7: Entrapment

Rosemary blinked at the sudden chill across her face as Alex withdrew from her, his attention on the door as it slowly swung closed and immersed them in darkness once more.

"She did not..." The shadowy outline of Alex's hand drifted up to his hairline, raking dark strands back from his face as he stared at the door. "Did she assume that we..."

Rosemary swallowed the lump in her throat, taking stock of the position they were in. They had been found alone in a dark room, barely a handsbreadth apart, with their gazes locked. And Alex had... Rose felt embarrassment flood her cheeks, and she rolled her shoulders to try to dislodge the feeling. She was a grown woman – a widow at that – and she could acknowledge to herself that Alex had... possibly been about to kiss her. And she had possibly been about to let him.

So no, there was no way of telling what Lady Elliot had assumed, but unless the woman was a complete dolt, she had surely assumed something.

Rose exhaled sharply. "Drat."

Alex made it to the door first, holding it ajar for Rose. It took her a moment to move, but as she hurried into the corridor, she blinked more than the sting of the candlelight from her eyes. The moment in the library seemed like a dream, hazy at the edges and far from reality. She straightened her shoulder and looked to her left for the matron they pursed, ready to tell the woman the truth as they all knew it: there was nothing between her and Alexander Kilroy.

As if her thoughts called to him, she felt heat move into place behind her. It was too close for propriety, but in all fairness, she was blocking his path.

"There she is," he murmured, voice low and gravelly at the edges.

Rosemary stepped quickly to the side, clearing the path for his pursuit, and blamed the chill in the air for the sudden gooseflesh that ran up her arms.

Thankfully, Lady Elliot – carrying more years and pounds than the both of them combined – had not made it very far down the corridor. Alex's long steps had him at her side in moments.

"Lady Elliot, I believe –" He held his hand out towards her elbow, but the moment his fingers grazed her aubergine sleeve, she turned with surprising vigour and threw him off her.

"Unhand me, Mister Kilroy, you... you..." She swatted her fan in his direction. "You rake!"

Lady Elliot was not a small woman, standing merely a head shorter than Alex with grey curls piled so high on her head that one might have thought she was taller than him. Her nose was narrow and hooked, and her grey-blue eyes were sharp with anger as they scowled at the young man who was still blinking bemusedly as her insult.

"A rake?" His hand drifted to his chest, and as Rosemary swept to a stop at his side, he cast her a glance, as if confirming he had not misheard. "Lady Elliot, I believe you have confused me with another."

Lady Elliot made an unladylike noise of disagreement, tossing her head so violently that her curls threatened to abandon their perch.

"I know your type, boy! All charm and good manners..."

Rosemary tried not to smile, she really did! But the very idea of Alexander Kilroy being described as 'charming' or 'well-mannered' tickled her so thoroughly that she had no choice but to hide a small grin behind her gloved hand.

Lady Elliot's hawk-like gaze did not miss her movement, and her glare narrowed in on her. "You'd best heed my words, Miss Rosemary; he's just like his father!"

If the older woman had wanted to banish the smile from Rosemary's face, she had chosen the right words. Instantly, her mirth vanished her hand dropping away from her face as her eyes whipped to Alex. His own touch of amusement was nowhere to be seen, replaced by tension that ran through the muscles of his jaw, down his neck, and into his shoulders, leaving him stiff and rigid as he glared at Lady Elliot.

"What exactly," he said slowly, the words barely escaping from between his clenched teeth, "do you mean by that?"

Despite the strong words she was bandying about, Lady Elliot was not an imbecile; she heard the fury in his tone, and flinched back slightly. But as her eyes flickered with alarm, she raised her chin and fixed him with her own glare.

Rosemary stepped forward quickly, placing a firm hand on Alex's arm as she moved between them. She inclined her head to the older woman, whispering quickly to the man she her head was turned. "Please Alex, I'll handle this."

As she straightened, pinning her most demure and polite smile in place and setting forth a quick prayer of thanks that her finishing school madams had been so demanding, she watched the older woman's glare soften slightly.

"Please, Lady Elliot, will you sit with me a moment?" she asked quietly, gesturing to a short lounge that was tucked in an alcove of the hallway.

