Page 33 of A Duke for Stealing (The Devil’s Masquerade #4)

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

“ W here is Uncle Everett?” Diana asked the next morning.

Rose glanced at the empty chair at the head of the table. She rubbed her thumbs anxiously over the bright red rose that adorned her teacup. The girls and she were breaking their fast, and once again, Everett had not joined them.

“I do not know, my darling,” Rose replied. She smiled, but it did not hide the sadness in her voice.

She missed him. Wanted him. More than wanted him. As she had tossed and turned all night before, she had come to a startling realization: she was in love with him.

“I hope he does not have a fever as you had,” Leah said, pushing her eggs around her plate with her fork. “It was awfully terrible when you had yours.”

It was clear that Rose wasn’t the only one sad over Everett’s absence. His nieces missed him, too. He’d gotten so close to the twins- to all three of them- and now it seemed as if he was disappearing again.

“I am sure it is not a fever,” Rose replied, trying in earnest to reassure them. “I will go to his office after we finish eating and see if I can find him.”

“May we come with you?” Leah quickly asked.

Rose hesitated, then shook her head.

“You two have your lessons to get to today,” Rose told her. “And I shall want a full report at lunch time about what you learned this morning.”

Both girls lowered their heads. For the next several minutes, neither of them said or ate anything else. Rose did not seem to have an appetite either, so she felt she would be a hypocrite if she chastised the girls for their still-full plates.

“Alright, my darlings,” Rose sighed, setting down her unsipped cup of tea, “I believe it is time we all get our day started. Run along upstairs now. I am sure Miss Holliday is waiting for you.”

Both girls slid out of their chairs, came to Rose for their goodbye kiss, and then took each other’s hands and left the dining room.

When they were gone, Rose picked up the cold plate of food and eating utensils that had been set for Everett, placed a napkin on top of it, and went to his office.

She did not want to give him the chance to send her away, so instead of knocking, she opened the door and walked right in.

What she saw made her worry at once. Dark circles hung below his eyes as he gave her a weary glance. His normally neat hair was mussed. His rumpled clothes and the familiarity of them indicated that he had not changed since yesterday. It was almost unusual.

“I am afraid I do not have time to talk today, Rose,” he stated, casting his eyes back down to the paperwork before him.

“Or eat, as it would seem,” Rose replied. She held out the plate before as if it were a peace offering, but Everett did not raise his eyes to her again.

“I am not hungry,” he grumbled.

Rose sighed and set the plate down on the nearby stand. The Rose she had been a month ago would have just turned around and left him to his solitude, but she was that woman no more.

“Look at me,” she said softly.

When Everett ignored her, she came around to his side of the desk and reached down.

To her relief, Everett did not jerk away as she caressed her palm over his stubbly cheek, but instead sighed, closed his eyes, and leaned into it.

With care, she lifted Everett’s face toward hers.

Finally, he opened his eyes and saw the tortured man she was married to.

“We must speak,” she gently insisted. “You have not been yourself as of late.”

The tortured look in Everett’s eyes dissolved in a second, replaced with a carelessness that was once all too familiar. He pulled away from her touch, stood, and took several steps back.

“I am myself,” he responded, his tone stiff. “Who I have always been.”

Rose shook her head, but did not move toward him.

“I do not believe that. You were changing. For a while. Into someone else. With me and your niblings. And you were not cold before. Not like this.”

“Yes, well, I fear I have made a dire mistake,” Everett replied curtly, crossing his arms over his chest.

Rose frowned at his guarded stance and words. Those arms had been open once. For her. For the twins.

“And what mistake would that be?” Rose asked, taking a step forward.

As she did so, Everett took an immediate step back.

“I believe I have led you astray,” he replied, then worked his jaw left and right, as if he were chewing over thoughts.

“How so?” She asked, already feeling that pain in her heart as she had the day before.

“It is clear that I have you thinking that this marriage is more than what it is,” Everett answered.

“You were right yesterday. We were friends before. You saved me from marrying a woman who would have made a laughingstock of my life. You willingly played an act so that I could walk away from such a scandal unscathed.”

He paused, swallowed what looked like a lump in his throat.

“I will always be grateful,” he murmured. “For that and what you have done for my nieces and my Dukedom. You have done well here, Rose.”

Rose felt her eyes grow watery and her throat closed, but she blinked back her tears and cleared her throat.

“But that is not the issue, is it? The issue lies between you and me, and what we have become.”

“We have become nothing,” Everett snapped.

“You think because I find you becoming there is something more than a lustful need?”

Rose’s furrowed brow as his hurtful, dismissive words caused another crack in her heart.

“Since you are asking, yes. I do think we have become something more,” she replied, her tone defensive.

“And I do not believe that I am alone in feeling this way either, Everett. You talk to me. You tell me of your life. You have protected me from gossip, you even got jealous when Tristan- a man I have always known to be the picture of etiquette- who paid me an innocent compliment!”

She had not meant to shout, but her voice, her insistence, rose with every word she spoke.

“You have misread things,” Everett retorted gruffly, “Our marriage is a piece of paper. Nothing more!”

Rose took a step back, his words feeling like a slap to her face. A look of worry passed through Everett’s eyes as she did so, but in a moment it was gone, replaced with a scowl. He remained unmoved.

