The Misplaced Miss Eloise by Maggie Dallen

Author:Maggie Dallen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Maggie Dallen

11

He had to tell her.

Alex eyed Eloise over the table as she dug into the stew with relish. He’d be doing the same if guilt wasn’t currently eating him alive from the inside out.

He’d made the right decision in sending a messenger for Rodrick.

Hadn’t he?

So then, why had guilt been weighing upon him like a boulder all day?

It was because of his mother, no doubt. His memories of her and the emotions they stirred had him acting without thought when it came to Eloise. There was no denying the similarities. He’d seen it that first moment they’d met. As they’d danced, he’d been repelled by it. She’d seemed so like his mother in all the worst ways. So helpless. So docile. So weak.

But he’d been so very wrong in that first assessment. She was nothing like his mother. He knew without having to reason it through that if Eloise had been in his mother’s position, she would have moved hell and earth to protect her son. To protect herself as well.

That was what she’d been doing when she ran, and here he was, just waiting to offer her back to her family like a pet that’d gotten loose.

She smiled at him. “Aren’t you hungry? You’ve barely eaten a thing.”

“I am, yes, I was just...” He cleared his throat and looked away. “Just thinking.”

He felt her gaze on him as he ate.

“I am truly sorry, Alex,” she said softly.

He glanced up in surprise.

“You did not deserve what I did to you.” She leaned forward, determination in her gaze making them sparkle and glow like gems. “And I promise, I won’t let you pay for my reckless actions.”

He arched a brow. “Really? Because it sounds as though I’ll be paying for everything.”

She blushed at his teasing. “I meant—”

“I know what you meant,” he said. And for some reason it made his gut feel too heavy. She wanted to protect him. From having to marry her.

Nothing about that felt right, and not because he had some latent chivalrous side to him that he’d never noticed before.

He didn’t realize he’d been staring at her so intently until she began to fidget.

“Hopefully it will never be a concern. No one knows I am with you, and so long as we board that ship tomorrow, we will be on our way with no one the wiser. Right?”

Wrong. Her brother would be here. Even now he was likely riding roughshod to save his sister from her own reckless actions.

Alex’s stomach twisted angrily.

What was even more strange, aside from the guilt and the second guessing of his decision, every time he thought of sending her away, he felt an ache deep in his chest. Almost like he’d miss her.

Which was ridiculous, of course. He barely knew her. She’d been nothing but trouble. And amusing, he’d give her that. He hadn’t quite realized how bored he’d become with his lonely lifestyle until she’d burst into it, surprising him at every turn and making him swing between laughter, anger, and an aggravating desire with every passing second.

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