As the Devil Dares (Capturing the Carlisles #3)(85)
“Then end the project right now,” she challenged. Twisting free of his hold, she ran through the office to his desk and snatched up the papers lying there. “Destroy all your notes, tear up all the sales offers—do it!” She shoved the papers at him. When he wouldn’t take them, she thrust them into his arms. “If St Katharine’s means anything to you—if I mean anything to you—” Her voice choked with desperate hope. “Then walk away.”
And with that, to completely end all possibility of proving himself to his family.
As he stared at her, unable to do as she wanted, the silence reverberated between them like cannon fire. The wounded look of betrayal on her face cut through him. A look so raw and anguished that it stole his breath away.
In that moment’s silence, he knew he’d lost her.
She stepped back and raised a hand to keep him away. “You told me how much this partnership meant to you, how you’d do anything to prove yourself.” Her rasping voice broke with emotion as she struggled to fight back the sobs. A tear spilled down her face as she whispered, “But I underestimated how far you were willing to go.”
“You’re wrong.” Dear God, why wouldn’t she believe him? He tossed the papers aside and reached for her shoulders. “Mariah, listen—”
She slapped him, so hard that the crack of her hand against his cheek echoed through the office.
“Congratulations, Carlisle,” she choked out as she wrenched herself away from him. “You’ve proven yourself a true beast after all.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Oh, she’d been such a fool!
Swiping at her eyes with the back of her hand, Mariah stopped in the basement hallway of the Gatewell School and leaned against the wall.
Breathe…just breathe…If she focused on the simple act of breathing, then perhaps she wouldn’t crumple to the floor in tears.
But each beat of her heart brought a jarring stab of self-recrimination inside her hollow chest of how stupid she’d been to fall for Carlisle’s charms. And oh God, what she’d done with the man! How she’d behaved no better than a wanton, foolishly believing that he found her desirable and beautiful. That he’d cared for her…
She squeezed her eyes shut, thanking heaven that the school was quiet for once, that the children were at their studies upstairs and the basement was silent except for the faint noises coming from the kitchen. But even that moment’s calm wasn’t enough to fight down the emotions churning inside her, so much so that she pressed her hand against her stomach to keep from being sick.
Oh, what a goose she’d been to trust him! To so blindly give herself to him—worse, to have fallen in love with him…only to have her body used and her heart shattered. Dear God, how would she ever recover?
From Papa, profiting from the new docks made sense. He’d never understood how much Gatewell and St Katharine’s meant to her, and working to increase the company’s profits was simply how he strove to protect his family. To him, the company’s future was the family’s future.
But Robert wasn’t some mindless soldier blindly following her father’s orders. He had more resolve than any other man she’d ever known, certainly enough to stand up to Papa about this project. She’d been convinced that he’d understood what this place meant to her. He’d lost a parent himself, knew what grief could do. She thought she’d come to know him…but apparently, she hadn’t known him at all.
No. She knew exactly what he was.
He was the devil, and she’d let him take her soul.
“Mariah, oh thank goodness you’re here!”
She opened her eyes and stared through the watery blurriness as Mrs. Smith hurried down the basement hallway. Mariah couldn’t answer for fear of breaking into fresh sobs.
The housekeeper stopped suddenly and stared at her. Her lips pressed together at the sight of her red-rimmed eyes and puffy nose, and her face softened sympathetically. “So you’ve heard already, then?”
Confusion added to the swirling emotions inside her. “Pardon?”
“Evelyn.” Worry darkened the older woman’s face. “I just received her note.”
With a stab of dread, she shoved herself away from the wall. What had her sister done now? “About what?”
Mrs. Smith blinked, now confused herself. “You don’t know?” Deep worry wrinkled her brow. “But your tears—”
“Aren’t important.” The last thing she wanted to do was explain why she was crying. “What’s happened?”
Mrs. Smith fished the note from her apron pocket and gave it to Mariah, then lowered her voice for fear of being overheard, “She’s run off.”
Oh God. Mariah quickly unfolded the note and scanned the message. With every word her heart fell further toward the floor. “To Scotland to elope,” she whispered, in her shock unable to speak any louder.
“To run off like that…” Mrs. Smith twisted her hands in her apron as she fretted with worry. “It’s not like her.”
Unfortunately, it was exactly like Evie. To follow her heart and leap without looking. But this leap might just ruin her life.
“Mariah!” Whitby’s voice boomed through the school as he charged down the steps into the basement. He hurried toward her, concern for her plastered all over his ruddy face, now made even more red from chasing after her all the way from Wapping. “Are you all right? You ran out before I could—”