The Secret Rose by Laura Landon

he masterfully consumed every part of the room. Stephen had never had that ability. He had not been as manipulative or as high-handed or as huge a threat as the man standing before her.
    She was glad when he sat in the chair opposite her. To have him stand, his massive height towering over her, was too disconcerting. He rested his cup on his knee, his pose casual and relaxed. She had to look away from him.
    “I didn’t have the chance the other day to apologize for arriving in the midst of your father’s funeral service. Please believe me when I say that I truly did not know he had died, or I would have waited to come to you.”
    Abigail lifted her chin, not certain she could believe him. “It would not have mattered. My answer would have been the same.”
    He leveled his gaze on her, the dark, shadowed look in his eyes intense, the flat line of his thick, foreboding brows frightening. “Have you any idea, Miss Langdon, the enormous responsibility that has fallen upon your shoulders now that your father is gone?”
    “Yes, Mr. Cambridge. I understand better than you think.”
    “Your father’s holdings are massive, his shipping interests vast.”
    She struggled to bring a confident smile to her lips. “And you think I am incapable of running them?”
    “I think your capability is not the question. Your gender is. As is your age.”
    Abigail stiffened.
    “Has Stephen written you since he left?” Cambridge asked, his voice filled with more than a hint of concern.
    Her heart leaped to her throat. “No.”
    “Don’t you find that odd?”
    She shook her head. “Not in the least. We are no longer betrothed.”
    “A fact of which I am not sure Stephen is even aware.”
    She turned her face from him, unable to form any words.
    “He has not written our mother, either,” he continued. “Not even a note on her birthday. Don’t you find that strange?”
    “Not considering your brother’s lack of concern over anything or anyone other than himself.”
    Her words had shocked him. Good. “How well did you know your brother, Mr. Cambridge?”
    Cambridge took a sip of his tea. “Obviously not as well as I thought.” He placed the saucer back on his knee. “Did he say anything at all before he left that might explain why he felt the need to leave?”
    “He said nothing.”
    Her heart pounded in her chest like a team of runaway horses. She could not look at him.
    “Do you know what I think?” His voice was soft, his tone threatening. “I think you know what happened to make Stephen leave so unexpectedly but you refuse to tell me. What is it, Miss Langdon?”
    She turned on him. “Get out.”
    “Miss Langdon.” He placed his cup on the table to his right and leaned forward in his chair. His penetrating gaze captured hers. “You have something in your possession that belongs to my brother.”
    Abigail shot from her chair. “I have nothing that belongs to your brother.” She made her way to the other side of the room before she turned on him. If it was a fight he wanted, it was a fight he would get. “Stephen gave me nothing.” She was unable to hide the anger or the bitterness from her voice. “I would give anything if he were here right now to tell you how little he left me, and how much he took.”
    He rose to face her. The fire in his eyes blazed with determination. “What you have may seem like nothing to you, but to me it is the difference between survival and losing everything.”
    “Then you will lose everything!”
    He took a step toward her, the black look in his eyes as harsh as anything she’d ever seen. “I will not leave until I have it.”
    Her heart thundered. The blood raced through her head. He was a force with which to be reckoned. His dark brows angled in an unyielding line over eyes that brimmed fire. His high, chiseled cheekbones molded in rigid perfection. The solid set of his jaw clamped in warning. He was without a doubt the most frightening man she had ever met. The only man in