Page 23 of His Betrothed
“What are you implying?” she demanded.“They are good men, raised as closely with me as my own brother.”
“But they’re not your brothers, especially the older one. Surely it is getting too difficult to livealone. A woman like you needs a man—any man.”
Keeping her head lowered, she put the last meat pie on a tray, then lifted her face to look at him. It was devoid of all emotion; even her eyes were ice gray, hiding her thoughts.
“But there you’re wrong,” she said softly. “If I needed justanyman, I could have had you, and the luxury that went with our respective titles. I can see now that I made the best decision.”
Carrying the tray, she swept past him, leaving Spencer close to gaping. He was used to having the last word, making outrageous statements sure to immortalize him in everyone’s memory.
But this foolish girlimplied that poverty and disreputability were preferable to him.
And hadn’t that been exactly what he feared, when he tried to convince his parents that he didn’t need to marry?
Two years before, he’d consoled himself with the notion that Roselyn was young and stupid and headstrong when she’d convinced herself she was in love with a stable groom.
But it had beenhimshe’d fled, his heritage,his position just on the edge of society. It only confirmed Spencer’s thoughts—so why did this tight ball of a lifetime of misery still linger in his chest?
