Page 35 of A Duke for Stealing (The Devil’s Masquerade #4)

Rose had to go to him. Even if he did not love her, she had to be by his side so they could appease these rumors. To show people that she would not leave his side.

“I want to stay, Mama, talk some more, but I-”

“Go, darling,” Betty gently urged. “We have a better future ahead of us, but for now, you must tend to the present.”

Rose hugged her mother tightly, still in awe that her mother was sober. Not just sober, but accountable.

“I will visit again soon,” Rose promised.

“Bring your beautiful girls next time,” Betty urged with a smile, “I would love to have a second chance with them.”

Rose agreed, and after a final goodbye, she got into the carriage and went back to Stapleton.

Everett swallowed the whiskey and nearly gagged.

He had spent years not able to get enough of the stuff.

Now, though, he hated the taste. Wanting no more, he turned his cup upside down and slid it to the middle of the table.

As they had done all night, his friends continued to look at him with quiet, wary gazes.

“Go on,” Everett said, unable to take the stares any longer. “Say what you want to say.”

“You have changed,” Dominic stated. “Something about you is dark.”

“We are worried,” Tristan said next. “Have been for a while.”

“Your sobriety is a healthy choice, I am sure, but everything else? Something is a mess, Everett, and you need to talk about it.”

“The Devil be blessed if I do,” Everett snarled.

“Are you this way toward Rose?” Tristan asked, “Has she been witness to your rank behavior as well?”

“Do not talk about Rose,” Everett warned, feeling his anger grow.

“I have known that young lady since she was a little girl. I have loved her as a sister, and I will not allow you to mistreat her!” Tristan warned back.

“Theo has gone to see her, and I swear to God, Everett, if she comes back with any report that you have been ill toward her in any way, I will forget you and I are friends, I will take her far away from you.”

“You will not dare interfere with our marriage!” Everett snarled, his eyes glittering with challenge. “Rose is my wife, she is my everything!”

As soon as he heard his own words, Everett sagged into his chair and dropped his head to the table.

Around him, the table fell into a stunned silence.

It was the truth he was most afraid of. A fact that would alter his life forever if he fully accepted it.

He loved Rose. Deeply. And that terrified him.

“I am not trying to hurt Rose,” Everett said, his tone resigned as he rose to his feet. “I am trying to protect her.”

“From what?” Hugo asked.

Everett barely glanced at his friends as he shook his head.

“From myself.”

This time, his friends did not urge him to come back to the table as he walked away.

Did not call his name or follow him. Everett walked out of the gentleman’s club alone, wallowing in the terrible mess he’d made, not just with Rose, but with his friends.

They did not deserve such surliness from him, and he knew it.

They had only ever tried to help. Then again, so did Rose, and look what he did to her?

Crushed her heart. Crushed it, and what for?

Too simply prove to himself that he truly did not need her, or anyone.

It was a lie, but he was too much of a coward to accept the truth.

“Girls,” Everett said with surprise when he made it back to Stapleton. “Whatever are you doing outside? Where is Miss Holliday?”

“Just on the patio around the house,” Leah replied.

“We did well with our lessons today, so Miss Holliday gave us the last half an hour to play,” Diana explained.

Everett’s worry eased, but only a little. He was happy that the girls were now more comfortable, but seeing them reminded him of who had made that possible. Rose.

“Well, I am happy to hear that you did so well with your lessons today, girls,” Everett finally replied, “But you should not have wandered so far off from Miss Holliday. You have probably worried her.”

“We heard your carriage return and wanted to speak with you,” Diana told him.

“We want to know when Lady Rose will be back,” Leah stated.

“She said she would not be long,” Diana added.

“But it has been three days and we miss her terribly,” Leah said as soon as Diana’s words stopped.

Everett rubbed the back of his neck, trying his best not to feel overwhelmed by their curiosity and his own foul mood.

“I am sure she shall be home soon, girls,” Everett replied.

“But what if she does not?”

“What if she left us?”

His mind and heart falling apart, Everett struggled for answers.

“I…girls…-”

“Leave you?” Rose’s beautiful voice said from behind him.

He spun around, unable to believe his ears.

“Now, girls, why on earth would I ever leave you?”

Rose didn’t look at him once as the girls rushed past him, as if he didn’t exist. It did not matter, though. What mattered was that she was there, despite how he had crushed her. Her smile was warm and wide as she knelt down and caught the twins’ tight embrace.

Beautiful. So very beautiful.

“You came back!” Diana exclaimed, hugging Rose’s neck tight.

“Of course I did, you silly girls,” Rose laughed, “I promised you I would, did I not?”

“We were good!” Diana informed her.

“We even finished all of our lessons early today!” Leah added.

“Well, I am so very proud of you both!” Rose answered emphatically.

“Can we show you? Can we show you all we learned?”

“But of course,” Rose replied.

Everett continued to simply stand there, too astounded to move or speak. Like the girls, he had feared that Rose was not going to come back.

“Let us make a plan,” Rose urged the girls. “It is almost supper time. Would you please wash your face and hands, and bring what you want to show me to the table? Then we can talk all you want.”

“And then you will read us our bedtime story? Just as you used to?” Leah asked, her tone wary but hopeful.

“Of course I will,” Rose promised. “I have missed reading to you very much while I have been away.”

“And we missed you,” the twins replied in unison.

The three of them hugged each other tightly once more, and then the girls raced off to do as they were told. When they were gone, Everett only continued to stare in silent wonder at Rose. She still did not look him in the eye, and although that hurt him, he did not mind. She was back.

“We need to speak,” Rose stiffly stated.

Everett blinked, cleared his throat.

“About?” He asked.

Rose finally glanced toward his face —just a glance— but it was enough to send a surge of joy through his heart.

“There are new rumors,” Rose stated, “About me. About our marriage.”

The news surprised and disappointed him. He’d hoped she’d be willing to have their last conversation again. So he could try to not only be honest with her, but with himself.

“I do not care,” Everett said quickly. “Rose, that is not what I want to talk about.”

“Respectfully, I do not wish to know what you want to talk about,” Rose replied in the same stiff manner. “If you do not want to hear what is being said, that is fine, but we must take action.”

Everett would have been hurt by her dismissive tone if he were not still so overjoyed to be standing in front of her.

“What do you propose we do?” He asked.

“We received an invitation to a ball from the Marquess of Bakerton and his wife before I left. It is in two days. We must appear as a solid, happily married couple, so that is what we shall do.”

Everett nodded.

“Rose, if I may-”

“You may not. Now I am weary from my time away,” Rose said, cutting him off. “I must go change before I meet the girls for supper. If you are done being so distant with them, you should join us. They would like that.”

“I will,” Everett readily agreed.

Rose gave him a nod and, without another word, walked toward the house. He watched her leave. Stunned. Hurt by her coldness. Even more, overjoyed at her return.