
“Yes, Your Grace. I will bring them to you right away.” Maxwell bowed, closing the door behind him.
Rowan’s mind began to wander to the woman whom he desired so badly but could not have when his two friends barged into the dark study, out of breath and looking annoyed.
“You seriously made us wait outside? It has been an hour, Salvator!”
“You did not need to come all this way,” Rowan mumbled as he randomly placed piles of paperwork across his desk, not bothering to look up at them.
He knew that a look of annoyance was etched on their faces, and he did not want to see it.
“Why must you be so difficult?” Cain sighed, walking over to the window and throwing the curtains open, shedding light on the mess Rowan had made of his study while he sulked. “Good God, this place is a pigsty.”
“I didn’t ask for you to be here,” Rowan replied.
“We know. But you must tell us what happened. I thought things were going so well between you two. We thought she would be the one to prove to you that love is not entirely futile,” Xander said quietly.
She was.
“I don’t need anyone to prove anything to me. She is getting married to the Earl of Eaton, and my business is flourishing. I could not be happier. Our deal is over, and we both must move on now. That is what I am doing—moving on.”
“She must have truly gotten to you if you’re treating this so pragmatically.” Cain chuckled. “Do you love her?”
Rowan shot his head up, furrowing his brow at his friends before looking back down to his paperwork, fiddling more diligently with the files that he was not even reading.
“You do!” His friend grinned, walking over to pat him on the back. “I can tell by how you hold yourself, as if it hurts. That is love, my friend. Doesn’t it feel horrid?”
“Ryder, stop teasing him. Salvator, you need to be honest with yourself now. You know that you cannot live like this forever.”
Xander was right, of course. Rowan despised when this happened because it meant he was wrong.
Rowan closed his eyes to take a deep breath, gripping his desk tightly. “Bloody hell…”
“It’s all up to you now, my friend. What are you going to do?”
Memories of his father suddenly flooded his mind, and he felt tears sting his dry eyes as he remembered all of the joy that his father had brought into the world. He thought he was doing right by him, but he was just stomping out the flame that his father had spent his entire life tending to.
