A Timeless Romance Anthology: European Collection (9 page)

Melissa let herself into Oaksey House using Thomas’s key. The house smelled of dust and mildew. She wrinkled her nose. How long had it been shut up? It would take a lot of work to make the place livable.

Walking through the hall, she came upon a downstairs sitting room, probably the morning room. She threw back the dusty drapes and opened the windows. She did the same in the other ground-floor rooms— a library smelling of leather and book paste, and a massive ballroom. Downstairs was a kitchen with no stove, but an open fireplace. Positively archaic.

On the first floor, she opened the windows in the drawing room, dining room, and two small saloons. She moved to the second floor and found the master suite. It was dark and brooding, with heavy mahogany furniture, dark blue velvet bed hangings and drapes, and matching carpets. Nothing opened from it but a masculine dressing room. So master and mistress were expected to share this room. She found four other bedrooms but no boudoir. The masculine dressing room would have to be converted for her use.

She went back to the master suite, where she yanked on the draperies and bed hangings until they fell in clouds of dust. She opened the windows, letting in the spring air and light. Yes, this would be a pleasant room when she refurbished it. Perhaps lavender and white stripes, with rose and leaf-green accents. The crown molding, now varnished wood, she would have repainted in white.

Melissa decided to begin her efforts in this room and the morning room on the ground floor. Those would be the most used while she lived here alone.

The very first thing to do was hire servants— a cook, a butler, a downstairs maid, and a chamber maid. She would bring her personal maid, Stella.

By the end of the day, with her mother’s help, Melissa had hired servants from an employment registry to begin working the next day. With the help of Stella, her mother’s footman, and the family carriage, she had transferred linens and all of her personal effects to Oaksey House. While Stella unpacked Melissa’s things in the master suite, her mother gave advice regarding what she would need to modernize her kitchen.

“It is really appalling,” Lady Kent said. “I do not know how long it must be since anyone has lived in this place. No cook today could be expected to prepare meals under such conditions! We must buy you a stove at once.” She drew herself up and continued. “As for the mildew, we shall consult Mrs. Hutchins. I have never encountered a housekeeping problem she did not know how to deal with. In fact, I think it best if I lend her to you for at least two weeks until you get this place in order.”

“Thank you, Mother. That will be most helpful. She can also organize my staff.”

“The house will be grand when you have refurbished it. While it is being cleaned tomorrow, we will go to the drapers and look at pattern books.” Melissa could not have chosen more wisely any activity guaranteed to cause her mother to be more resigned to her marriage.

She ate at home with her parents.

“So where is this husband of yours, gel?” her father asked.

“I have no idea,” Melissa answered, trying to effect the manners of a tolerant spouse long married. “He left word that he would not be home for dinner. I do not expect him to live in my pocket.”

After her parents had gone up to bed, Melissa and Stella left the house, accompanied by Stern, her father’s footman, whom Papa insisted escort them for safety. They walked to Oaksey House in Grosvenor Square. When Stella had helped her mistress to undress, they said goodnight and retired.

Melissa lay alone in her freshly made bed, fighting tears after a long, arduous, and heartbreaking day. How could she have been so duped? Oaksey had deceived her utterly. Remembering the intimacies of her honeymoon, she still had difficulty believing they were not motivated by sincere feeling. However, she had often been told that men could indulge themselves in what seemed to her to be intimate behavior without any regard for the woman. Surely, if he loved her, he would not have left her their first day in London, going off to spend his newly acquired fortune.

Reviewing every word and every look that had passed between them in nearly a week’s time, she felt terribly used.
How gullible he must have thought me! What a green girl I was to believe someone like him could have fallen head over heels for me! Likely the only reason for his desire to elope was that the bailiffs were camping on his doorstep. His debts must have been urgent indeed. But the worst thing by far is his acting as though he loved me— he was so tender, so passionate. As though I were the most desirable girl in the world.

