Undressed with the Marquess (Lost Lords of London #3) - Christi Caldwell Page 0,104

“Was there honor in begging for funds to feed your family? Or in pleading with your miserable landlord for an extension when your father failed to pay the rent on your family’s one-room apartment?”

Wordlessly, Temperance handed back his book. She didn’t say anything for a long while. At last she spoke. “You aren’t wrong, Dare. I did humble myself over the years. I begged. I asked for help.” He stared beyond the top of her head. “I took assistance from whomever was willing to give it, not just you. I darned socks for mere farthings. There was hardly money in what I did, Dare,” she said solemnly. “But there was always honor.” She thumped a hand against her breast. “I did what I had to do in order to care for my mother and brother, and I can also say that I never compromised myself and my values.”

Unlike Dare, who took from the undeserving and gave to the neediest. The evidence of her disdain had always cut like a knife. “Money lets people begin again in new places. It provides them with a roof and a warm fire in the dead of winter. But you had your honor,” he asked, unable to keep the disdain from that word. “Did honor keep you safe?”

As soon as the charge left him, he wanted to call it back.

Her entire body jerked the way it had the one time he’d witnessed her drunkard father strike her. It had been the first and last time he’d witnessed her being hit, and the memory of it haunted him still. “Temperance,” he said hoarsely. “Forgive me. That didn’t come out as I’d intended. I respected your decisions, Temperance,” he said, needing her to understand that. He’d never understood that pride; he’d fallen in love with her for her honor.

Temperance drew in a deep breath. “You’re right, honor didn’t keep me safe from him, but neither did that money you so love, either.”

“It isn’t about me,” he cried. “Joseph Gurney was imprisoned.”

“And then there’ll be someone else. And instead of you finding the right and honorable way to make a difference, you’ll go about committing crime after crime, thinking the end justifies the means. And it doesn’t, Dare,” she said frantically. “It never will.”

It was those words that were the answer as to why they had never worked as a couple: his inability to be who she wanted him to be. Who she needed him to be. Who his grandparents needed him to be. Always a failure. Always failing to do that which was right because he was incapable of it. Dare flew to his feet. “And you would worry about some damned timepiece or . . . or”—he slashed his arm toward the floor—“paintings.”

She sucked a breath in through her teeth. “That isn’t what this is about.”

“Then what is it?” he shouted. He needed her to tell him so that it made some sense.

“It’s about how you destroy things, Dare,” she cried, stalking over to him, her skirts swirling wildly about her ankles. “It is about you making decisions that are poisonous and making a man who is poisonous your partner. It is about you looking after everyone but yourself.” Some of the fight seemed to leave her. Temperance hugged her arms close to her middle. “We’re never going to see eye to eye on this. I’ll never convince you that what you did wasn’t right. But this isn’t about me or you.”

“Isn’t it? You’ll get your brother his happily-ever-after, and I’ll get my remaining fifteen thousand pounds.”

She winced. “No. Not really, and we’d be wise to remember that.” She let her arms drop to her sides. “The person this is about is Kinsley. Thus far, you and I have only seen her as a means to an end. And we’ve both been wrong in that. Your grandfather tasked you with the role he did, Dare, because he wants you to be a brother to her.” Temperance nudged her chin in the direction of the biggest mound of belongings in the parlor. “And I’d suggest you begin by not going about stealing the belongings out from under her.”

“They are mine to sell, Temperance.”

She swept over and gripped him by his upper arms. “You insist this life isn’t yours, while at the same time insisting the belongings in this household are? You don’t get it both ways, Dare.”

And with that, Temperance released her hold on him and headed for the front of the room. Suddenly, she stopped and