What a Reckless Rogue Needs (The Sinful Scoundrels, #2)(43)

“Let us go upstairs. I want to finish quickly.”



He opened the last two trunks. They knelt side by side. She prayed for a miracle as she set the folded sheets, blankets, and candleholders aside. There was nothing else inside.


“No luck here.” Colin stood and extended his hand to her. She took it and felt his loss as if it were her own.

“I’m sorry,” she said.

“I expected it.”

She had no words of comfort and knew they wouldn’t help anyway.

“Will you come with me to the drawing room? I don’t want to depart just yet,” he said.

“Yes, of course.”

He led her down the stairs and into the drawing room. She perched on a sofa, and he sat beside her.

“Thank you for your faith in me and for your assistance,” Colin said. “While our efforts were for naught, I am grateful to you.”

“I wish you would reconsider approaching your father. You deserve at least six months.”

He shook his head. “He is adamant. Once he makes a decision, he rarely changes his mind. In this case, he won’t. We will have little opportunity to talk with so many others about, but thanks to you, I will make more of an effort with my family.”

At least she’d managed to help him in that regard. “You will never regret it.”

“There is something else, and you are under no obligation to answer. I’m greatly disturbed by what happened to you and about your father’s state of mind. The day he came here, his spirits seemed good, but when he heard our mothers discussing plans for you, he was extremely discomposed. He was also drinking copious amounts of brandy. I don’t want to judge him, as I’ve been guilty of overindulging, but I had the impression that he is overwrought.”

She looked at her clasped hands. “It’s my fault.”

“You’re not responsible for his reactions.”

She met his eyes briefly. “I was taken in by a cad.”

“Angeline, it occurs to me that you have no one to talk to about what happened. I know whatever occurred is painful for you. You’ve likely had to hold it all inside. I think that must make matters far worse. If you prefer privacy, I understand, but I will listen without judgment.”

He’d honed in on one of the most difficult aspects. She’d had no one to confide in and had never felt comfortable discussing the events with her mother. In truth, she’d hidden much from her mother in Paris to spare her additional pain.

She took a deep breath. “You are perceptive. There has been no one I could trust, and by the time everything fell apart, I had no friends to confide in. Everyone had shunned me. I don’t blame them at all. We both know the rules of the ton. Almost anything is tolerated except indiscretion, but I am beforehand in my tale.”

“Start from the beginning,” he said.

“Not once did it ever occur to me that I might ever be in danger from a rake. Who would dare meddle with a duke’s daughter? So I flirted, danced, and traded quips with gentlemen. I ignored my mother’s dire warnings that I’d gained the label of flirt and was courting trouble. Then one day, I awoke to the realization that I was thirty years old and in serious danger of becoming a spinster.”

“How did you get involved with Brentmoor?”

“Charlotte invited me to join her and her husband, Viscount Portsworth, at Vauxhall. There was a large party in the box, and I felt safe with my friends. Brentmoor joined the group, but he was not one of the invited guests. Portsworth did not ask him to leave, probably because he didn’t want to create a stir.”

Colin nodded. “Yes, it’s usually best to ignore the interlopers, but I suspect Brentmoor made a habit of it.”

“I knew Brentmoor had a bad reputation, but I didn’t give him a second thought. I figured he would not dare trifle with me in the presence of esteemed friends. After a while, someone suggested the group walk along the lighted avenues. Brentmoor made it a point to walk beside me. When he tried to flirt, I told him he was wasting his breath. I might as well have waved a red flag in front of a bull. The evening concluded without incident, and I promptly dismissed him from my thoughts.

“Thereafter, he seemed to be at every entertainment I attended. He tried to charm me, but I refused his requests to dance. One night I left a crowded ballroom to get some air on the landing. I fanned my hot face and paid scant attention to the group of gentlemen nearby. Then I overheard one of them say that I was headed for ape territory.”

Colin gritted his teeth. It was a derogatory term for spinsters. “Who was he?”

“I’ve no idea. As you can imagine, I did not want to face them. In hindsight, I should have stared them down with my head held high, but I was humiliated. My mother had warned me about the perils of waiting too long to marry, but I didn’t think it applied to me. I thought my father’s rank would protect me. I was desperate to keep my composure, but I was shaking. Then Brentmoor was at my side. He’d heard it all and damned the cads who had dared to speak of me in such an insulting manner.

“He insisted on escorting me into the ballroom to my father, where I would be safer. Then he apologized and said he knew he wasn’t worthy of me. Of course, I negated that statement, and my father was grateful. After all, he was kind to me and admitted his character was imperfect. The next day he called upon me and spoke to my father. Once again, he admitted he was unworthy, but he had wanted to ensure I had recovered from that heinous insult. He stated that he would not presume to call again, because he was unfit.