Free Never Surrender to a Scoundrel by Lily Dalton Page B

“perfect” order all out of balance, so she’d remained silent, believing the news could wait just a little while longer.
    Foolish girl. Now her life was anything but a fairy tale.
    She felt so dreadfully alone. If she’d told him right away, would he still have married another? The same question had tumbled about in her head all night, unanswered.
    One thing she did know of a certain was that she didn’t love him anymore. Quinn had told her he loved her just before he’d taken her innocence—something she could never get back—and then he had married another.
    A man like that didn’t deserve her love. If he’d loved her, then no matter the circumstances or obstacles, he would have fought to be with her.
     She vowed never to speak to him again. Hot tears stung her eyes, fueled by outrage and pain, and her hands curled into fists in the sheets.
    Perhaps she would speak to him just once, to find out why he’d married someone else. She wouldn’t tell him about the baby, but she wanted to understand and be able to forgive him. She didn’t want to despise him for the rest of her life.
    “Do you love him?” Sophia asked.
    Quinn’s handsome face appeared in her mind, to be replaced by Mr. Kincraig’s untidy countenance.
    She closed her eyes. “No.”
    “Are you happy to be marrying him?”
    “No!” she blurted.
    Saying those words made her feel disloyal to Mr. Kincraig. No, she didn’t love him and she didn’t want to marry him, but given his generous sacrifice, she must in turn give him her loyalty and respect. After all, he had been nothing but a gentleman to her, more so than the man she had loved.
     “Then why—”
    She closed her eyes. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
    “Clarissa, he didn’t…he did not—”
    “He didn’t what?”
    “He didn’t force himself on you, did he?”
    Force himself on her? Of…course not.
    Her mind returned to that night at the Vauxhall gala, where there had been music and dancing carried on just out of sight, where their kisses had turned suddenly passionate and Quinn had told her he couldn’t wait any more, that he loved her so madly he couldn’t control his passions.
    “ No, ” she blurted. “He did not force me.”
    She’d thought they were in love, and foolishly she’d relented. But they weren’t talking about Quinn, were they? They were talking about Mr. Kincraig.
    Even though he was the last thing she wanted to think about at the moment, she forced herself to say “Mr. Kincraig has been nothing but a gentleman throughout this entire situation.”
    “He most certainly has not,” Sophia retorted. “If he was any sort of gentleman, you would not be in this predicament.”
    “I have no one to blame but myself.”
    Sophia rose onto one elbow and looked down into her face. “You are an innocent young lady. He is far more worldly than you, which makes him a cad. He seduced you. He manipulated your emotions.” She squeezed Clarissa’s shoulder. “You do realize that, don’t you?”
    Clarissa’s head hurt from so many crisscrossing thoughts. Had Quinn ever intended to marry her? Thinking back, it was he who had insisted on secrecy. Like a fool, she had gamely agreed, believing at the time that love was just a fun and happy game. Whatever the truth about her and Quinn’s affair, Mr. Kincraig had not seduced her, and she could not in good conscience allow him to take blame.
    “Please don’t talk about him like that,” Clarissa insisted, and, with a hard wrench of her shoulder, pulled away.
    Oh, she was angry. Not at Sophia, but with Quinn. But most of all, with herself.
    How Mr. Kincraig must despise her this morning. She could only hope that like many young men, he had aspirations of marrying well to improve his fortune and connections. While she couldn’t promise love and passion, she could certainly, with some degree of confidence, guarantee that.
    “You feel fondly for him, then, at least,” Sophia whispered softly. A moment of