Page 97 of His Betrothed
Chapter 27
The man who looked like Spencer—but wasn’t—tugged her closer. She gave him a quick elbow to the stomach, and as he collapsed with a groan, she rolled out of bed and onto the floor.
Spencer was immediately there to pick her up and draw her into his arms, and while she clung to him, she stared at the other man, now lounging back against the pillows and watching her beneath half-loweredlids.
“Spencer, you said you had a brother,” she finally said, “but you never said he was your twin.”
Spencer squeezed her tighter. “It never came up. This is Alex—who’d better keep his hands to himself from now on. Roselyn, I’ve been so worried! Where have you been? How did you escape?”
She still frowned at his brother. “But I called you Spencer, and you didn’t correct me!”
“I’vebeen Spencermore often during the last two years than he has, apparently. It didn’t even occur to me to correct a beautiful woman for such a simple mistake, not when you were so…concerned for me. I just wanted a little brotherly kiss.”
At his wicked grin, she felt a blush of mortification suffuse her cheeks. She leaned back in Spencer’s embrace and looked up at him. “I thought he was you—”
Spencer sighedand framed her face with his hands. “Do not apologize. Alex has always enjoyed pretending to be other than he is.”
“And you have not?” Alex scoffed. “We were both always so good at pretending—’tis what landed us so secret a mission.”
“Us?” Spencer echoed.
Alex spread his arms wide. “But it was so treacherous and difficult to pretend to be you—especially after that scandal of your interruptedwedding.”
Roselyn stiffened and Spencer shot his brother a frown.
Alex’s eyebrows rose. “Ah, so you arethatRoselyn.”
“And there have been so very many Roselyns?” she teased Spencer.
“Of course not,” he said gruffly.
Alex smiled. “Maybe not for you then, but now…”
Roselyn could not keep her gaze from straying to Spencer’s brother. Though their faces were identical, Alex wore his hair shorter,swept back off his face to reveal a pearl earbob dangling from one ear.
“So you were the ‘Spencer’ behind every scandal that reached my ears,” she said slowly.
“Only the recent ones,” Alex answered with a grin. “Before that, Spence managed all his own scandalizing.”
“Roselyn,” Spencer murmured against her hair, “I’m sorry I did not warn you about my brother. But tell me now how you escaped?I searched for you for hours, thinking—God, I cannot bear to repeat what I was thinking.”
He shuddered against her and she held him tighter.
“I came here to recruit men and organize a wider search,” he continued. “Then I began to hear that someone had been searching for me, and I left messages for you—” He glared at his brother. “Andyouwere off at another party, and were no help to me at all!”
Alex straightened. “And how was I to know you’d returned?”
“Spencer,” Roselyn interrupted, “I was lucky enough to escape the thief and find friends in Southwark.”
He heaved a sigh and held her even more tightly. “I’m so glad you’re well,” he whispered, and the hoarseness of his voice made a sweet ache tug on her heart.
“By the time we returned for you, you were gone.” She closed her eyes andlet the feelings she’d denied flood her mind.
She loved Spencer.
There could be no other reason for this trust she now placed in him without proof, no other reason that she’d felt like giving up if she lost him. He’d had the courage to answer his country’s call, even when he’d been hurting. He had kept his humor and charm, even when he thought he might die.
Roselyn was back at the beginning,giving her heart to a man and hoping he could be trusted. But Spencer was not Philip Grant, and she was no longer the immature girl who reacted angrily when she didn’t get her way. Spencer was now a part of her, body and soul. She loved him.
