The Rogue Not Taken

King drank deep of the wine, willing it to stay the memories she awakened. “How is your shoulder?”

“Tolerably sore,” she said before taking a deep breath and diving in. “Why don’t you wish to see him?”

He should have known she wouldn’t be able to stop herself. “You’re like a dog with a bone.”

“You’re calling me a dog again?”

He smiled, but with little humor. “Cruelty is not the only way fathers ruin their sons. Expectations can do the same damage.”

“What did yours expect?”

“For me to marry well.”

She cut him a look and spoke dryly. “What a horrible thing for a father to desire.” When he did not reply, she continued, “Why not marry one of the women you’ve ruined?”

None of them had wanted to marry him, but he didn’t tell her that. Instead, he told her the truth. “I’ll never marry.”

“You’re a man with a title. Isn’t that your only purpose?”

He cut her a look. “Is that what women think?”

She smiled, small and clever. “Isn’t that what men think of women?”

“It’s not my purpose. Despite my father’s keen desire. The Dukedom of Lyne has passed from generation to generation of pure, unadulterated aristocracy. Every Duchess of Lyne has been perfectly bred to be just that, a duchess. Blue blood, pristine manners, and beauty beyond the pale.”

“I’ve never heard anything about your mother,” she said. “Not even when we lived in Mossband.”

He looked out the window at that, taking in the sky, streaking pink and red in the west, heralding the night. “That’s because she died in childbirth. It killed my father.”

“Did he love her very much?”

It was so preposterous that King laughed. “No. He was upset because it meant he wouldn’t get his spare.”

“He could have married again,” she said.

“I suppose he could have.”

“But he didn’t. Perhaps he did love her.”

Memories overtook him. “No Duke of Lyne has ever married for love. They’ve married for duty and for offspring. It’s what we’re bred to want.”

“And you? What do you want?”

No one had ever asked him the question. It had been a long time since he’d thought on it. Since it had been possible. And then it hadn’t been possible any longer, because of his father’s arrogance and his own recklessness.

Because of the vow he’d made in the dead of night on a road much like this one.

Later, he would blame it on the darkness when he told her the truth. “I want to look my father in the eye and take away everything he ever wanted.”

The line ends with me.

How many times had he written the words to his father? How many times had he said them to himself? And somehow, now, they ached in a way they hadn’t for years.

“I’m sorry,” she said, softly.

He didn’t want her pity. He drank again. Offering her the bottle, he asked, “Do your parents love each other?”

“Oh, quite desperately,” she said, taking the wine. She looked to the basket on the floor. “Is there a glass?” He shook his head and she wiped the top of the bottle with her skirts. For a moment, King considered reminding her that they’d done a great deal more than share a wine bottle, but he refrained when she resumed speaking. “My father is crass and disinterested in anything but coal, and my mother is—crass in her own way, I suppose—but very eager to be accepted by Society. One without the other, however—it would not be possible. That is why my sisters and I are unmarried. Because we know what we might have.”

Happiness.

He heard the word without her speaking it.

“Except Seraphina . . . she’s different.”

“She caught a duke,” he reminded her as she drank. “Love didn’t seem to be her goal.”

Sophie shook her head and passed the wine back. “I will never understand what happened. Sera, more than any of us . . . she was waiting for love.”

“And you?” He didn’t know why he asked. It didn’t matter.

She opened the book, then closed it. Again and again. “That’s part of the freedom, isn’t it?” He didn’t reply, so she added, “I’ve never imagined anything as freeing as love must be.” She smiled, and he saw the sadness in the fading light. “I hope to experience it, of course. All the bits and pieces.”

“With your baker.” He disliked the taste of the words.

She did not hesitate. “In our bookshop, gifted to us by a losing marquess, who was positively obsequious with his compliments.”

The words made him chuckle. “Do not count your books before they are shelved, my lady.” Silence fell for a long moment before he added, “It is not the stuff of poems and fairy tales.”

“Bookshop owning?”

“Love. Make no mistake. Love has nothing to do with freedom.” Her focus snapped to him as he told her the wicked truth, “It’s the most devastating trap there is.”

Surprise flashed in her eyes. He was surprised himself, he had to admit. What in hell had him saying such a thing?

“And you would know?” she asked.

“I would, as a matter of fact,” he said, wondering if the waning light was addling him to the point of confession.

“I thought the Dukes of Lyne did not marry for love.”

“I am not married, am I?”

“Are you in love?” she asked, the words coming on a shocked whisper. “With Marcella?”