Heiress in Red Silk (Duke's Heiress #2) - Madeline Hunter Page 0,64

had not shouted with joy, if his manner now was any indication.

This was not the welcome she had expected. Not the man she thought she knew. While she stood there, watching him, seeing his caution and indifference, the dream disappeared.

It did not shatter or burst. It simply ceased to exist, and she was an old, forgotten lover who had intruded into a man’s new life.

Young men are always in love if the girl is pretty.

Dear heaven, she had been a fool to come here. And a bigger one to have thought what they shared was love. She had merely been the convenient servant girl who was pretty enough.

Her heart hurt so much that it left her breathless. She wanted to crumble and fall to her knees and weep to relieve the pain. Instead, she held her composure. Somehow, her voice was clear when she spoke.

“I am traveling independently. However, my journey has been aided by a friend who is familiar with France and Paris, so I am not left completely adrift in a foreign country.”

“A friend in Paris? Perhaps I know this friend.”

“Not an inhabitant of the city. A friend from London.” She hesitated, but wanted to let Charles know just how well she had done recently. “Mr. Kevin Radnor. He visits Paris often enough that perhaps you have met him all the same.”

“Radnor?”

She took some solace in his surprise. His shock. It did nothing to ease the pain, but it helped her pride.

“That is Hollinburgh’s family.”

“His cousin. I have had the pleasure of meeting the duke. I know the family quite well.”

He smiled broadly, and for one exquisitely painful moment looked just like the Charles she remembered. “You have done very well for yourself, Rosamund. Paris trips. Your sister in a school.” He lifted the card. “A fine address. I thought perhaps you had come to castigate me for my indiscretions with you. Now I think you made this call to thank me.”

“It is not what you think.” I made this call because I loved you and held the memories close for five long years. She could not say that now. He had already let her know that her dream had been built on air, not anything real.

How had she lied to herself all this time? When they were lovers she had been ignorant, but she no longer was. She knew about men. He had not made any attempt to find her, and she was more easily discovered than he had been.

Stupid girl. Stupid, stupid girl.

“It is exactly what I think,” he said with a vague sneer. “At least you are being kept, and it sounds as if you have a lucrative arrangement. You at least have spared me any concerns that men were taking you under bridges. I’m glad for your good fortune, Rosamund. Play your cards right and maybe next year it will be the duke himself.”

His words shocked her like so many slaps. One after another they came, ugly and hurtful. She lost her hold on her emotions, and with them her pride.

“It is not what you think,” she cried. “There has been no one but you. No one. I waited for you all this time. You said you would come for me. That we would be together. I believed you. I looked for you. And all you can do now is insult me.”

“Lower your voice and get hold of yourself. You had to know I could never come for you. That it was over from the moment when I got into the carriage that day. My family would never have accepted you. Even in your finery now, they wouldn’t.” He removed a handkerchief from his frock coat and gave it to her.

She dabbed at her tears. “You are horrid to say these things.”

“I apologize. However, you are better off with this Radnor than with me, that is certain. I could never give you a house on that street.”

He didn’t believe her. He thought she was dressed like this because she was a man’s mistress. He assumed Kevin was merely the last of a series of protectors.

She closed her eyes. She forced control over the anger building in her. She ignored for now the heavy, mourning heart in her chest. She gave him back the handkerchief. “You did not have to seduce me. You did not have to ruin me. Why did you, if you did not love me?”

“You are not an innocent, so you know why. You were lovely, fresh, and sweet, and I was