An Affair in Winter (Seasons Book 1) (27 page)

“Yes,” she said before she turned to go back to her sister.

“Yes,” Stenfax agreed as he placed the ring in his front pocket and patted it to ensure its safety.

Stenfax smiled, and Gray stared in wonder. His brother looked…
happy
. He couldn’t recall the last time he’d seem him thus.

Celia returned to Rosalinde and slid an arm around her. They rested their heads against each other a moment before Rosalinde’s smile fell.

“I’m happy you are doing what is in your heart,” she said. “Though I do worry about Grandfather.” Her delicate hands came up to touch her throat, and Gray flinched.

“I do, too,” Celia said with a shudder. “How could we go home with him after what he tried to do to Rosalinde?”

Gray stepped forward. “We’ll work it out.” Rosalinde looked at him, a question on her face. Doubt. And in that moment, he knew exactly what he would do to save her. “We’ll work it out,” he repeated, firm and certain.

Celia cocked her head. “You sound like you have an idea of what happens next. Would you care to share it?”

Stenfax leaned against the edge of his desk again. “So much has happened. Why don’t we start with simply discussing how we will announce the breaking of the engagement? And the arrangements for the next few days? We will work out the rest as we go.”

Celia and Rosalinde exchanged a glance, then nodded together. “Very well,” Celia said. “Let’s talk about the end of the engagement.”

Gray stretched his back as he stood. It had been an hour since the four of them had started this conversation about their next step. There seemed to be few good answers for what they would tell the others about the broken engagement, but at least he knew Rosalinde and Celia would be safe for the time being. Stenfax had agreed to let them stay a week and to keep Fitzgilbert away from them if he returned.

Everything else was still to be worked out, but he wasn’t about to reveal his plan in front of everyone. He wanted to talk to Rosalinde alone.

“I’ll have supper sent up to you,” Stenfax said with a smile for the women. “And I’m sure no one will be surprised by your absence after all that has happened today.”

“They’ll whisper more,” Celia said with a shake of her head. “But if it buys us more time to come up with a story, then I suppose I have to accept that.”

Rosalinde squeezed her hand. “We’ll find something to say.
I’ll
take the blame.”

Celia didn’t seem convinced, but she smiled at the two men as she left the room. Rosalinde followed, but stopped before she exited.

“Gray,” she said softly, meeting his gaze from across the room. It was like she had tied a string between them. He couldn’t help but take a step toward her, pulled toward her by their powerful connection.

“Yes?”

“Thank you again,” she whispered. “You saved my life.”

He could think of nothing to say in the face of her bald emotion. So he merely nodded and watched as she left.

When he could find the strength to move, he turned back to his brother and found Lucien staring at him, arms folded. “Close the door,” Lucien said.

Gray wrinkled his brow. “Very well.” He did as he had been asked and then returned to Lucien. “You have more to discuss with me?”

Lucien laughed, but the sound held no humor. “I have so many questions that I hardly know where to start. I suppose first must be, how long have you known that Elise was a widow?”

Gray froze. Lucien’s mouth was a hard line and his hands were fisted at his sides as he waited for the answer to his very direct question.

“Elise is a widow?” Gray repeated, more to buy time than because he intended to lie.

“I didn’t think you knew—I thought it was a secret until you said that marrying Celia was
best
for me. That word, your sudden about-face on the topic of my fiancée revealed you, Gray. So don’t sport with my intelligence. How long?”

“Only since yesterday,” Gray admitted. “Who told you, Folly and Marina?”

Lucien let out his breath in a burst. “No. But of course they would know. And they hid it, too. With friends like these…”

Gray shook his head. “You want to pretend you don’t know exactly why we didn’t tell you? Why the three of us might want to keep such information from you?”

A cloud crossed Lucien’s expression and he nodded. “Very well, I understand your reasons, I suppose. I have reacted imprudently in the past when it came to Elise.”

“Imprudently?” Gray repeated. “You call nearly killing yourself imprudent? It was one of the most horrifying experiences of my life.”

Lucien swallowed. “The point is, you kept it from me. In fact, you decided I
must
marry because of it.”

“I know you and I knew you wouldn’t go to Elise if you were wed. You wouldn’t break vows like that, it isn’t in your nature.”

Lucien shrugged. “But you think I’d go to her now that I’m free. Or soon to be.”

“Will you?” Gray asked, leaning forward as he awaited the answer.

Lucien rubbed a hand over his face. “What would I have to say to that woman, Gray? Nothing. She is nothing to me and she never will be again. Her being a widow changes…it changes nothing.”

Gray frowned. There was something in the way his brother’s voice caught that made him doubt the veracity of his statement. But it was done now.

“If Folly and Marina didn’t tell you, who did?” he asked.

“I overheard one of the women whispering about it. The family may be trying to keep whatever happened quiet, but it’s about to explode.”

“Well, perhaps that scandal will trump yours,” Gray offered.

“No, it will be bound to mine,” Lucien said, his voice faraway. “Even though I want nothing to do with her, people will whisper about
us
and
our
scandals, as if we were still linked.” He shook his head. “But that leads me to my next question. How long have you and Rosalinde Wilde been…
attached
?”

Gray flinched at his term. “Attached?”

“You want me to be more direct?” Lucien asked, his voice elevating. “How long have you been bedding her? I assume from your behavior today that is what you’ve done.”