All day, she had blotted out these realizations with action and then exhaustion. But now they would not leave her. She was appalled by her naiveté. Indeed, it seemed she directed as much of her anger at herself as she did at Thomas. He probably thought she knew he was at his last prayers, financially. According to Donald, all of London knew. He probably thought she was so desperate to get out of her unwanted engagement that she would welcome his marrying her for her money. At last, she gave into tears of humiliation and cried herself to sleep.

Chapter Four

Lord Oaksey was enjoying the novel sensation of having more than a feather to fly with. He had been to Lord Kent’s man of business, obtained a draft for thirty-thousand pounds, and spent the better part of the morning staring at it, trying to take it in while waiting to see his bank manager. His days of poverty, of trying to maintain the stature expected of a gentleman, on a very thin stipend, were over. Bless Lady Melissa Aldridge, now his dear wife.

Finally, he was called in to see Mr. Judd. Placing the bank draft on his desk, Oaksey said, “There you have it. I’m certain you never thought you would live to see the day that I repaid my overdraft.”

Judd stared at the draft. “Thirty thousand pounds. You must have married money!”

 “And a very lovely young lady. Daughter of Lord Kent— Lady Melissa Aldridge. I thank you for your indulgence these many months.”

“I don’t mind telling you it worried me tremendously, seeing your inheritance dwindle as you restored your estate. How anyone could live on the stipend you allowed yourself, I don’t know. Congratulations on your fortunate marriage.”

Next, Oaksey went to White’s, where he wrote out drafts to those friends who had lent him money and probably never expected to see it again.

Lord Russell said, “Congratulations, old man. That gel you ran off with had the dibs, eh?”

“Lady Melissa. She is a lovely thing. I am indeed fortunate.”

“Billiards?”

He drew a long breath. No longer must he shun a gentleman’s pastimes. He could afford to wager now. “Yes.”

As luck would have it, now that he was possessed of money, he won more often. That same luck extended to whist and faro.

At dinner, he extended his hospitality the friends he had repaid that day. Four bottles of claret were consumed, toasts were made, songs were sung. It was very late by the time he made it back to the Kents’.

Surely Melissa would understand; she had a father and a brother and knew that gentlemen didn’t spend their time hanging about hearth and home every night. For the better part of a week, he had spent all his time with her. Not that he regretted it. She was lovely and bright. Oaksey was very satisfied with his wife.

He was therefore surprised upon his return to find that she was not in their bed in her bedroom. The household was asleep. Where on the earth could she be? Had she taken a bed in another room for some reason?

Taking off his boots, he gingerly explored the hallway in the other direction from the Kents’ suite. In one room, he found Lord Donald lying across his bed in his evening clothes, sleeping off his drink. There were two more bedrooms, but both were empty.

Where the devil has she got to?

It was only then that he remembered Oaksey House and the key he had given her. Luckily, he had another. But Oaksey house had been shut up since his father’s time. Why would she choose to sleep there? It was a bit grim inside, to say the least.

He went back downstairs and put his boots on, glad that he had learned to do without a valet, and walked out into the night. It was a brisk ten-minute walk to Oaksey House.

Turning his key in the lock, he hardly knew what to expect. He had not been in the house in at least twenty years. Surely the last time had been when he was ten years old and the family had removed to London for the Season. Since inheriting, he had chosen to spend his money on much-needed repairs to his estate in Suffolk and had nothing to spare for this place.

It smelled horribly musty. Groping about in the dark, he located a candlestick on the hall table. After lighting it, he found his way upstairs.

There she was, asleep on the bed in the master suite. Melissa must not have been able to wait to be mistress of her own home, such as it was. He smiled to himself.

By candlelight, her eyelashes looked like fans on her smooth cheeks. Her bright blonde hair was in a single long plait. Desire stirred within him, and he bent down to kiss her.

Chapter Five

Melissa was awakened only slightly by a kiss in the middle of a dream about Thomas. Too deeply asleep to remember the revelations of the day, she brought her arms around her husband’s neck and drew him to her for a lengthier, more satisfying embrace. The taste of wine on his breath gradually brought her to full consciousness. Breaking her clasp, she brought her hands down so they lay flat on his chest. She gave him a mighty shove.

