Page 91 of The Duke's Unclaimed Bride
“This was all a mistake,” he muttered, rubbing a hand down his face.
“Look, the event didn’t go as planned, but?—”
“Not the event,” he snapped. “This.”
“This?”
“We…” He took a deep breath. “We were never supposed to be more than an arrangement.”
Edith’s heart stuttered, and her hands began to shake. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that we have taken this too far. Much too far.”
“Don’t say that,please,” she whispered.
“Edith—”
“No!” she snapped. “I’m not going to let you do this, Laurence.”
“We were just an arrangement,” he insisted. “We would all do well to remember that.”
“But we became something more!” she cried, her eyes stinging with tears. “You cannot do this.”
“I can.”
“Why are you doing this?” she choked out.
“You said it yourself—I lost control tonight.”
“You were defending yourself,” she assured him.
“I hurt Tilly.”
“You were angry; you can still apologize and make it up to her.”
“I could have hurt you again.”
“I don’t care.”
“I do,” he said, looking away from her. “This… this isn’t right, Edith. I never had any right to let you believe we could be anything more than our arrangement.”
“I didn’t just believe it; wearemore than our arrangement!” she wept.
“No,” he said firmly.
“Yes!” she sobbed. “Laurence, I love you.”
Silence filled the space between them. His jaw tightened, and he closed his eyes. She watched him swallow hard. Her vision blurred with tears that she tried to blink away.
“I know,” he whispered. “That is why I should never have let this go further.”
“We both?—”
“I should never have allowed you to fall in love with me.”
Edith’s world tilted, and she felt dizzy. Her breath hitched.
“That’s not something either of us can control,” she whispered.
