Page 42 of A Rogue to Ruin
As the earl kept dabbing at his clothes, Anne realized his hands were shaking. She stood and rounded the table. “We’ll go if you need to. It’s all right,” she said soothingly.
His blue eyes met hers, and she saw the anguish in their depths. Oh dear, this was far more difficult than she’d imagined. He nodded, and Anne turned her head to look first at Lorcan and then Deborah. Then her gaze found Rafe’s, and she tried to silently communicate how sorry she was about all this.
“I’m trying,” her godfather whispered. “I just… This is all that I am.”
She nodded as his children joined them. Deborah put her arm through his. “Come, Papa.”
Lorcan turned to Rafe, who’d risen from his chair. “My apologies. We will do this again. It will get…easier.”
“I hope so.” Rafe moved toward them. “I’ll see you out.”
Lorcan and Deborah escorted their father, flanking him as they left the dining room. Rafe nodded toward a footman, who left through another doorway. Turning his head, Rafe glanced at his sisters and their husbands before joining Anne. Together, they walked into the antechamber.
“I’m so sorry.” Anne kept her voice low and resisted the urge to take his arm. “My godfather is really struggling.”
“We all are,” Rafe said.
“I know. I just wish this wasn’t so painful for everyone.”
“How can it be anything else?” His voice was flat, and she wasn’t sure what he was feeling. Was he angry, frustrated, something else? Probably all of it at once.
“It will get better.” She gave him a tremulous smile and grazed her fingertips against his.
His fingers clasped hers. She looked up at him as they entered the entry hall and breathed, “Wednesday.”
With a nod, he let her go. She took her shawl from a footman and sent a last, lingering look at Rafe. His stare was dark and intense, making her shiver, and not with cold.
When they were in the coach, Deborah smoothed her hands over her lap. “Thank you for spilling your wine, Papa. I don’t think I could have endured much longer.”
Anne hadenduredquite enough. “Deborah, can’t you see how awful this is for everyone?”
Her eyes widened, then narrowed to slits. “Of course I can. But I am trying to support my father. He doesn’t deserve to be displaced.”
The earl, who sat beside Deborah on the forward-facing seat, patted her arm. “Thank you, dear.”
“No onedeservesany of this. Imagine how you would feel if you’d been kidnapped as a child and denied the life you were meant to lead.”
“Anne is right.” The earl exhaled as he leaned back against the squab. “This is a terrible situation, but there is nothing to do but get through it. I should have stayed at dinner. I just…couldn’t.” He looked out the window.
“It’s all right, Father,” Lorcan said.
“That’s easy for you to say,” Deborah sniped. “You get to keep Kilmaar.”
Lorcan stiffened beside Anne. “And Father gets to keep his house in St. James Square. It will be an adjustment, but from what I can tell, our cousin is going to be very generous when it’s well within his rights not to be.”
The coach drew to a stop in front of Anthony and Jane’s house, and Anne was never more glad for such a short trip. She breathed with relief as she stepped down from the coach.
What a disaster. She only hoped things would improve from here. They had to, didn’t they?
Chapter 7
Rafe climbed into his cabriolet and set out from the Upper Brook Street mews. As he surveyed the world around him, he wondered how things would be different when the news of his true identity became known.
He drove through Grosvenor Square and turned down Davies Street. At Mount Street, he steered left toward the Grosvenor Mews and immediately caught sight of a young man dressed in dark clothing near the entrance. No, not a young man, but a young woman in a disguise. Would she have fooled him if he hadn’t known to look for her? He would never know.
Smiling, he came to a stop as she bounded toward him. She stopped at the cabriolet and pursed her lips.
“Do you need help?” he asked.
