A Lady's Guide to Courtship

XXX. A Lady's Guide to Liars

Anger flickered inside him. "You cannot expect me to believe you quite so easily, madam," he icily uttered. "You are yet to prove to me that I am not a victim of an insane plot to disregard Lady Weis' identity."

The woman drew a shaky breath. "Yes, I understand."

"Now," he said, walking over to a table where he placed the box before returning to stand before her. "Tell me your name."

"Rosa Gimer, my lord."

Even her name did not emit the reaction he had expected when he imagined himself facing Lady Weis.

"I was at the Cinderella ball," she said under her breath, the mention of the ball bringing back memories of the night that changed his life.

Yet nothing in the woman emitted any reaction from him. He knew in his heart she was not the same woman he kissed that night. The woman who kissed him wanted him, but he did not see the same desire in the woman facing him now. What he could merely see was remorse and fear.

Wakefield merely scoffed at the incredulity of it all.

If it was true that she was Lady Weis, then he did not want anything to do with her. Not because she was a mere servant, but because he could not see the woman he thought he had fallen in love with in the letters.

What he was seeing in front of him was not the Lady Weis of his mind. He could not seem to feel the same feelings he felt when he was facing Lady Weis in the darkness. He could not seem to feel her.

Or was it because he had already long accepted that she was but a mere illusion, a picture his mind created while he was reading her letters? Was it because he was no longer interested in knowing her in person?

Was it because his mind was already thinking of going out to head straight to the Everard estate instead of sitting here to know more of this woman?

Whatever the answer was, he knew what he wanted now. And it was not Lady Weis, and it definitely was not this woman.

"I have somewhere important to go to, Miss Gimer," he finally said, stepping aside. "I cannot talk to you for now for I honestly do not know what to make of this, but you can be certain you shall hear from me soon."

The woman nodded. When he motioned his hand to the door, she jumped to her feet to leave.

"By the by, Miss Gimer," Wakefield said, "If you truly are Lady Weis, you will know that I will most definitely look through the letters to see if in fact you are telling the truth."

Rosa Gimer stiffened. "Yes, of course, my lord."

"And you know that I shall have questions."

"Yes, my lord."

He nodded. "You may leave, Miss Gimer."

He watched as she scurried to the door and when he was finally alone, he was deep in thought.

Was she telling the truth? Was she truly a servant who had been trying to live in a fantasy, or one who was tasked to play with him?

*****

"Wakefield is waiting in the parlour, requesting for your presence," Emma informed Ysabella.

"I do not wish to see him, Em," Ysabella said from the bed. "I might slit his throat if I do."

Emma moved and sat beside her on the bed. "Do you not think it is best if you face him? It is better that you do so you do not spend your time asking yourself the same questions you know he can only provide answers to."