Page 6 of A Duke for Stealing
CHAPTER TWO
“Iam a wretched person.” Rose groaned the words under her breath.
“What was that, Rose?” Amelia asked.
Realizing she’d just muttered her thoughts aloud, Rose quickly shook her head, picked up the soft pink skirts of her gown, and hurried to catch up to her friends.
“Nothing,” she replied.
Amelia raised an eyebrow as they joined the slow, finely dressed crowd making its way into the large stone church.
“Rose, are you quite alright? You do not look like yourself. Are you feeling well?”
“I am,” Rose answered quickly. She brought her fingers up to her mouth to chew on her thumb, realized she was wearing white satin gloves, and quickly put them down, twisting her fingers nervously into her purse strings.
“She is quite well,” Ophelia spoke up, throwing Rose a quick look. “Life with her Mama has just been…busy.”
Amelia, Seraphina, and Theo all turned to Rose with sympathetic looks.
“Yes,” Seraphina whispered, “We heard what happened last week. She took that awful spill. We hope she is well-recovered.”
She wasn’t. In fact, Betty had yet to have a sober moment since. Yet Rose would take worrying about that over the worry of the secret she held. At least her mother’s tribulations were her norm. In truth, though, she’d lost sleep after discovering Harriett’s secret, and the decision on whether or not to let Everett know weighed heavily on her with every passing day.
Now here they were, at the wedding in question, and Rose’s nerves were fit to be tied. Should she stop it? Or should she just let it go? Let the lives of those getting married play out without her interruption.
“Rose,” Ophelia whispered loudly.
She jerked her head up and saw that her friends were near the open double doors of the church; all of them looking at her withgrowing concern. Hurriedly, she passed through the crowd now separating them, offering profuse and multiple apologies she had to shoulder past.
“Rose, why do you not take Dominic’s other arm?” Amelia offered. “If you are not feeling well, he will have no trouble leading us to our seats, will you, Dominic?”
“Not at all,” Dominic replied, extending his free elbow to Rose.
Rose moved to take Dominic’s arm, but at the last moment, she pulled her arm back and gave them a tentative smile.
“I shall join you all shortly. I need a moment of refreshment,” she said, taking a step away from her friends.
“Well, we shall join you,” Ophelia said, already moving toward Rose.
“No,” Rose answered quickly, taking a quick step backward, “I should like to go by myself. I will only be a moment, I promise you.”
Ophelia gave her a wary look, as if her friend knew what she was about to do. Before she could say or do anything else, however, Rose darted away from her friends and followed the hall to the back rooms of the church. Ophelia might be fine keeping the secret, but Rose decided she was not.
Rose moved quickly, taking advantage of the empty halls to run in a rather unladylike fashion and peek into the rooms until she found the one Everett was nestled away in. When she finally found him alone, she closed the door behind her in a hurry, taking a moment to catch her breath.
“Rose,” Everett blurted, turning away from the standing mirror. His brows drew up into pure surprise as he looked her over. “What are you doing here?”
“You,” Rose said through deep breaths. “I must speak with you.”
A playful smirk alit Everett’s lips as he slid his hands into his pockets and strolled lazily toward her.
“What have you got to say, my lovely Rose?” Everett asked, his voice full of amusement, “Are you here to profess your desire for me? Beg me for one moment of bliss before I adorn the shackles of matrimony? How cheeky. Iloveit. Very well then, let us have a go.”
Rose shot him a dirty look. Of course, Everett would jump to that conclusion. He was the most infamous rake of their little circle.
“Do pretend you have the capacity to be a gentleman,” she replied, having caught her breath. “That is not what I am here for-” she paused, then added, “That is something I willneverask for. Especially of you.”
Everett’s smirk slipped into a half-hearted frown of bemusement.
