Page 54 of The Wicked Duke's Convenient Bride
“Can you tell me anything that might help me find these men?” Matthew asked. “We must surely prevent them from abducting any more young women.”
Rosemary shook her head and bit her lip. “I am sorry,” she said, “but it is so very difficult to speak of. I do not know if I will be able to—and I cannot recall all my experiences. I was often drugged, you see.”
Matthew was quiet for a long moment, mulling his wife’s words in his head. It seemed so absurd, and Rosemary’s account was very sparse in details. He wanted to believe her; truly, he did. How could he, though, when Cassius’s story was beginning to look more rational by the moment?
“What about Elaine?” Matthew asked. “What of her?”
She hesitated.
“Is she still with them? Surely, you did not leave her,” Matthew said.
“No,” Rosemary replied. “No, she is safe, but I thought London might be too much to endure after such a harsh trial. It is nearly too hard for me.”
She shifted on his lap and kissed him. His throat felt raw as he breathed in the delicate scent of her English lavender and rose oil. “I am sure,” he said. “Where did you leave her?”
“In Yorkshire.”
If Rosemary had been held captive for over a decade, he could not imagine that she would be suddenly so quick to abandon their daughter. Surely, she would want to keep Elaine as close to her as she possibly could. Matthew would have wanted to do that.
“I must confess that I was not entirely surprised to see you,” Matthew said.
Rosemary’s softness and sadness faltered for just an instant. There was a second of suspicion in her gaze, smoothed over quickly but not quickly enough.
“Because you never stopped believing that I would return?” she asked.
“No,” he replied. “I was assured that you would. A short while ago, a gentleman told me the most interesting story. He said that you were not abducted but that you had left me to become the mistress of a prince. You wanted to be a princess or a queen, I assume. But then, your prince was not chosen to inherit the throne, so you decided to return to me.”
“That is a ridiculous story!” Rosemary exclaimed. “Who told you such a ridiculous thing?”
“Get off me.”
He shifted and pushed her shoulder. She stumbled from his lap, and he stood. Still, Matthew wanted to believe her and ignore everything his head told him, but the details of Cassius’s story lined up far too neatly. And Rosemary’s own version of events was sorely lacking. His heart raced, and his thoughts went in a dozen different directions.
“I will ask you one more time,” Matthew said. “Where is our daughter? And I want the truth! Did you leave her in some far-flung place? Do you even know where she is?”
Rosemary looked askance. Her breath came in shudders, and she looked as though she might cry again. Matthew said nothing. Instead, he crossed his arms and waited for her to realize the futility of this.
At last, she rubbed her hands across her reddened face. Her eyes were bright from the wash of her forced tears. “The prince made me leave Elaine with my great-aunt,” she said. “I had no choice.”
The words were like a physical blow to his heart. She had taken their daughter, not even to raise herself, but had spirited her away to live with a distant relative.
Matthew thought of all the insults and cruel things he had ever heard said about Rosemary, all the accusations and insinuations that he had defended her from, but he saw with sudden clarity that this woman was not one who ought to be defended. She was everything his mother and sister had always said she was, and for twelve years, he had grieved and searched for a version of Rosemary who did not exist.
“You had every choice!” he exclaimed. “You could have chosen to remain with me! Or, if you were unhappy, you could have told me you wished to leave. I would have let you!”
“You would have tried to persuade me to stay!” Rosemary countered. “You idolized me! Do you have the faintest idea how difficult it was trying to be as perfect as you believed me to be?”
“Do not find fault in me for this! Nothing I have ever done to you could justify your callous treatment of me! You let me believe the worst—that you were dead! And you took my daughter from me. If my fault was that I held you in too high esteem, I do regret that, but it hardly justifies your actions!”
Rosemary sobbed, but Matthew was far past being moved by womanly tears.
“You will leave,” he said. “You will never darken my life again, and I will do everything in my power to ensure that you and I are legally separated in every way. You are no longer the Duchess of Hillsburgh. If you wish to survive, you had best hope that your prince still desires you.”
“You cannot do this! I have nowhere that I can possibly go!” Rosemary exclaimed. “He will not take me.”
Rosemary looked at him, utterly bereft, and Matthew suspected that her emotions were not entirely an act. She truly was desperate. Life was difficult for unmarried ladies, particularly older ones.
If Rosemary had neither her prince nor him, Matthew did not know how she would survive, and at the moment, he could not bring himself to care. Rosemary had chosen to leave him in the cruellest way possible. These were the consequences of her own actions, and she would have to face them alone.
