Page 85 of An Innocent Maid for the Duke
She said nothing, but her eyes widened. He forged ahead. ‘I presume you have heard the rumour about me killing my father and brother in order to take the title?’
Her complexion paled. ‘I—it was mentioned. I didn’t believe a—’
‘It is true.’
Her gasp of shock did not make him feel one iota better. In fact, it felt like an arrow through his heart.
But at least now she would leave him in peace.
* * *
Rose stared at him in shock. She couldn’t believe, would not believe such a thing about him. ‘You are just saying that to make me go away.’
His expression darkened, became grim, hard. He stared down at the desk. ‘I wish that were the case.’
Why was she even bothering with him if he was going to lie through his teeth to be rid of her? Then he shot a glance at her from beneath his lowered brows and she saw the pain in his eyes. And the despair.
Why would he want her to believe such an awful thing about him? It didn’t make any sense. ‘How did you kill them?’
He recoiled. His expression stark with shock. ‘What?’
‘I heard they were on the way to Brighton when their carriage turned over. You were here at the V&V that night. The girls said so.’
‘How would they know? It was a masked ball.’
‘Really? You and your friends come and go from this place every day and you think no one knows who you are? They don’t blab about you or the goings-on in this place because they are protecting their livelihoods. Not that it’s the sort of thing a duke should be doing.’
He grimaced. ‘I don’t need telling what a duke should or should not do.’
‘Nor are you the sort of man who would kill members of his family to gain a title.’
‘It’s the last thing I ever wanted.’ The words came out like a sigh, as if speaking them gave him relief. His shoulders tightened almost immediately. ‘But I am responsible for my brother’s death.’
The misery in his gaze made her want to hold him. ‘I don’t understand.’
He squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed a palm down his face as if to wipe away an unpleasant image. ‘It was supposed to be me in that carriage,’ he said in so low a tone she could scarcely hear him.
She leaned forward in order to hear the softly spoken words and he looked down at the desk, as if too ashamed to meet her gaze.
‘I should have been with my father that night,’ he said. ‘He asked me to go with him to Brighton to visit Prinny.’
‘Prinny as in the Prince of Wales?’
‘The same. The Prince needed money as usual. Father saw the chance to get him to hand over an estate that had fallen into the Crown’s hands when the title died out. My father knew what Prinny did not. The value of that estate. According to Ralph, who was sent to fetch me, I was to go in his place because he had a prior engagement.
‘As usual, I was my father’s second choice, despite the fact that I read law at university. I’d offered my services on numerous occasions only to be told the Duchy was not my affair. Father only wanted me along to distract Prinny with gossip. One fashionable fribble entertaining another.’
Her eyes widened. Oh, yes, she would be shocked at his callousness.
‘To cut a miserable story short, I told Ralph I had invited a lady guest to the annual Vitium et Virtus masked ball and was dashed if I was going to go back on my word.’ He clenched his fists. ‘That was the last time I saw Ralph alive. Father sent round a pretty stiff note before he and Ralph departed for Brighton. He noted my lack of filial duty, saying as usual Ralph had put the dukedom before his own amusements. Ralph died in the accident, and Father shortly after, but not before he made me promise to do my duty to the title in my brother’s place. He could scarcely look me in the eye. He knew as well as I did, it was my fault Ralph died that night. It is my fault they are dead.’
He sat watching her, his expression haughty, indifferent. Defensive. No doubt he expected her to heap coals upon his head.
As if she would blame him. ‘I’m so sorry.’
He frowned.
‘But you know...’ she glanced down at her fingers twisting around themselves in her lap ‘...you can never replace your brother.’
