Page 81 of A Duke for Stealing
“Please do not go, Lady Rose,” Diana begged, holding tightly to Rose’s leg.
“What did we do wrong?” Leah asked, standing a wary few steps away with a guarded expression.
Rose’s throat ached as she once more forced herself not to cry.
“Darlings, you did nothing wrong!” She answered sincerely. “This is not a punishment! Now, come, what is bothering you? Ihave left the house before, haven’t I? And I have not always come back?”
“Yes, but this feels different,” Leah replied. Despite her resolute expression, her blue eyes grew watery.
“Very different,” Diana added, hugging Rose’s leg even tighter.
Rose’s already bruised heart felt utterly torn in two as she looked over at her girls. She loved them now. Just as she had fallen for Everett, she had fallen for these two precious angels before her. She was not leaving them, though. She was leaving Everett. A situation impossible to explain to children.
Rose gently untangled Diana from her leg so she could kneel down and take her under her arm. She then held her other arm out to Leah. Although reluctant at first, Leah came over and snuggled into Rose’s side.
“Now I want you both to listen very carefully,” Rose said, holding them tight, “I promise you, Iwillbe back in a few days. Maybe even sooner. Until I return, I need you to be good girls. Listen to your uncle, attend to your lessons, and before you know it, I shall be back to tuck you in and read you your bedtime stories.”
“Tonight?” Diana asked.
She didn’t think it possible, but Rose’s heart somehow broke a little more.
“Not tonight. But very soon.”
She gave them both a kiss on the cheek and let them go, rising to her full stature.
“Be kind to them, Mrs. Mulberry,” Rose said to the head housekeeper as she met her in the hall. “I know you prefer a stern hand, but until I return, be kind.”
Mrs. Mulberry gave a stiff nod as her chin wobbled. It was as if she, just like the twins, knew something was going on.
“I certainly will, Your Grace,” Mrs. Mulberry replied. “And I hope you do not mind me saying so, but we all readily await your return.”
God, could you make this any harder?
Rose swallowed her tears, forced a smile, and nodded. With her luggage already packed in the carriage and her goodbyes said, Rose had nothing left to do but get into her carriage and go back to the one place she’d sworn she’d never return: her mother’s house.
Being around her married friends was only going to make her feel worse, she’d decided. Although she’d written to Ophelia about her situation, her friend had responded that, with deep regret, she would not be able to host Rose. It was rare for Ophelia to decline a visit, so whatever the reason, Rose knew it was of great importance. She could not bring herself to go to theStapleton London house either. Not after the night she’d shared with Everett there.
Thus, with her last and least favored option, Rose tapped on the roof and started her journey to Betty’s.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
“Marriage is not for the weak, you know,” Betty stated.
She motioned to the nearby servant, who brought forth the pitcher of mixed spirits and refilled her glass. Betty picked up her refilled glass and took a long swallow. Rose remained silent, her body stiff and tense in her chair.
“It takes a strong woman to put up with the whims of a man,” Betty went on, unbothered by Rose’s silence. “I tried to raise you to understand that, but you were always so soft. I am not surprised that you came back to me broken. You should take a lover. It will ease your sorrow.”
Rose had spent the entire day silent. Even as Betty teased her. Even as her mother talked of her affairs and her grand life as a widow, Rose had said nothing. Now, though, as her mother called her broken, she could no longer hold her tongue.
“I am not broken, I am not soft, and I am not taking a lover,” Rose burst out. “You have no idea what I saw, what I felt with Everett. He was a rake once. I know that well and true, and he never denied it. But hewaschanging, Mother.”
Betty let out a loud, drunken laugh as she shook her head.
“Men do not change! They have been beasts since the beginning of time and will stay that way until the end of it. This is not one of your stories, Rose; this islife.And in real life, men do not bend to the love of a woman. They feed off of it like parasites, sucking it from a woman until she is nothing but a husk of what she once was, and when there is no more for her to give, she is discarded and replaced.”
“Father did not suck you dry,” Rose shot back. “It was you who had the affairs, Mother, do not forget.”
Betty threw back her head and let out a maniacal laugh.
