Page 103 of A Murder at Kew Gardens

I went up to bathe and change.

Chapter

Thirty-Seven

A Duke Loses His Argument

Honeycutt let me into Rosehaven House with his usual forbidding expression.

“I am here to see Lady Rosalynd.”

Something in my face must have told him there was no use arguing. But he still had his say. In a masterful piece of disapproval, he escorted me to the morning room without taking my hat, offered me nothing to drink, and closed the door when he left with a firm click.

As I stood at the window, I wondered if I should revise the speech I’d prepared. After a moment’s thought, I decided there was no need. It was orderly, reasoned, and should elicit the response I desired.

I didn’t have long to wait for Rosalynd. She entered the room with her hair half-pinned, a smudge of dust on her cuff, and perspiration on her brow. No less than expected. Petunia had said she was packing.

“Steele.” She dropped a small curtsy and tugged at the cuff as though she might persuade the dust to leave on request. “Forgive my state. I wasn’t expecting you. We’re preparing for our departure to Yorkshire.”

“You look, as always, beautiful.”

She held very still as a shadow crossed her face. The compliment did not land where I had aimed it.

“You’ve come to say goodbye then.”

That was not what I had come to say. “No. No—that’s not⁠—”

She swept a hand across her beaded brow. “It’s very warm in here.”

London had been suffocating for the last several days, and the morning room faced east.

“Did Honeycutt offer you something cool to drink? There’s lemonade in the kitchen.” She turned toward the door. “I should ask him⁠—”

“Don’t.” The word stopped her. “There’s no need.”

She veered back toward me, a question in her eyes. “Why are you here, Steele?”

Every pretty word I’d rehearsed faded from my head. What was left was the plain, unvarnished truth. “I’ve come to ask you to marry me.”

Her brow creased while she waited for me to say something more. When I didn’t, she asked, “Why do you want to marry me?”

I had not anticipated that question. But it was nothing I couldn’t easily handle. I only needed to rearrange what I had planned to say. I clasped my hands behind my back, much in the way of an orator preparing to give a speech. “Something occurred to me.”

She crossed her arms in front of her. “Pray tell.”

“Well, Drayton⁠—”

She scoffed. “What does he have to do with anything?”

“I will if you give me a chance to explain, Rosalynd.” A touch of exasperation tinged my voice.

She gestured me to proceed.

“The thing that emboldened him was your unmarried state. If you were married, he would not have dared prey on you like he did.”

She walked forward, one slow step at a time, until she was close enough for me to see a storm rising in her eyes. “You’re offering marriage to protect me from gentlemen like him?”

“Among other reasons.”