Page 43 of A Rogue's Rules for Seduction
Kieran’s brows lifted. “She told you? We never could get a word out of her about it—but I eavesdropped on our parents when they fought and blamed each other for having such a defiant daughter.”
“She kept her silence with me, only—I heard her talking with Miss Steele. They were at that school together.”
“We’d only learned about it years later,” Finn said. “The numerous attempts to flee from that place. She never said exactly why she would try to escape, but I was able to figure out that the administration didn’t care for her independent spirit, and used punishment and force to break her.”
“Our mother and father wanted a pretty little ornamental daughter,” Kieran said grimly, “not an actual human being, and she refused to obey.”
“And before that, there were those governesses,” Finn mused. “Each one more of a dragon than the last, and all fond of caning.”
Dom’s fists clenched at his sides. “They struck her?”
It wasn’t odd that children were physically punished for alleged crimes, but never would he have believed that a genteel lady like Willa would have borne the brunt of such brutal methods.
Kieran scowled, and even Finn frowned angrily.
“Even starved her,” Kieran said darkly, “when they found her reading books we’d bring home from Eton. But she endured it until the governesses couldn’t suppress her, and they shipped her off to England’s harshest academy for girls. Guess they thought that would do the trick. On one of her escape attempts, she even made it to our home in London. But our blessed parents sent her straight back to the school.”
Fury scoured Dom, hot and caustic. He’d known, to some extent, that relations between Willa and her parents were strained, but never had he believed she’d been subject to so much awful abuse. Not only from the earl and countess, but everyone in positions of authority, all of them insisting that there was only one way to be a proper female. All this time, he hadn’t known what fueled her rebellious spirit. Like a fool, he’d been charmed by who he believed was a lively but spoiled lady.
She wasn’t a princess at all, and much more than the aristocratic prize he’d sought for himself. He’d been just another person in a long line of fools who expected something from her. There was a sensitive woman beneath her bravado, and he had been too focused on all her perceived toughness to realize that. To give her the tenderness and acceptance she needed.
There was a triumphant shout and Dom turned in time to see Willa holding tight to Celeste. Willa tore the blindfold from her eyes and gave anothercry of victory, while the other women—even Celeste—applauded.
Dom stuck his fingers in his mouth and whistled loudly in appreciation. The way he had when they’d been at the Royal Academy.
Beaming, beautiful, Willa didn’t curtsey. Shebowed. Like a champion, because that’s what she was.
The following day was brisk and breezy. Perfect, Longbridge asserted, for flying kites.
Dom joined a collection of guests out on one of the sweeping lawns. He strode beside Kieran and Celeste, his sister carrying one of the kites provided by their host, though his attention was on Willa.
She’d made good on her word, and was talking cheerfully and openly with Miss Steele while they loped along the grass. If Miss Steele had been intimidated by Willa in the past, that was gone now, both women laughing and sometimes whispering into each other’s ears.
Willamight have put her awful past behind her, but Dom couldn’t. The thought that she’d sought her parents’ help, only to be turned away, gutted him. And he’d been the bastard who had jilted her, another rejection in a series of them. Damn him for hurting her all over again.
“This spot is ideal,” Longbridge announced when they’d reached the middle of the huge lawn.
The guests broke into smaller groups, including Kieran and Celeste in one pairing, and Finn and Tabitha in another. Dom stuck his hands in his pockets to watch the couples as they tried to get their kites into the air.
Willa and Miss Steele struggled with their kite, each taking turns holding the paper-and-wood object and running to see if a breeze could catch it and lift it skyward. Yet after the fourth go and still no success, Miss Steele shrugged and went to take one of the glasses of sparkling wine a servant had on a tray.
Willa turned to Dom. “Advice on getting this ruddy thing airborne?”
He strode to her and examined the kite. “Back in Ratcliff, we pieced ours together with twigs and bits of found paper. Nothing this nice. And we could never get enough wind between the tenements to make anything fly for more than a few feet. Fun, though,” he added, smiling at the memory.
She glanced at him before returning her attention back to the kite in her hands. “It’s a simple enough contraption. Between the two of us, we ought to figure it out.Theyhave.”
Kieran and Celeste had gotten their kite into the air, and she held the line as they laughed up at the sight of the object dancing on the wind. Finn and Tabitha, too, were grinning madly at each other as Finn wrangled their kite into performing acrobaticswoops and dives. Both couples looked happy in a way that Dom could never imagine.
“It wouldn’t have worked,” Willa said softly. So softly he almost didn’t hear her. “You and me.”
“If we’d actually gone ahead with it and gotten married when we’d planned on it?” Dom exhaled as the truth of her words struck him. “A disaster.”
“We wouldn’t have had what my brothers have with their wives.” Her lips twisted into a wry smile. “I’d thought I was ready, but I wasn’t. Such a foolish girl.”
“And I was a clumsy brute. Not quite the stuff of ideal husbands.” He would have stalked around the house like an unchained animal, snarling and snapping, quick to take offense and quick to lash out.
“Could you imagine? The terrible fights we would’ve had?” She chuckled ruefully. “There wouldn’t have been a single piece of unbroken porcelain in the whole house.”