“Go back to your own rooms or to my parents’ house. You are not welcome here!”

“Melissa! You have had a nightmare, darling. I am your husband. We are married, remember? This is my house.”

“From this day, we are married in name only,” she said, pushing him again. “You are never to touch me again. Now, go!”

Thomas stood by the bed, fully dressed. “What is this? Why are you behaving like a melodramatic schoolgirl? What has happened to upset you?”

“I found out that you have deceived me most cruelly. Please leave. I do not wish to see you or speak to you.” Melissa rolled over so her back was to him. So she could not see his handsome face and athletic build looming over her. When she did not hear him move, she said into the darkness, “Leave me!”

“I will not. You are behaving most foolishly. In what way have I deceived you?”

Humiliated by the idea that he thought her unable to see through his actions, she refused to utter a word. Finally, she heard the floorboards squeak as he moved off. But sleep had deserted her. She had no idea of the time. None of the clocks in the house were wound. Aching freshly over Thomas’s deception, she lay on her back and stared through the darkness, her happy memories of the last week blotted out.

Melissa kicked back her blankets in frustration. Going to sit in the window seat, she viewed the gray dawn. Thomas had been out very late. Drinking. Probably celebrating his escape from debtor’s prison.

A step sounded on the bare floor. Melissa jumped.

“You did not really think I would go away, did you? This is my house.”

“I have chosen to live here,” she said, masking her fury with a low, calm voice. “Therefore, you must live elsewhere.”

“Why?” There was a note in Thomas’s voice she had never heard before. He had never been anything but kind and loving, but now his voice was sharp.

She gripped the seat where she sat and raised her chin. “Did you think I would not find out? My brother told me. How he went to you, told you about my dowry. You saw an opportunity to clear your debts. This was the reason you eloped with me.”

“All of London knew of my debts. Of course that is why I married you.”

His words cut clear through her. What she had expected, that he would deny it?

Anger sent blood to her head, and she shook with fury. “I have more than paid for this house. You will dwell elsewhere. I care not where.”

“I thought we dealt well together, Melissa. We can continue on that path, or we can part, if you are determined. I think you are turning your back on happiness because your pride is hurt.”

His words so inflamed her, she could not reply. For several moments, Oaksey stood, brows drawn together over his eyes, his lips in a firm, thin line. “Very well. As you wish.” He turned and walked out of the room, his heels sounding loudly on the floor and the stairs. Even from the second floor, Melissa could hear the front door bang shut.

Angry tears flooded her eyes and coursed down her cheeks, over her chin, and down her neck. Against all reason, she had hoped that he would convince her of his love. And now he was gone. She sat like a statue, feeling her heart break.

Chapter Six

Lying in his bed in Melissa’s parents’ house, Thomas was more than a little annoyed. He had thought her magnanimous not to have brought up his debts before this, but it turned out he had married a foolish creature, indeed. She truly had not known of his debts. How, he did not know. Her father did. Her brother did. But she had not? And to think he had thought he was falling in love with the girl! He certainly desired her, though.

And now how was he to live? He would not stay in London and let her make him a laughingstock. No. He would go down to Oaksey Hall. Thomas loved his home, and now he had money to repair it. It was early enough in the season that he could still see to the planting.

His mind was soon busy with the long-delayed projects that he could undertake— draining the south field, mending the worker’s cottages, experimenting with cross-breeding strains of wheat.

He would not dwell on the false enchantment of his honeymoon. Yet even as he made this resolve, his thoughts wandered to his wife, and he found that his grand plans were not sufficient to overcome the ache in his heart.

How could the woman go from loving him to despising him in so short a period? He had poured his limited means into saving Oaksey Hall with hopes that he and his wife would raise a family there. How ironic if he was to be forced to live there alone with all the money he needed but no family.