Page 6 of Once a Scoundrel

Unable to answer that with the truth, she turned her face away. It wasn’t hate that she’d felt for him. “Your parents must be thrilled to have you home,” she dodged. “They missed you.”

A knowing flicker registered deep in his midnight blue eyes at her rapid change of topic. “Mother is, of course. I’m not so certain about Father.”

“He is, too,” she asserted, although she knew how strained Stephen’s relationship had been at times with his adopted father. She also suspected that General Grey was part of the reason Stephen had joined the army, so that he could prove himself in a way the general would appreciate.

Something else nagged at her, though...She drew a deep breath and charged ahead by asking, “Since you’re already here, will you ask my father for permission to court Margaret?”

“Your sister?” He puzzled. “Why would I do that?”

“It’s always been expected that you would marry one of Strathmore’s daughters.” But now that the twins were married and she’d failed at her chance with him...She shrugged. “She’s the only one left.”

He stared down at her with a peculiar look that she couldn’t place. “I don’t like to do the expected.”

“Or the proper.”

He frowned. “What do you mean by that?”

“That you’ve always prided yourself on being scandalous and stirring up trouble.” And the bigger the trouble, the more he’d thrilled to it.

“Not anymore,” he said with conviction. “I’m a respectable man now.”

She wished she could believe him. That would go a long way toward forgiveness.

And yet...“I’ve heard rumors that you’re keeping a mistress.” Throwing all caution to the wind, hoping that he really had changed and that the gossips were wrong— “And that you have an illegitimate son.”

He stiffened. Only one missed step as he turned her through the last circle indicated that her comment pricked him, yet no one watching from the crush would have noticed anything wrong at all.

“Don’t tell me you believe those rumors?” he dodged, glancing away.

Her heart fell. He hadn’t denied them. He’d simply side-stepped the topic and avoided admitting the truth. Which saddened her more than she wanted to admit.

Apparently, he hadn’t changed at all.

“I know what you were like before, Stephen.” And he’d been exactly the kind of man to sire an illegitimate child on a mistress. “Since you’ve returned, you’ve done nothing to discourage—”

“Daniel,” he bit out with a ferocity that startled her.

“Pardon?”

He hesitated, his lips parted as if to tell her— He shook his head, then pressed his mouth into a tight line as he looked away.

“Stephen?” she pressed, a sudden dread clenching her at the mix of raw emotions flitting across his face.

“Daniel’s death changed everything,” he said finally, quietly, yet Faith had the feeling that he’d wanted to say something else.

“Of course it did,” she murmured. She might never forgive him for the way he treated her, but at that moment, her heart melted for him.

Her eyes stung at the reminder of that letter from two years ago in which he described the uprising, how his regiment had been attacked without warning, how everyone would have been killed if not for Stephen’s order to charge. A charge which resulted in his best friend’s death. She couldn’t imagine the guilt he felt over that, or how much pain he still carried inside him.

“When you wrote about Daniel, you didn’t say what happened to you.” She swallowed hard. “What was that fight like for you?”

“Hell,” he answered solemnly, offering nothing more.

The last notes of the waltz sounded.Thank God. Around them, the whirling couples came to a stop. She gratefully stepped back, although the loss of the heat and strength of being in his arms rushed over her so intensely that she shuddered.

As she curtsied and he bowed, he murmured, “Meet me on the terrace at midnight.”

She nearly fell over in her surprise as she rose. “Pardon?”