Page 48 of An Innocent Maid for the Duke

She snuggled into his embrace. ‘I didn’t mean to misrepresent,’ she whispered against his chest.

He stroked her back. ‘I know. Are you comfortable?’ He shifted his arm.

She moved so that one leg draped across his thigh. ‘I am now. Are you?’

‘Very.’ His head moved as if he was trying to see her face. ‘Rose, you would tell me if you weren’t happy here, wouldn’t you?’

Would she? They had promised to be truthful. ‘I will.’

‘I worry that I might have been a little high-handed.’ He gave her a little squeeze. ‘I would not like to think of you feeling trapped.’

‘I like it here. I just fear making a terrible mistake and putting you all to shame.’

‘You couldn’t.’

If only she could be as confident.

‘Rose?’

‘Yes.’

‘Was it your dream to become a housekeeper?’

She recalled her playful words of earlier. Clearly he had been listening. ‘Once it was. More recently I have been thinking of becoming a dressmaker.’

‘A seamstress,’ he said with a yawn he tried to disguise.

‘No. A proper dressmaker. To the fashionables. Like Mrs Gill of Cork Street. The girls at the V&V said I do wonders with their gowns.’

‘Would you rather—?’

‘I am fine where I am at the moment. What about you? Did you dream of becoming a duke?’

He stiffened. ‘It was the very last thing I dreamed of, I can assure you.’ He sounded offended. Cold.

‘But—’ She bit the words off as she recalled it was his older brother who should have inherited. ‘I am sorry, Jake. I did not mean—’

‘Forget it. I had better leave now. We don’t want anyone finding me here.’ He threw the sheet back and pulled on his breeches and shirt.

She winced. Somehow she had ruined the moment. Gone was the easy camaraderie of moments before. The autocratic Duke was back—cold, efficient and displeased.

‘I did not mean—’

‘I don’t wish to discuss it further.’

In moments, he was dressed and walking out of the door. ‘Goodnight, Rose.’

He didn’t even kiss her.

‘Goodnight,’ she whispered, but he was already out of the door and would not have heard.

It seemed it was all right for him to ask her questions, but not all right for her to do the same.

Well, they had promised to be honest with each other, and if she had trespassed somewhere he did not want her to go, then it was right he should let her know.

Still, his refusal to talk about himself hurt. A great deal.

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