Page 54 of Trapped with the Beastly Duke

I wanted him to die.

“Everything faded. When I woke up, there was a dead man beside me. My sword was covered in his blood. Olivia was crying out, begging me to wake up.” He shook his head. “I was still full of so much anger, so much fury that he tried to hurt her. All I could think was that I needed to keep her from harm.”

“You did. You kept her safe. Who knows what harm would have come to her if you had not been there?” Rose’s voice was full of gentleness and pain.

“Yet, I failed my father.” Alexander pulled away from her, unable to bear his shame. “Because of my weakness, he was killed. He went after the thieves and retrieved the seal, but was wounded in the process. I found him hours later, dead by the side of the road. He had been trying to come home.”

“Oh, Alexander.” Rose moved towards him but did not close the distance between them.

“If I had not collapsed, if I had been a more competent fighter, I would have found him sooner. I could have brought him home or helped him fight.” Alexander’s voice broke, and he dug his nails into the palms of his hands. “My weakness… it killed my father.”

There was a moment of silence. Alexander heard footsteps, and a moment later, he felt Rose’s hands on his face. They were warm and gentle, her fingers gently tilting his face towards hers.

“Your father’s death was not your fault.” Her eyes met his, full of kindness and compassion.

“But if I had been there—” Alexander began, but she shook her head.

“You were not yet a fully grown man. You did as your father asked. If it were not for you, who knows what would have happened to your sister.” Her eyes filled with tears. “The blame for his death lies with the people who wounded him. Those are the men who killed him. Not you.”

“And yet both men escaped. And it was my father who paid the ultimate price.” Alexander held her gaze. “And when people said I was a murderer, I knew they were right. The constable did not charge me with any such thing, for the man was an intruder in our home. But that does not change the fact that I took another man’s life. I wanted him to die.”

Rose’s eyes were hard. “You did your duty, and your father would have been proud of you.”

“Do you think so?” Alexander’s voice was bitter. “I do not think so. That night, I became a monster, so consumed by rage and fear that I killed another man. Stabbed him in the back like some coward. And he marked me as the beast that I am. A reminder of my own failure and cruelty.”

Rose brushed a finger across his scar. “Is that what you think this is?”

He did not flinch away from her as she traced her fingers across the thin line on his face. His eyes met hers.

“What else could it be?” His voice was hoarse.

“It is just a scar,” Rose said simply. “And you are a man. A brave and caring man who did all he could to keep his family safe.”

Her face was so close to his that he could feel her breath on his skin. Her lips parted. His eyes met hers, searching for the disgust he was sure she must be feeling.

Why is she not fleeing from me?

“Rose…” Alexander murmured, his hands cupping her face.

Her name seemed to fill the air between them, a warm embrace that washed away the horrors that clung to his mind.

“Alexander.” She was so close that her words seemed to brush against his skin.

Her voice was barely above a whisper, but she said his name as though it were a precious thing that she was determined to keep safe.

The sound of his name on her lips broke something inside of him.

He closed the infinitesimal distance between them. His lips met her own, warm and soft. And as they kissed, the ghosts of the past that had seemed to fill the room only moments before vanished.

Chapter Nineteen

Hope Unfurls

“Rose, are you listening to a word I am saying?” Lady Cotswalts’s voice jolted Rose out of her daydream.

Rose felt color rise to her cheeks. She had not been listening. She had, in fact, been thinking about the way Alexander had smiled at her that morning when she had woken up to find him watching her.

“Some people may find it slightly disconcerting to wake up to find a man staring at them.” Rose had yawned sleepily and gently prodded Alexander’s chest. “How long have you been peeping at me?”