A Gentleman Never Tells(70)

However, she remembered Auntie Bethie telling her that her mother had said an apology is never out of line. Obviously, Gabrielle wasn’t as good as her mother because she didn’t feel one was necessary, considering the fact Staunton was in love with Rosa and seeing her behind Gabrielle’s back.

But for Rosa’s sake, Gabrielle was willing to forgive, forget, and apologize.

She cleared her throat and forced herself to say, “I’m sorry for any anguish my mistake caused you.”

He sneered. “That’s all?”

Exasperated, she said, “I apologized. There’s nothing more that need be said, so could we please get on with the matter at hand?”

Staunton huffed and moved his hat from under one arm to the other. “Very well, I suppose it will do. And yes, I’m willing to accept you back and carry on with our wedding plans at a later date.”

Gabrielle stopped walking and looked at him with uncomprehending eyes. Did he say what she thought he had?

Surely not.

He moved closer, and she instinctively stepped back. “But you have been very naughty.” Suddenly he smiled. “You must first show me how contrite you are about the way you misbehaved.”

A shiver of dread skimmed her spine and gooseflesh pebbled her skin, even though she was wrapped in her heavy woolen cape. Something wasn’t right.

She moistened her lips. “I’m afraid I don’t understand.”

“Then let me explain it to you. With our first engagement, you held all the cards, and why shouldn’t you? Being the eldest child of a duke, you had been taught you had certain rights and expectations. But that won’t be so, this time.”

This time?

Was he really talking about salvaging their engagement? Why? When he was supposed to love Rosa?

Apparently unaware Gabrielle was confused, Staunton kept talking.

“I’ve decided to take you back as my betrothed. And, Gabby, when I want to kiss you, my dear, I will kiss you. You will not pull away from me and plead innocent as you have in the past. You will not tell me you will not join me in the garden for a late evening good-night kiss. You will be at my beck and call, and I will call you often.”

He stood so proud and confident before her that Gabrielle could only stare at him in silence. He was not saying what she had expected him to say.

“What on earth are you talking about, Staunton? I didn’t come here to ask you to renew our engagement.”

His brow wrinkled. “What?”

“I came to talk to you about Rosa.”

He shifted his hat again, and the corners of his eyes twitched guiltily. “What did she tell you about us?”

“That you love each other.”

“She’s a foolish young girl who obviously has fantasies I don’t begin to understand.”

Gabrielle gasped. “I know you have been slipping around to see each other. I came here to tell you that must stop. If anyone finds out, her reputation will be in shreds.”

Red splotches broke out on his face. “Something like your reputation, I suppose. You seem to be doing all right after your little affair in the park.”

Gabrielle’s jaw went slack and then tightened. She was so caught off guard by what he was saying she hardly knew how to respond.

“I am handling the gossip in the newsprint and the whispers at parties, but Rosa would find it very difficult to do. If you want to marry her, you must do the right thing by her and tell your father and hers to post the banns and marry immediately.”

Staunton chuckled. His earlier nervous twitch was gone; his confidence had returned. “Marry her? Where did you get—did she tell you that?”

Gabrielle was beginning to understand Staunton, and she didn’t like what she was discovering. Her gloved hands made fists inside her muff, and her throat felt tight and restricted.

“Yes, of course. She told me you loved each other and you want to be married. I know this to be true, because I saw you two kissing. I saw the passion between you. I saw—”

He stepped in closer to her and snarled. “You saw what you obviously wanted to see, you little spy.”

She gasped. “Spy?”

“Yes, that’s what you are. And yes, there was passion between us, because she is not afraid to be kissed and touched like you are.”

“Are you telling me you don’t love Rosa?”

“Love her?” He shrugged in a nonchalant manner. “I love that she is passionate. That she enjoys being in a man’s arms. She likes to be caressed and told how beautiful she is. Things you never wanted me to do or say. So what else was I to do when she sought me out and offered herself to me?”