“Weren’t they kind to you?”
She fingered the velvet mantle at his neck. Leaning her head back to look at him, she noticed the lock of dark hair that always fell
across his forehead. She reached up to touch it, running her fingers through it.
She saw the passionate look in his eyes and pressed her face into his neck, a stab of guilt going through her for the way her body was reacting. “I don’t think we should kiss any more tonight.”
Rose could feel his pulse against her face. She inhaled his scent, masculine and warm, with a hint of cinnamon from the spiced drink he’d had at the feast. Did he notice that she was avoiding his question?
“So when did you find out,” he asked, his voice gruff and deep, “that you were my betrothed?”
“This afternoon. When I woke up I remembered you kissing me—and I started to cry.”
He hugged her tighter and kissed the top of her head.
“Then Frau Geruscha told me. She knew I was your betrothed all along and had sworn an oath not to tell me until the day my parents came to reunite with me. I don’t know how she kept such a secret all these years. No wonder she didn’t like Lord Rupert coming around.” She shook her head. “My father, the duke, entrusted Frau Geruscha to come here to Hagenheim and find some unobtrusive family to take care of me and raise me as their own. The two dukes had even arranged to have Geruscha become the town healer so she could watch over me. No one else knew my whereabouts. Only your father was aware that Frau Geruscha knew. If something happened to Geruscha, there was a letter in your father’s strongbox that would have explained about me. Frau Geruscha said it made her very nervous when Duke Nicolaus died. No one else knew about the letter.”
“You were right here, right where I could see you, and fall in love with you, all along. But you broke my heart when you refused to marry me.” His eyelids hung low over his eyes as he squeezed her waist. “I was very angry with you.”
“But aren’t you glad I didn’t accept your marriage proposal?” she teased. “If you’d abdicated, I’d be betrothed to your brother right now.”
He growled and poked her ribs just hard enough to make her laugh. But then she remembered the pain of that day and nestled closer to him. “I’m so glad we’re together now.”
Neither of them spoke as he caressed her cheek. “It must have been a shock for you to find out you had two sets of parents.”
“I found out by accident a few months ago. I overheard my mother talking. But I never suspected that I was your betrothed, because my birthday—or so I thought—was five weeks before Christmas and the Lady Salomea’s was eleven months earlier. I was a year too young. But Frau Geruscha told me that my parents began counting my birthday from the day I came to live with them—when I was eleven months old.” Tears sprang up at the thought of her birth parents sending her away as a baby to live with strangers, with a mother who may have never loved her.
“So they didn’t know who you were?”
“No. Frau Geruscha brought me to them and said it was best they didn’t know. I’m surprised they never wondered. But then, my parents are never ones to question. They do as they’re told and don’t ask why.”
After a pause, Duke Wilhelm asked again, “The duke and duchess—they weren’t unkind to you, were they?”
Rose was quiet, trying to sort out her feelings. Finally, she shook her head. “No. But it was an uncomfortable meeting. I’m their daughter, they’re my mother and father, but I don’t know them and they don’t know me. They sent Geruscha here to watch over me and make sure I was safe, but…” She didn’t want to think any painful thoughts, not now. “I’m happy that they’re my parents, because it means I’ll marry you, Wilhelm.” She straightened and looked up at him when she said his name, letting it linger on her tongue, relishing how good it sounded.
“I suppose I shall have to start calling you Salomea.” He smiled teasingly.
“I hate that name.” She surprised herself at the vehemence in her voice.
“Then you’ll always be Rose to me,” he said firmly. He kissed her forehead. “If you wish it, no one shall ever call you Salomea.”
Rose shook her head as the tears ran down her face. “It isn’t the name.” She tried to choke back the sobs, but it was no use. She pressed her face into his shoulder and wept, her shoulders shaking.
He gently stroked her back, speaking soothingly next to her ear.
She finally was able to control herself. “It’s merely that…they gave me away. They couldn’t have loved me.”