Lady Rosabella's Ruse - By Ann Lethbridge Page 0,94
hadn’t written to her grandfather. He deserved to know she had changed her mind about marrying Garth and the sooner the better.
She sat down at the desk and sharpened her quill. The words didn’t come easily. She didn’t know if it was the heat of the evening making her hot and sticky, or the difficulty phrasing the letter. She wiped her hands on her handkerchief and tossed a crumpled attempt into the waste basket beside the hearth.
She pulled another sheet out of her desk drawer, her father’s desk, which Garth had sent over on her second day here, and began anew.
Dear Grandfather, I hope your health is as good as ever.
She tapped the feather against her lip. While we have not always been in accord…
The sound of a bump came from beyond the window that looked out over the small walled garden at the back of the house. Someone outside? One of the servants going to the privy? Oh, she was so easily distracted from her task. Not this time. She would finish it.
A large figure hurtled through her open window and landed with a thump on one knee. A scream rushed from her throat. She leapt to her feet, the chair falling backwards with a clatter.
‘Hush,’ the figure said, rising. ‘It is only me.’
Garth? Here? In her chamber. ‘What on earth are you doing? Are you drunk?’
A sardonic smile crossed his lips. ‘Drunk doesn’t seem to help.’
She ran for the bell pull. He stepped in front of her, large and intimidating, sullen. ‘Hear me out.’
‘I will hear you tomorrow. I already told Penelope I would.’
‘I know,’ he said grimly. ‘She told me when we met at dinner. I wouldn’t have gone, but I thought you would be there.’
‘Come back tomorrow.’
‘I don’t need an audience.’
Rosabella tried not to look at the bed. ‘There is nothing we need say to each other that would possibly cause us embarrassment in the presence of another. Indeed, should we meet at any time in future, it will never be alone.’
His shoulders stiffened. His eyes narrowed. ‘I didn’t think you’d be so cowardly. If you can hear me tomorrow, you can hear me now.’
The proud arrogant bearing told her he wouldn’t leave, no matter what she said. She folded her arms over her chest. ‘Very well. Have your say, but stay on your side of the room.’
He flashed a grin of triumph and she had the strong desire to bash him over the head with a fire-iron.
He crossed the room to the door, turned the key and put it in his pocket. ‘In case you decide to run away before I’m finished.’
‘Perhaps you should also remove the ladder in case I go through the window. It was a ladder you used, I assume?’
‘Taking a leaf out of our honoured Lord Chancellor’s book,’ he said cheerfully.
Years before, Lord Eldon had run off to Gretna Green with an heiress by escaping with her down a ladder. In the end, it had been one of the most successful and happy of marriages. If Garth thought she would elope with him, he had porridge for brains.
‘Hurry up and tell me what you want. I am tired and in need of a good night’s sleep.’
His eyes slid to the bed and a smile curved his lips.
Heat warmed her belly as she remembered their last night together. Dash it, he only had to smile and she lost all reason. Why had she reminded him they were in her bedroom? She tapped her foot. ‘Well?’
He cleared his throat as if it had suddenly gone tight.
A nervous Garth? Now that was something new.
He dropped to one knee in front of her. She backed away, putting her hands behind her when he reached for them. It didn’t stop his flow of words. He fixed his dark eyes on her face with no vestige of a smile. ‘Rosabella Cavendish, I am asking you to be my wife.’ He held her gaze for a long moment. ‘I love you.’
The words lacked conviction and still the air rushed from her lungs. The three words she’d most longed to hear on his lips scored a path through her heart, leaving it bloody and torn. Why did he have to say them now, when she didn’t need him? When she couldn’t pretend they were real, because she knew the truth? Her heart urged her to run to him, to let him fold her in his arms, to tell him what was in her heart, but she didn’t believe him.