“What about you?”
Him? What about him? He had things he worried about as well. All of which had to do with what had happened here, and none of which he wanted to dwell on, which left him in a hell of a predicament.
“What if I want you to come?” she said. “What if I want to escortyouhome to today?”
“No need.”
They stared at each other. Another face overlapped with Leonora’s, an older face. His mother’s bright and smiling eyes had once glistened like hers. But it hadn’t lasted. It never lasted.
He was his father’s son.
Never forget that.
Dare quirked his lips into a smile that felt all too familiar, all too natural. A mask he’d trained his face to bear well. “I’ll be fine.” He shut the door and took a step back.
And he would be fine.
After all, he always had been.
Chapter Fourteen
Leonora’s daze hadyet to leave her as she fell back on the bed still soaked from head to toe.
The truth was out. For Dare, anyway.
And if she’d learned anything in her life, it was that the moment the stem of a flower was cut, it could never be reattached. Courtesy of her adventures in the garden as a child, she was also well aware that neither would the stem ever grow back. When it was cut, it was cut. All you could do was display the flower until it inevitably wilted.
Lord, she was growing morbid.
But how should she feel about Dare finding out? She didn’t know. Perhaps there was no right way to feel.
And what about that kiss? And that look on his face before he closed the carriage door?
“Arg!” She covered her face with her hands. “What am I going to do?”
What could she do? Nothing, that’s what! The thing to do would have been to deny his guess, for it had been a guess.
“Why didn’t I do that?” Why, why, why?
You know why.
The thought lodged itself in her mind, even as the next crept in:Do I really?
The truth of the matter was, she didn’t want to carry this secret alone anymore. Her family knew, but she wasn’t supposed to, leaving her isolated in her own knowledge. She could confesswhat she knew to Heart, but she didn’t have the heart. Ironic, that.
Dare putting the pieces together may have taken the burden of solitary knowledge from her shoulders, but it only added another. Another she hadn’t fully thought through.
Himself.
In the distance, a door slammed, and she sighed.
Here we go.
She didn’t have to wait long before heavy strides thundered down the hallway, followed by her door slamming open.Poor doorwas all she managed to conjure by way of thought as her gaze fell on Heart. The oak seemed to take a beating in her place.
“Well, I am glad to see you home,” the raging beast said in a tone dripping with resentment.
“Where else would I be?”