The Gift of Love (The Book of Love #8) - Meara Platt Page 0,6
and family. That was a low thing to do even for a snake. Lady Alexandra ought to have been appalled by his behavior.”
“Why? I am nobody to her. I will never be in her elevated circle.”
“Your connections in society are just as good as hers, perhaps better. How many of your cousins have married dukes, earls, viscounts, barons? And what of my family? We have three earls among us, including my own brother, Tynan. Also my two cousins, Marcus and James. Westcliff, Kinross, and Exmoor, respectively.”
“But I am no relation to you.”
“Your sister is married to my brother. That is close enough.”
She sniffled. “He made me feel so awful.”
“I know.” He took out his handkerchief and handed it to her. “Dry your eyes, Queen Pea. He isn’t worth another moment of your anguish.”
“Ugh! Don’t call me that. This stupid Twelfth Night cake is what started this mess.”
He cleared his throat. “Wainscott started this mess months ago. Now that he’s secured an earl’s daughter, he was looking for any excuse to pick a fight with you and cut ties.”
She looked up at him, her nose pink and tears streaming down her face. “He could have just told me.”
Heather nodded. “He should have. Why did he lie to Dahlia?”
Ronan ran a hand across the nape of his neck, still feeling the discomfort of the situation. “I don’t know. Perhaps he meant to return to Dahlia if things did not work out with Lady Alexandra. But now, with the ink drying on his betrothal contract, he may have felt the need to cut ties fast. I think his aim was to provoke a fight and have you appear as the villain when you began to shout at him and cause a scene.”
Heather looked confused. “Dahlia would never do such a thing.”
“I know, but obviously, Gerald did not realize it. In his dim mind, he thought he had to make Dahlia out to be unreasonable or deluded because if she came forward and claimed he had made promises to her, it would have put his betrothal to Lady Alexandra in jeopardy. He needed to discredit Dahlia before Lady Alexandra’s father publicly announced their betrothal.”
Heather finally caught on. “Because if Dahlia sounded logical and reasonable, then everyone would know Gerald had been a disreputable snake, and it would have made him look bad.”
“And given Balliwick a reason to rescind the betrothal.”
Dahlia sat up and regarded him, her eyes so sad and filled with pain. “So he had to humiliate me?”
“It was stupidly done. A big blunder on his part. But he’s pompous, thoughtless, and a coward. It wasn’t hard to see what he was thinking.”
Heather, who was seated on the bed beside Dahlia and hugging her, shook her head in confusion. “He did not appear to be thinking at all. How did the dreadful scene he caused help him in any way?”
“It didn’t. But he came here with a plan in mind and was not quick-witted enough to change it after Dahlia unexpectedly walked into the library and...um, caught him in the act.” He cleared his throat, unable to state aloud what Wainscott and Alexandra had been doing. Not that he needed to explain it to Dahlia.
She’d gotten an eyeful.
Dahlia heaved a sigh. “You said Lady Alexandra was a ninny. It seems she was the clever one in all this.”
Ronan rolled his eyes. “She is a ninny. The last thing Wainscott wanted was for her to announce to one and all that he’d been secretly courting her for months. All his scheming blew up in his face. No matter what he says or does now, everyone will know he was the conniving weasel, and you were the–”
“What was I? The spurned fool? The clueless rustic?” She dried her tears and cast him a look of resolve. “Well, not anymore. I’ve had my cry, and I am determined never to shed another tear over him again.”
Ronan did not believe her for a moment. She had an expressive face that revealed all, and she was obviously still in pain. Her lips were trembling, and her chin began to wobble. Bollocks. She was going to burst into tears again.
He did not know what to do.
She looked so hurt and vulnerable.
He reached out and gently stroked her hair. What he truly wanted to do was wrap her in his arms and kiss her brow, tell her she was worth a thousand Lady Alexandras. But Heather was with them and might get the wrong impression. So he did nothing but