“Is that truly how you feel?” Rose asked, her voice growing hoarse from her unshed tears. “There has never been a time when you needed to be more honest, Everett, so tell me now, is that how you truly feel?”

Everett’s scowl fell into a look of hesitation. He pressed his lips together, ground his jaw.

“Yes.”

The word sounded forced. Untrue. Yet it was his answer. One Rose could not refute. She’d asked for his truth, and this is what he’d chosen to give her.

Rose closed her eyes, warning her tears not to shed. She sniffled, suddenly feeling unable to catch her breath. Yet still she raised her chin, and even though her eyes were watery as she opened them again, she did not allow a single drop to fall.

“Then I apologize for the misunderstanding,” she replied, her voice quivering.

Everett’s brow tensed as guilt passed through his green eyes, but he only nodded.

“Well, I believe I need a few days to think about this. Give myself a chance to reorganize,” she went on.

No longer able to keep looking at him, Rose cast her glance to the door, then started walking toward it.

“I will be in London for a while,” she said.

Rose reached for the doorknob, but Everett’s hand closed over it, stopping her. She looked up at him, surprised that he would bother to do so, and saw a look of devastation on his handsome face.

“Rose, wait-”

“I am not abandoning the girls, so spare your lecture,” she cut him off. “I will be back. That’s what you worry about, isn’t it? Your nieces missing me?”

The devastation in his eyes worsened even as he nodded and rasped out, “Yes.”

Rose moved his hand off the doorknob, ignoring the sparks from their touch, and threw the door open wide.

“I will explain to them,” she said.

Rose then hurried down the hall. Her held back tears finally broke free of their dam, and as they trekked down her cheeks, Rose silently damned herself for thinking a man like Everett could ever change.

“Wait,” Everett whispered.

He started hurrying down the hall after Rose, but as he heard a sob slip from her throat, he froze.

His heart ached in his chest as he felt torn between his old self and this strange new one.

He did not know which one was truly him, and it was driving him mad.

Love, from what he understood, was accepting someone for who they were, and if Rose truly loved him, she would not be pushing him to change.

So he stayed still, watching her until she disappeared into the twins’ nursery, and then went back into his office.

When he got to his desk, he sat down and put his weary head in his hands.

He’d spent all night thinking about what he should do, what he should say to Rose, and what he shared today had been that final decision. The right decision.

Yet if it was so right, why then did he now feel worse than before?

Everett rubbed his temples. Shook his head as if that would somehow magically dissolve such intense feelings, and then picked up his pen, determined to get back to work.

Instead, he spent the better part of the day sitting in still silence, wondering over and over what he’d just done.

“Please do not go, Lady Rose,” Diana begged, holding tightly to Rose’s leg.

“What did we do wrong?” Leah asked, standing a wary few steps away with a guarded expression.

Rose’s throat ached as she once more forced herself not to cry.

“Darlings, you did nothing wrong!” She answered sincerely. “This is not a punishment! Now, come, what is bothering you? I have left the house before, haven’t I? And I have not always come back?”

“Yes, but this feels different,” Leah replied. Despite her resolute expression, her blue eyes grew watery.

“Very different,” Diana added, hugging Rose’s leg even tighter.

Rose’s already bruised heart felt utterly torn in two as she looked over at her girls.

She loved them now. Just as she had fallen for Everett, she had fallen for these two precious angels before her.

She was not leaving them, though. She was leaving Everett.

A situation impossible to explain to children.

Rose gently untangled Diana from her leg so she could kneel down and take her under her arm. She then held her other arm out to Leah. Although reluctant at first, Leah came over and snuggled into Rose’s side.

“Now I want you both to listen very carefully,” Rose said, holding them tight, “I promise you, I will be back in a few days. Maybe even sooner. Until I return, I need you to be good girls. Listen to your uncle, attend to your lessons, and before you know it, I shall be back to tuck you in and read you your bedtime stories.”

“Tonight?” Diana asked.

She didn’t think it possible, but Rose’s heart somehow broke a little more.

“Not tonight. But very soon.”

She gave them both a kiss on the cheek and let them go, rising to her full stature.

“Be kind to them, Mrs. Mulberry,” Rose said to the head housekeeper as she met her in the hall. “I know you prefer a stern hand, but until I return, be kind.”

Mrs. Mulberry gave a stiff nod as her chin wobbled. It was as if she, just like the twins, knew something was going on.

“I certainly will, Your Grace,” Mrs. Mulberry replied. “And I hope you do not mind me saying so, but we all readily await your return.”

God, could you make this any harder?

Rose swallowed her tears, forced a smile, and nodded. With her luggage already packed in the carriage and her goodbyes said, Rose had nothing left to do but get into her carriage and go back to the one place she’d sworn she’d never return: her mother’s house.

Being around her married friends was only going to make her feel worse, she’d decided.

Although she’d written to Ophelia about her situation, her friend had responded that, with deep regret, she would not be able to host Rose.

It was rare for Ophelia to decline a visit, so whatever the reason, Rose knew it was of great importance.

She could not bring herself to go to the Stapleton London house either.

Not after the night she’d shared with Everett there.

Thus, with her last and least favored option, Rose tapped on the roof and started her journey to Betty’s.