Scandal And The Duchess (MacKenzies & McBrides #6.5)(26)
Author: Jennifer Ashley

Rose rubbed her thumb over the inside his wrist. “Oh, Steven. I’m sorry.”

Steven sent her a self-deprecating smile. “No need. I’d been a thorough idiot, and the shock of Ronald truly wanting to kill me woke me up. So I conceded the field. I told Ronald I knew he and Laura belonged together. I’d allow her to break the engagement, then I left for Scotland, taking myself out of the way.”

“What did Mrs. Ellis say to that?” Rose tried to imagine the grief-stricken woman she’d met devastated that Steven wanted to break the engagement. No, she’d truly loved her husband. Her sorrow hadn’t been feigned, and she hadn’t looked at Steven with regret or any sort of longing.

Steven gave a short laugh. “She’d wanted Ronald the whole time, it turned out. Used me to make him declare himself. I doubt she thought he’d go as dramatically far as he did. I walked away, spent my Christmas with my family in Scotland, as per usual, and went back to the regiment. Ronald returned too, by himself, but a married man. He’d obtained a special license and done the deed at New Year’s.”

“Mrs. Ellis didn’t accompany him?”

He shook his head. “She didn’t like the idea of living outside England, especially not in such a difficult place as Africa. Which was why I’d never had any fear of taking the game to its logical conclusion. I’d have gotten out of the engagement before it became too entangling. I’d want a wife willing to accompany me.”

Rose secretly thought Mrs. Ellis a fool. If Steven had asked her, Rose would have eagerly followed him wherever he went, never mind heat and hardship.

“What happened to Captain Ellis?” Rose asked.

Steven looked out the window, but there was nothing to see but drops on the glass and mist beyond. Very little sunshine penetrated the gloom of the day, sealing them in a half-light of gray.

Rose rested her head on his shoulder again. “If you don’t want to tell me the rest, I understand.”

Steven drew a long breath. “No, I want you to know the rest of the story. Ronald and I were on a patrol one night a month or so ago, and got cut off from camp. He’d told me that morning that when he took leave this year, it would be his last. He planned to leave the army and settle down with Laura and raise children. He was happy, and I was happy for him. Things had never been the same between us since he tried to shoot me, no matter how many times he’d apologized for it or tried to make up for it. I was glad we were putting the whole sordid business behind us. But it wasn’t meant to be.” Steven turned from the window and looked down at her. “We ran into a pocket of rebels, they had guns, and they shot Ronald, right in front of me.”

“Steven.” Rose slid her arms around him, her heart aching. “How horrible.”

“He never had a chance,” he said, voice stoic. “I got him away and to a safe place, but he died as I held him.”

Rose tightened her embrace. It felt so natural to comfort him, as though she had a right to. “I’m so sorry.”

“His last words to me were another apology.” Steven gave another short laugh. “Ronald thought I was still in love with Laura, to my surprise. He told me to go back to England and look after her. Gave me his blessing to marry her. I couldn’t argue with him, not while he was dying. It was important to him that he made his peace with me this way, so I agreed to take care of her.”

Rose said nothing. Steven turned back to the window, the rain increasing outside. Rose thought about how Steven had introduced her to Mrs. Ellis, emphasizing she was his fiancée. And Mrs. Ellis’s look of relief.

“She doesn’t want to marry you,” Rose said. “Is that what she thought you’d come to do? Propose to her?”

“Yes,” Steven answered wearily. “Ronald apparently told her that if anything ever happened to him, she and I could be together. But Laura never wanted me. She still doesn’t. That’s why she tried to put me off. I only insisted delivering Ronald’s things so I could fulfill my promise to him, and close the matter.”

“I understand.” Rose rested her hand on the seat beside her. “Handy that the world thought you betrothed then, wasn’t it?”

She spoke lightly, but she at last understood Steven’s willingness to have his name coupled with hers, to have the journalists spread the tale that they were engaged. It would send a message to Mrs. Ellis for once and for all that the events of the past were at an end.

“Rose.” Steven turned to her, a hard light in his eyes. “I might have seen the opportunity, that first morning. But that’s not what it became.”

His look made anything jealous in her shrivel in shame. “I’m not angry,” she said, her voice quiet. “I am happy to help you in return for the assistance you’ve rendered me.” She tried to smile. “Even to keep you out of an unwanted marriage.”

“Not to keep me out—to give Laura her freedom. I know her. She’d convinced herself I was still in love with her, and that it was her duty to marry me for Ronald’s sake. Even if I hadn’t proposed, she’d have martyred herself, waiting for me to so. This way, she can move on with her life, marry someone else if she wishes, instead of either burying herself for me or marrying me and both of us living in horrible guilt. Now she’s free.”

Rose nodded. “I do see that.” She thought of her first encounter with Mrs. Ellis and became torn between amusement and embarrassment. “I suppose she thought I was your paramour.”

Steven leaned back against the seat. “At this moment, I don’t give a damn what she thought. I’ve done my part, now we can all rest in peace.”

Before Rose could ask him what he meant by that, the coach slowed, nearing the hotel. The street was crowed, despite the rain, and men in black suits waited near the hotel’s entrance for their return.

“Oh, God,” Steven said, peering out at them. “I can’t face that mob right now. Miles!” he called.

Miles opened the hatch below his seat and peered inside. “Yes, sir?”

“Can you take us somewhere a little less conspicuous?”

“Yes, sir.” Miles snapped closed the hatch and the carriage turned abruptly. In the mist and rain, perhaps the journalists would not see the crest of the Duke of Southdown on the coach’s side.

Miles drove them back to Mayfair, to Grosvenor Street and the mews behind it. He was going to lend them his quarters above the coach house again, Rose saw.