The Proposition by Madeleine Roux

Author:Madeleine Roux [Roux, Madeleine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2022-08-02T00:00:00+00:00

12

It was only a matter of time before Delphine recovered and came to harangue him. Not that he believed himself undeserving of her scorn. She arrived like the presaging of a blizzard, the air in the room going still and flat, a moment of anticipation winding a knot between his shoulders, and then Audric heard the office door hinge squeak, and he let out a long-building breath.

“You should have told her everything,” Delphine murmured, her voice ragged from the sobbing she must have done in her chambers. “If you wanted her to be a partner in your cruel business, you should have made the terms of her participation clear.”

Audric was too cowardly to immediately face her. He stared instead out the window, the desk between him and it, his fists pressed into the hard surface, digging, hurting, to the point where the pain had become punitive.

“How could I tell her?” he asked softly. “When I can hardly tell it to myself?”

“Oh, yes, it is impossible to accept,” Delphine whispered. She sounded exhausted, as if the sadness had broken like a fever, leaving her only weary. “And yet we must accept. And now she must too. It is all so terribly disappointing, Audric. All of it. I thought you were courting her in earnest, and now I have to grieve that lie too.”

The candles in his office had burned low. He stared at one not far from a stack of papers left by his bookkeeper. The flame flickered and danced, and burned its way into his sight, so that when he finally rose and stood straight and turned in profile toward his sister, the fire followed, a yellow smudge blighting his vision. He didn’t know how to respond to Delphine—to deceive her further seemed inconceivably cold, but his own thoughts when turned toward Miss Fry were murky. In his mind, she stubbornly eluded labels like “friend” or “acquaintance.” They had kissed, and he was not fool enough to declare it unwanted. He wanted her but understood their arrangement made any innocent, romantic notions unlikely. Clemency after all despised marriage.

He might remain a hunter ever eluded, and the thought stung. At least he would not become what his father had become to their mother—an ominous, looming taskmaster. A master, not a partner.

“Miss Fry is wary of men and marriage generally,” he said. “One can hardly blame her. My only concern right now is your—”

“My what?” Delphine laughed and crossed the office to where he stood leaning against the desk. She took his hand and held it loosely in the warm weave of her ten fingers. “My safety? My happiness? I am as safe as I can be,” she added, staring up at him. He still could not meet her gaze and winced when she dropped his hand and reached up to fix one curl of his hair. “And I am as happy as I can be. Look to yourself, brother. What about your safety and happiness? Take care, or you will wind up like Father, all alone in an empty house, staring down a long line of loveless memories.

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