Her darling?
Could this get any worse?
Ronan’s hand was at her waist again.
Comforting.
Protective.
“Miss Farthingale,” Lady Alexandra said, “this is most awkward, but you may as well know the rest of it. There’s no point in keeping it quiet now that we’ve been caught in this compromising situation. Lord Wainscott and I have been secretly betrothed for a month now. Unofficially, that is. We dared not make the official announcement before the betrothal contract was signed, which it was yesterday.”
Her words were like a punch to Dahlia’s face. “What?”
“I’m so sorry. I did not think it was fair to keep it from you. But Lord Wainscott insisted. You must realize he was never yours. He never considered marrying you. But I do apologize it had to come out this way. Come, Gerald. Father and I will take you home now.”
Dahlia moved aside to allow Alexandra’s father in. At the same time, she took Ronan’s hand and drew him aside, purposely keeping her fingers entwined in his until Gerald and the Mintons quit the room. She did not want him doing anything else to the oaf while he was in a seething rage.
Let him think she was a meek flower in need of his support.
It was not very far off the mark.
She had never seen a man look as angry as Ronan looked now. His eyes were ablaze, and if he were a tea kettle, he would have had steam pouring from his ears. “Bollocks,” he said with a heartfelt groan, pity for her situation etched in his handsome features. “I’m so sorry, Dahlia. I did not see that one coming.”
“Nor did I.” She shoved her way through the crowd and ran from the room in tears.
CHAPTER TWO
Ronan found Dahlia sobbing on the bed in one of the upstairs guest bedchambers.
Her sisters, Holly and Heather, had run up with him, as had a flurry of her cousins, but he shooed the cousins away. “Give her a moment to herself. Holly, this is your party. You ought to return to your guests. Heather and I will look after her.” Of course, he was going to stay beside Dahlia because...well, because he was her King Bean and she was his Queen Pea, and therefore, he was responsible for her.
As everyone dutifully filed downstairs, he and Heather strode in and shut the door behind them. Heather rushed to her sister’s side. “I’m so sorry Gerald hurt you, Dahlia.”
Dahlia responded by sobbing louder.
Now Heather looked ready to burst into tears herself. The sisters were close, not only in age but in their affection for each other. If one was hurting, then the other would hurt, too.
Ronan ran a hand through his hair, uncertain what to do or say.
These girls were both so young and innocent. Dahlia was not quite twenty years old. Heather had just turned eighteen.
Wainscott’s betrayal had been a devastating blow.
Bollocks.
He knew how to handle a French army firing artillery at him, but he had never had to console two crying women before. He was lost. Still, he had to say something. Didn’t he? “Not all men are like him, Dahlia. You’ll understand when the right one comes along.”
“Go away, Ronan. Why did you have to hit him? It only made matters worse.”
He did not see how that was possible.
Sighing, he drew up a chair beside the bed and sank onto it. “You must understand. I could not let him get away with speaking to you that way. He meant to humiliate you in front of your friends and family. That was a low thing to do even for a snake. Lady Alexandra ought to have been appalled by his behavior.”
“Why? I am nobody to her. I will never be in her elevated circle.”
“Your connections in society are just as good as hers, perhaps better. How many of your cousins have married dukes, earls, viscounts, barons? And what of my family? We have three earls among us, including my own brother, Tynan. Also my two cousins, Marcus and James. Westcliff, Kinross, and Exmoor, respectively.”
“But I am no relation to you.”
“Your sister is married to my brother. That is close enough.”
She sniffled. “He made me feel so awful.”
“I know.” He took out his handkerchief and handed it to her. “Dry your eyes, Queen Pea. He isn’t worth another moment of your anguish.”
“Ugh! Don’t call me that. This stupid Twelfth Night cake is what started this mess.”
He cleared his throat. “Wainscott started this mess months ago. Now that he’s secured an earl’s daughter, he was looking for any excuse to pick a fight with you and cut ties.”
She looked up at him, her nose pink and tears streaming down her face. “He could have just told me.”
Heather nodded. “He should have. Why did he lie to Dahlia?”
Ronan ran a hand across the nape of his neck, still feeling the discomfort of the situation. “I don’t know. Perhaps he meant to return to Dahlia if things did not work out with Lady Alexandra. But now, with the ink drying on his betrothal contract, he may have felt the need to cut ties fast. I think his aim was to provoke a fight and have you appear as the villain when you began to shout at him and cause a scene.”
Heather looked confused. “Dahlia would never do such a thing.”
“I know, but obviously, Gerald did not realize it. In his dim mind, he thought he had to make Dahlia out to be unreasonable or deluded because if she came forward and claimed he had made promises to her, it would have put his betrothal to Lady Alexandra in jeopardy. He needed to discredit Dahlia before Lady Alexandra’s father publicly announced their betrothal.”
Heather finally caught on. “Because if Dahlia sounded logical and reasonable, then everyone would know Gerald had been a disreputable snake, and it would have made him look bad.”
“And given Balliwick a reason to rescind the betrothal.”
Dahlia sat up and regarded him, her eyes so sad and filled with pain. “So he had to humiliate me?”
“It was stupidly done. A big blunder on his part. But he’s pompous, thoughtless, and a coward. It wasn’t hard to see what he was thinking.”
Heather, who was seated on the bed beside Dahlia and hugging her, shook her head in confusion. “He did not appear to be thinking at all. How did the dreadful scene he caused help him in any way?”
“It didn’t. But he came here with a plan in mind and was not quick-witted enough to change it after Dahlia unexpectedly walked into the library and...um, caught him in the act.” He cleared his throat, unable to state aloud what Wainscott and Alexandra had been doing. Not that he needed to explain it to Dahlia.
She’d gotten an eyeful.
Dahlia heaved a sigh. “You said Lady Alexandra was a ninny. It seems she was the clever one in all this.”
Ronan rolled his eyes. “She is a ninny. The last thing Wainscott wanted was for her to announce to one and all that he’d been secretly courting her for months. All his scheming blew up in his face. No matter what he says or does now, everyone will know he was the conniving weasel, and you were the–”
“What was I? The spurned fool? The clueless rustic?” She dried her tears and cast him a look of resolve. “Well, not anymore. I’ve had my cry, and I am determined never to shed another tear over him again.”
Ronan did not believe her for a moment. She had an expressive face that revealed all, and she was obviously still in pain. Her lips were trembling, and her chin began to wobble. Bollocks. She was going to burst into tears again.