Much like an owl, the woman's head turned to the side, eyeing the comfortable perch for a long moment, before twisting back to eye Rose critically. "I will not."

Once again, Rosemary inclined her head, accepting the censure in the woman's tone easily. "As you wish, your ladyship. I only want to assure you that absolutely nothing untoward was happening in the library just now."

The woman let out a huff of air, her hair rustling.

"Mister Kilroy and I are old family friends," Rose continued, her smile unwavering, "United as we are through our cousins the Humphreys." Lady Elliot's frown was unyielding. "I believe the Duke and Duchess of Germaine are here this evening, perhaps they can assure you that we-"

Rose had never been particularly fond of cards, and although she though bluffing a little too close to lying for her tastes, that did not mean that she was not greatly relieved when Lady Elliot believed that she might involve a duke in there discussion and clicked her tongue at her.

"What nonsense," she said, shifting her weight as she shook her head. "'friends'" She harrumphed again. Her lip twitched, and crossed the hall suddenly, sinking onto the lounge Rose had indicated with a sharp exhale. "Poppycock! You are a grown woman, and you should know better than to be alone together at your age!"

At that moment, Rose was inclined to agree with her. Greer had tried to warn them too – she would have to own up to this encounter when she found her friend later and let the younger woman claim her 'I told you so'.

"Especially with a man like him!"

Rosemary frozen, lips parted with an apology on her tongue. A slight shift in the heat behind her suggested Alex was barely holding back his temper, and under the pretence of clasping her hands behind her back, she reached for him. She found his fist, felt taut skin over trembling knuckles, and gripped him as tightly as she could.

"I'm not sure what you mean, Lady Elliot." The words were hers, but they sounded distant over the thrumming of her heart inm her ears.

The matron clicked her tongue again, her gaze darting over Rose's shoulder to sweep unfavourably over Alex's form.

"I'm sure he has his eyes on a wealthy prize, the same as his father. Much the same situation too, waltzing in after the death of a first husband and..."

She kept talking, but Rose didn't hear any of it, everything around her drowned out by a single thought that echoed in her mind: there was no winning with these people.

Aunt Delia had done the 'right' thing, marrying a Marquis she barely knew and producing an heir and a spare. Then after his death she'd married 'below her station' and there had been whispers ever since, with Uncle James and Alex painted as the villains in the story.

Rose had done the 'wrong' thing and married for love. For that act, Harry had borne the censure, and after his death she had been accepted back into society with a rap on the knuckles and encouragement to 'learn from her mistake'.

A gentle squeeze of her hand brought her back to the present and she blinked down at the sneering matron.

"... even more deceitful, trying to compromise and entrap you, like some common-"

Willpower alone kept Rosemary's smile in place. "One cannot compromise a widow, Lady Elliot." The words were firm, and perhaps a little too sharp. The matron leant away in her seat, but she seemed more sceptical of the words than offended by the abrupt tone they were delivered in.

"You," she said, her thin eyebrows sitting high on her forehead, "are no ordinary window, Lady Ro-"

"Please, Lady Elliot!" A second interruption – this time louder and more frayed at the edges – earned a Harrumph from Lady Elliot, but Rose was well passed caring what this particular old woman thought of her. "My name is Mrs Albright."

The matron's face pinched together, her glare squished between a scowl and a sneer, and as she pushed herself to her feet, she gaze never left Rose's.

"The point is moot, Mrs Albright," she said, spittle flying from her lips as she enunciated the name. "You are currently unwed, and I happened upon you in a troubling and compromising position. Your reputation will not survive this. You will have to marry him!" she declared, raising a victorious fist in the air as her eyes shone with righteous indignation.

Rose was using a great deal of energy to keep her mouth from falling agape. This woman, who had at best negligible to do with either of them, was standing before them, threatening them with marriage. The whole notion was absurd! Her marriage may have been short-lived, but she had shared a bed with Harry for almost a year – just because there were no children to show for it did not mean that somehow her virtue was still intact! And moreover, there were widows who took lovers without overwhelming censure from the Ton! True, they were generally older than her, but that did not mean...

