Page 41 of A Duke for Stealing (The Devil’s Masquerade #4)

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

“ I should be the one to handle this,” Everett insisted. “I have put you through enough, Rose. Allow me to take care of this problem.”

Rose smiled lovingly at her husband, seated across from her in the carriage. She appreciated his willingness to take care of this matter for her, but she’d already made up her mind. She was going to address the culprit herself- and she was going to do it alone.

“All will be well,” she promised him. “We are just going to have a civil chat. However, if she truly shows she is not willing to listen, I shall let you take the reins.”

Although Everett looked openly displeased with her decision, he gave a begrudging nod.

“You will not at least let me come inside with you?” Everett asked in a last-ditch effort to stay by her side.

Smiling, Rose shook her head.

“Kiss me,” she implored as Everett hung his head, “And wish me luck.”

With a sigh, Everett lifted his head, lovingly stroked her cheeks, and gave her a warm kiss.

“Good luck,” he whispered against her lips.

Rose pulled away from their kiss with a blush on her cheeks and knocked on the carriage ceiling.

A moment later, the door opened, and as she stepped into the rainy street, she opened her baby pink parasol.

It was fitting, she thought as she strode up the walk of the house they were parked in front of, that today’s weather had turned ugly.

For she was about to broach a rather ugly subject.

“Hello, Harriet,” Rose greeted as the woman behind the rumors answered the door. There was no butler to do so. No maids to assist. Just Harriett, who narrowed her eyes into a glare as she saw the woman who ruined all her schemes.

“What are you doing here?” Harriet demanded. “How did you find me?”

“Won’t you please let me in?” Rose asked.

Harriet glared at her a moment longer, then begrudgingly opened the door wider so Rose could step in.

“Thank you,” Rose replied, shaking out her parasol, “I believe that is the first polite thing you have done since all of this has started.”

“Do not speak to me of manners when it was you who ruined my wedding,” Harriet bitterly retorted. “Now answer my question. How did you find me?”

“You work in rumors,” Rose answered, tapping the end of her parasol against the hardwood floor. She then leaned on the handle. “My friends and I work in fact. Even if they do mostly come from whispers.”

Her eyes dropped to Harriet’s waistline, where a small bump had formed upon her otherwise small figure. Harriet followed her gaze, then wrapped her arms tightly around her abdomen.

“A dear friend of mine holds the leads to many spies. Spies in London and many other places around the world,” Rose went on, “It was not difficult to discover that your Italian husband had thrown you out after he discovered the truth of your condition, nor was it difficult to discover that your parents had discreetly shipped you here. Not Mayfair, but certainly not a bad part of London. They could not fully forgive you for your indiscretion, though, so they gifted no maids or help. Simply an allowance to feed and clothe yourself.”

Harriet’s eyes narrowed with hatred.

“Witch,” she hissed.

“No, my dear,” Rose replied, straightening her posture. “To you, I am a godsend.”

Harriet snickered.

“And pray tell, why is that?”

“Because, unlike you, I am going to keep my mouth shut,” Rose replied. “Even if what I have is the truth. So long as you take the offer I give you.”

“See, I know it would not do well for the ton to hear that you have returned,” Rose went on as Harriet opened her mouth to interrupt, “It would be even worse for you if they discovered why you returned, and the state in which you now live. A fine lady. Once waited on and coddled. Now forced to make her own food, launder her own clothes, and run her own errands. Are you going to try to interrupt me again?”

Though still glaring at Rose with pure hatred, Harriet shook her head.

“You are angry with me for ruining your wedding to the Duke of Stapleton,” Rose went on, her voice dripping with calm strength. “I can understand that. Now that I have grown to love him, I would be positively livid if someone tried to take the Duke from me.”

Harriet looked as if she were about to bite back with a retort, but with a single raised brow from Rose, she shut her mouth again.

“I suppose you were about to say that you loved him. That it was I who took him from you,” Rose continued.

“Well, I suppose under different circumstances that would be true, but you see, I know better. I know because when you sequestered your friends into that library on that fated night, you were not clever enough to ensure that you were the only people within that room.”

Harriet’s eyes grew wide as the color drained from her face.

“You thought I stopped your wedding for my own selfish reasons,” Rose went on, “and I suppose that was a fair opinion.

You had no idea that someone other than your friends knew your disgusting secret.

But I did. And to me, Everett was not just some prize I could allow you to claim.

You did not know we were friends. Of course, you did not.

How could you? Someone like you is only absorbed with the most selfish of thoughts.

So I stopped the wedding. I would not allow my friend to be had by such conniving practices.

