length or a title. All things that had stood between them for so long. All things he had come to resent with as much power as he resented her and her abandonment of their future.
“Nicholas.”
He turned now, because it was his brother Morgan who said his name this time. Morgan, Selina and Derrick had all entered the room. He blinked in stunned silence. He’d been alone for such a long time, by design, that he wasn’t sure what to do with a gaggle of siblings with similar expressions of deep concern. While his brothers and sister all spoke at once, Derrick just held his gaze, silent and understanding as he shut the door by leaning back against it.
Perhaps because Derrick was the only one with any inkling of what the hell was going on here. Now Nicholas felt a frisson of regret that he’d ever spoken Aurora’s name even to his friend.
“What did she do to you?” Selina asked, and the flash in her gaze was perfectly readable. His sister was ready to go to war. It was heartening, really, to see her fierce loyalty turned toward him.
“My love,” Derrick said, softly but firmly as he stepped forward and caught her elbow.
She glanced up at him and some of the rage in her stare was muted a fraction. “Fine. I’ll listen before I plot.” She glanced back at Nicholas. “What did she do to you?” she repeated, this time softer.
He flinched as he recalled his behavior on the drive. It wasn’t like him to be so…rude. Confrontational. It was ungentlemanly, too much like the duke whose blood ran through his veins. Nicholas had fought long and hard to never be like the last man who’d held the title of Roseford.
“Nicholas,” Morgan repeated, his dark stare finding Nicholas’s. “Please. Let us help you if we can.”
They were all so alike each other, Robert, Selina and Morgan. It was all the more noticeable when they stood as a group. All wild and untethered and driven by emotion and desire. Nicholas had always been on the outside when it came to them.
Right now he felt like he was in the thick of things with them, because all he had left in him was emotion. He didn’t like how it burned in his chest, making him want to tear at his skin, making him want to scream and swear and run wild. He had to stop that. Now.
“As I said on the drive,” he managed to choke out, “Lady Lovell and I grew up together. I once thought we…we meant something to each other.”
Derrick bent his head and Nicholas blushed. How could he not? He’d once told Derrick the story, or at least part of the story, of him and Aurora, during a drunken night when they’d all thought they might die in battle the next day.
“But she disabused me of that notion a long, long time ago,” he finished with a frown.
“I see.” Robert shook his head. “I hope you know Katherine wasn’t aware of any of that when she invited this woman to our home.”
“I’m sure she didn’t,” Nicholas said, and meant it. Katherine had not a cruel bone in her body. But it still begged a question. “But why did she ask her? Selina said they were friends.”
“Not friends, just old acquaintances from long before Katherine and I were married,” Robert said with a deepening frown. “And she invited Lady Lovell because she has a big heart.”
“Don’t dance around it, Roseford,” Selina snapped. “Not anymore. Katherine invited her because she fixes broken wings. And this scandal about Lady Lovell has broken both of hers. She’ll never fly again. And to think I was actually feeling sorry for her. Now I admit I’m happy she’s suffering if she gave you even an ounce of pain.”
Warmth flooded Nicholas at such loyal adoration. But Selina’s words confused him. “Scandal? What scandal?”
“You didn’t hear? The story has been circulating all over Society for more than a week,” Derrick said.
“Yes,” Robert said. “I assumed you were paying attention to those rumors and innuendos with the matter of the title hanging over you. Those in that sphere must know at least a little about their equals and the messes they make.”
“It’s not a habit I’ve yet formed,” Nicholas admitted, and pulled a face. “I cannot abide gossip and I try to avoid it whenever possible.”
“Then let me explain,” Derrick said, moving toward him at last. “It’s rumored Lady Lovell was frequenting the Cat’s Companion. She was seen