Gray lifted his chin as anger pulsed through him. “Careful now. That is a lady.”

“Have you treated her as such?” his brother countered.

“She is a magnet to me,” Gray explained softly. “I am drawn to her without trying to be, sometimes without wanting to be. And I have failed in my behavior, I realize. But I intend to fix that now.”

Lucien’s anger faded from his face. “Fix it? How?”

“She and Celia need a savior. They obviously can never return to Fitzgilbert—he is too volatile. I’m going to ask Rosalinde to marry me. Celia can stay with us. My money and influence should ensure Fitzgilbert won’t be able to say much about it.”

“You’re going to ask her to marry you?” Lucien was staring at Gray as if he had suggested he was going to breed poodles and start traveling in the circus with them.

“People marry, Lucien. You needn’t look so surprised.”

“You have always behaved as if you never would,” his brother retorted. “So you must forgive my surprise.”

“It is the right thing to do,” he said.

“
Right
. Is that the only reason?”

Gray let his thoughts turn to Rosalinde. To all she had become to him, to all he wanted her to be. But to say those things out loud felt very dangerous, even to a person he trusted with his life.

“It will help you out of a mess,” he suggested, changing the subject. “We can tell the world that Rosalinde and I fell in love, but that her grandfather refused to allow the marriage because he wanted his two granddaughters to give him connection to more than one family. That will explain my untoward behavior this afternoon.”

“You snapped when he refused to let you have your bride,” Lucien said. “So driven by your passions were you.”

Gray nodded. “And you and Celia, with your arranged marriage, could see that your siblings would not be happy without each other. So you nobly stepped aside to allow us to wed in your place, freeing Celia to marry into another important family to appease her grandfather.”

Lucien considered the story. “If told correctly, it might just make the
ton
support what was done, rather than shun Celia and despise me.” Lucien sighed. “Of course, this assumes Rosalinde will accept your proposal.”

Gray took a deep breath. “Yes, there is that. But I am off to have that discussion with her right now. I didn’t want to bring it up in front of everyone because the pressure might have been too much after what she went through today.”

Lucien observed him for what felt like a very long time. Long enough that Gray shifted beneath his focused regard. Then his brother waved his hand.

“Off with you then. And I hope she says yes to your offer.”

Gray smiled. “As do I.”

“I also hope at some point you tear down that wall around yourself and actually let the girl love you as she obviously does,” Lucien added as he turned his back and began to stack the papers on his desk.

Gray stared at Stenfax’s back, but he had nothing to say to that statement.

“Yes, well, I’ll let you know her answer once I have it,” he said, and left the room. But as he strode up the stairs to the woman he hoped would be his bride, Lucien’s words rang in his head.

And made him think of things he didn’t want to think of. And want things he wasn’t sure he was ready to accept.

Rosalinde sat at the small table in the chamber she shared with Celia, staring at the plates before them. Neither of them had eaten since the food was delivered. They had hardly spoken either, as the gravity of all that had happened that day sank in bit by bit.

“Do you think he’ll come back?” Celia asked.

Rosalinde closed her eyes, but her mind conjured images of her grandfather’s rage as he lunged for her. She could still feel his fingers close around her throat, closing off her air.

“I don’t know,” she whispered. “He lost control in front of a great many people. That might make him stay away. Either way, I think we both know what will happen next.”

“He’s going to cut us off,” Celia said. “We’ll be on the street.”

“Perhaps not on the street,” Rosalinde replied, trying to sound positive. “Stenfax and his family have been kind, and they say they won’t let us fall to complete ruin.”

“Yes, it was generous of Felicity and Lady Stenfax to come up when the food was delivered to reassure us we were still welcome,” Celia said, her cheeks filling with color. “But their charity cannot be expected to last. This will ruin us, ruin
me
.”

Celia put her head in her hands and began to cry. Rosalinde slid closer to her, wrapping her arms around her in what she knew was cold comfort. There was little to be done to mitigate the damage. Once the engagement was broken, Celia might be right that they would be shunned.

“Was I too hasty to walk away from a marriage to a man who could protect us?” Celia whispered. “To do so for a chance at love that may never happen?”

“No,” Rosalinde said, and grasped Celia’s cheeks to make her look up. “No, not too hasty. You didn’t love Stenfax. Perhaps that notion of a love match is a silly or naïve hope to have, but I’d rather have it than always wonder if you’d thrown it away. Darling, this will die down and you may yet meet the man of your dreams. The man who will sweep you off your feet and make you happier than you’ve ever been. When he arrives, we’ll be glad you didn’t settle for a title just to please grandfather.”

Celia sucked in a breath. “When did you find out about father being a servant in Grandfather’s house?”

Rosalinde let out a sigh. “Only last night, I promise you. Gray had us investigated in his quest to end the engagement. But the information didn’t arrive until yesterday, and I discovered it then.”

“Is there more than what you shared today?”

“Father’s identity is still unknown.” She frowned as her sister’s face fell. “But we now have a big piece of the puzzle. More than we ever knew before!”

“Do you think…do you think Mother loved him?” Celia asked.

Rosalinde smiled. “I like to believe she did. After all, she took a huge risk running away with him, bearing him children without the protection of a marriage. I like to think she loved him desperately. I also like to think his lowered position was the only reason he didn’t keep us with him.”