As Rose prepared her arguments, Lady Elliot's haughty gaze drifted over her shoulder. "Unless..."

The younger woman blinked at the sudden change in her tone, and waited to see what she would say.

"Unless the Kilroy boy has tried to seduce you!" She reached out, grabbing Rose firmly by the upper arms, and fixing her with an intense stare as the words fell quickly from her thin lips. "If this was a ploy, if he entered that library with ill intentions, then I will gladly protect you from a union with him. I would not want to see you shackled to such a man, nor see the unhappiness of Lady Cordelia's situation reflected on you." She squeezed firmly them, emphasising the seriousness of her offer.

Rose was frozen.

When Alex squeezed her hand it burned, like all the blood was returning in a sudden rush. With great effort, she turned awkwardly in place, sliding free of Lady Elliot's crushing grip to see if her own outraged shock was echoed on Alex's face. The very suggestion that he had tried to entrap her – that his father had trapped his mother in marriage – belied belief! It was almost laughable, but as her chin tilted upwards to find Alex's eyes, she bit down on the hysterical giggle that bubbled in her chest.

Alex did not look amused, or outraged, or agitated. His frown had settled firmly in place, the creases across his forehead well-worn and entrenched, with his brows shielding his serious brown eyes. As she watched, he inclined his head slightly, simultaneously giving her hand a firm squeeze. As his gaze shifted past her and his lips parted, Rose could almost hear the words he was about to utter: agreement, apology, accountability.

Rose had never moved so quickly.

"Lady Elliot," she all but snapped, spinning back to face the woman with her chin held high. She took a quick breath to gather herself, but did not dare wait much longer in case Alexander tried to sacrifice himself in the meantime. "I will thank you not to go spreading such nonsense and rumour. Mister Kilroy is a gentleman and a friend, and I will not allow you to sully either of our good names with your supposition."

Alex did not try to interrupt, but she felt him shift behind her, and could have sworn he sighed. He did not have a chance to rebut her, if indeed he was going to, because Lady Elliot was already shaking her head.

"You stupid, naïve girl!" She spat. "Not only to compromise yourself, but to do so with this type of man. And then when, out of the kindness of my heart, I offer you an escape, you choose to marry him instead? You are beyond-"

"You are mistaken." Rose thought that particularly interruption was a vast understatement, but she did not say as much. "I will not be marrying anyone."

"What?!" If the woman's screech got any louder, Rose feared the glassware in the ballroom might shatter. The archway to that particular room was just visible to her over the matron's shoulder, and she watched as a pair of gentleman poked their heads out, apparently searching for the cause of the otherworldly noise. "You must marry him! He compromised you!"

She felt Alex shift in place behind her, and she wondered what sacrifice he was preparing to make. Would he offer to marry her right then and there? To protect her reputation from this arrogant harpy? He would do it, she knew, in an instant, without any thought for his own happiness.

The men over Lady Elliot's shoulder approached them, and as they neared she could easily make them out as Alex's brothers, Lucas and Peter. Sudden panic erupted; if they joined the conversation there was no telling what might happen.

She swallowed quickly. "He did not," she said, letting her voice carry, "and I will not."

Lady Elliot all but stamped her foot. "I will see to it that your reputation does not survive this house party! Every member of the Ton will know you are compromised."

"You do what you must," Rosemary said, gently pulling her hand free of Alex's. She stood there, unattached and unwavering, and looked down at the stranger who believed she could dictate her future. "But it will have no affect on my choice. I will not marry Alexander Kilroy."

She stepped to the side and walked past the horrified woman, barely making it a few metres before she passed Alex's brothers. She inclined her head at them, but did not stop, afraid that if she did, the nightmare would only continue.

~~~

Hello Lovely Readers!

This chapter is a further example of why I do not write Novellas - it's much longer than I planned, oops!  But, we are knee-deep in the drama now, which is very exciting. Rosemary has made her decision, it seems, and now we watch and wait to see the impact of Lady Elliot's rumours!

Please remember to vote and comment if you're enjoying Rosemary and Alexander's adventure!

xx Flo