“You knew?” Harriet whispered. “Everything?”

“I did,” Rose agreed. “As did Everett. Yet neither of us said a word, and would have never said a word, if you had not stooped so low as to try to ruin my reputation by spreading that vicious rumor.”

“No,” Harriet gasped, “Please tell me you have not told anyone the truth!”

Rose slowly studied Harriet’s figure, letting her eyes drag up and down the stained white dress she wore.

“No,” Rose confessed, after taking a moment to enjoy watching Harriet squirm. “Not yet, at least. We are letting that fate rest solely in your hands.”

“Tell me what I must do,” Harriet hurriedly replied.

“Do you confess you started that rumor about me?” Rose asked.

“Yes,” Harriet rushed to reply.

“Good, it is well that you did not try to lie. It would have only made matters worse,” Rose replied. “What you will do is set the record straight. I do not care that you do it. I do not care how difficult such a task is. You started this mess, and you will clean it. Immediately.”

“I-” Harriet stammered, “I do not know how.”

“How did you start the first rumor?” Rose asked.

Harriet blushed deeply, looking ashamed of herself for the first time since their conversation started.

“A small circle of friends know that I am here,” Harriet confessed. “They spread the rumor for me.”

“Well, there you have it,” Rose said with a shrug.

“It is not that simple!” Harriet burst out. “You know as well as I that rumors are far easier to spread than they are to withdraw.”

“You will figure it out,” Rose commanded, her tone stern.

“You obviously have a way with fictional stories. You simply need to make another. State that you mistook the Duke for another at a masquerade ball. State that the person who spread the rumor was simply green with envy- although that would actually be true. Spread anything, as long as it mends my reputation and does not harm another’s. ”

Harriet was trembling now, and she looked almost in tears as she gave Rose a weak nod.

“Now, now, no need for tears,” Rose chastised, tapping her parasol against the floor again, “There is a reward in this for you.”

Harriet’s eyes were glassy with unshed tears as she glanced back up at Rose.

“In exchange for solving this problem for the Duke and I- a problem that you created, I must point out, we are going to giving you a monthly stipend for your child. An envelope will be delivered with a few hundred pounds every first Thursday of the month from the moment your child is born until the day he or she reaches the age of seventeen or you remarry.”

Harriet’s eyes widened at first with shock, then narrowed with suspicion.

“Why? Why would you do that?” She asked.

Rose drew in a long breath through her nostrils, took another measured glance at the poor, fallen woman before her.

“In a way, we owe you our thanks,” Rose admitted. “If you had not tried to cheat him the first time, he and I would have never married. Never would I have discovered how much we mean to one another. You deserve something good for that, and this is what we offer.”

“However, I must warn you,” Rose added, stepping forward with a finger raised in the air, “If you ever spread gossip again, if you ever try to harm our family in any way, not even God above can rescue you from our wrath. And we will not stop at you, Harriet. We will take down your parents. Your friends. Everyone you rely on for comfort now will be ruined. Do I make myself clear?”

A tear rolled down Harriet’s cheek as she looked at Rose.

“Yes,” she rasped. “You are very clear, Your Grace.”

Rose’s smile was instant and wide.

“Ah! Finally, a show of manners,” she replied, and could not hide the fact that she felt pleasure upon seeing Harriet’s deepening blush.

“Well, that is all I have come to say,” Rose said, tapping the tip of her parasol against the hardwood floor a final time. This time, Harriet winced at the sound.

“Do be well, my dear. Do work with haste. The sooner you clean up your mess. The sooner you shall start receiving your reward. And remember, I never came here. We never spoke. If your friends ask, this is simply a way of clearing a guilty conscience.”

“Yes, Your Grace,” Harriet whispered.

Rose gave a happy, singular nod and walked the few steps back to the front door. As she opened it, she paused and turned to Harriet one last time.

“Despite all of this, I do wish you would find the love of your life, Harriet. As I have found mine. We all deserve love, and as my husband and I can attest, it can be quite transformative.”

Without waiting for a response from Harriet, Rose turned back to the rain, put her parasol up, and walked back out into the rain.

“How did it go?” Everett asked as soon as she was back in the carriage.

“Perfectly,” Rose replied.

Everett raised a curious brow, as if expecting her to say more, but Rose only smiled as she reached forward and caressed his cheek.

“Let us go home,” she said gently, “I miss our girls.”

Everett’s smile was slow and full of warmth. He kissed her palm, then nodded.

“I miss them too,” he agreed.

With a knock on the carriage ceiling, the driver urged the horse to move. Back to Stapleton. Back to their girls. Back to their life. Together.