Marjorie Farrell (21 page)

When he finished and she turned around, she kept her eyes down, unable to look at him directly, for fear her face would give her away.

“Thank you, my lord,” she said, stressing the title in her old ironic tone.

“I
am
sorry for not telling you, Arden. I cannot give you good reason for the deception, but can only say I now heartily regret it.”

“I congratulate you on your inheritance. Thorne looks to be a fine estate. No doubt you will be happy to be free of the sheep farm.”

“Hardly,” replied Gareth with a rueful smile. “Thorne is only a larger sheep farm. It has been quite successful, but demands as much hard work as Richmond House. The title is an old one, but it carries more weight than wealth with it, I am afraid. There is more help here, but I will be kept busy enough. Not that I mind,” he added.

“No, you certainly seem to enjoy and excel at rough pursuits,” said Arden with some sarcasm. “The Marquess of Rudesby now, instead of mere Captain.” Arden could hot have kept her tongue still to save her life. She could not express her very real admiration for Gareth nor her relief that he did not seem to be turning into an effete aristocrat, and so she fell back on her tongue to protect her. Gareth reacted as usual.

“I may still be a rudesby, my dear, but your new title suits
you
, for a thornier marchioness I could never have found.”

Well done, thought Arden, inwardly flinching. You have bested me with my own weapons. Suddenly she felt what her victims had felt: revealed and vulnerable. How society would laugh at her new title. The Marchioness of Thorne. The Insufferable Lady Arden who hid behind a bramble thicket of sharp words. No one would see her, only the caricatured arrogance. And now that she no longer wanted the protection, she was trapped behind her own words. In the old fairy tale, it had been a sleeping princess behind the briars. But Arden was awake, and pacing, peering out through the bushes and briars, looking for the husband who would never come.

She shuddered and came back to herself. “I suggest that we cause your aunt no embarrassment and guard our tongues while we are here. It will be only a short time, after all.”

Gareth nodded his assent, rather surprised that Arden would care enough about anyone’s feeling to declare a truce. He offered her his arm, and they proceeded down to dinner.

The next few days were more comfortable for Gareth than for either Arden or his Aunt Kate, since he was able to spend long hours closeted with his new agent or out on horseback, inspecting the estate. Arden was able to walk and ride, but did not feel right in leaving Lady Thorne alone for too long.

They were both painfully polite in each other’s company, which made it all the worse. Lady Thorne knew quite well how strained the relationship was between husband and wife, but was afraid to ask any direct questions. So she confined herself to attempting to get Arden talking about her own home and family.

One afternoon she commented on the early loss of Arden’s mother. “Surely that must have been very difficult for you, my dear?”

Arden looked up from her plate in surprise. “I suppose it was. No one has ever spoken much about it, and so I suppose I took the loss for granted. And my Aunt Ellen, my mother’s sister, took her place almost immediately.”

“Yet no one can take a mother’s place,” the marchioness replied with a quiet persistence.

“You are quite right,” said Arden after a moment. “My Aunt Ellen gave me as much tenderness as my mother would have, but I also needed firmness. My cousin Celia never did, and so she is a paragon of womanliness. And I…well, I am sure you know I have been called the Insufferable. An apt title, I must admit,” continued Arden, “although I would not have said that a few months ago.”

“I
had
heard a rumor or two,” said Lady Thorne, smiling at Arden.

“Arrogance is a family trait, I fear.”

Lady Thorne nodded. “I knew your Aunt Millicent years ago. We made our come-out during the same Season.”

“Was she as unlikeable as a girl as she is now?” asked Arden without thinking.

“I am afraid so. Perhaps a different marriage would have softened her, but Lord Somers was every bit as bad as she was.”

“I quite dislike her, you know. As does my father, although he hates to admit feeling like that about his own sister. Yet he was quite prepared to abandon me to her. I only married Gareth to escape Millicent,” she concluded bluntly, surprising herself and Lady Thorne by her sudden frankness.

“I know.”

“You know? How?”

“Gareth told me. His uncle’s illness was part of what brought him back to England, and he spent much of his time with me while he was in London, when he was not courting you.”

“I would hardly call it a courtship.”

“Perhaps not a usual one. Did it really seem better to marry where you did not love than to live with your aunt?”

“It felt as if I had no choice. And yes, Gareth seemed the better alternative.”

“And now?”

Arden looked into the marchioness’s face, which was open and sympathetic. “And now I realize how painful it is to be in a marriage of convenience.”

“Surely not that painful, if you are both indifferent?” The marchioness did not feel it to be her right to reveal Gareth’s feelings for his wife, and perhaps they had not survived the first months of marriage. Perhaps he had only felt infatuation.

“The indifference is, unfortunately, only one-sided,” Arden surprised herself by whispering. “I fear I have come to love my husband very much, and have only myself to blame that he cares nothing for me.”

Lady Thorne said nothing at first, but just sat there, letting silence envelop them. The quiet receptivity, plus the relief of telling someone her feelings, allowed Arden to sit with her simultaneous anxiety about exposing her own weakness.

“Are you sure about Gareth, then, Lady Arden?”

“Oh, yes. In fact, we are on our way to Stalbridge, not for a visit, but to deliver me back home. We will be living apart, Gareth here and me in Sussex.”

“Hmm. And what about an heir for Thorne?”

Arden blushed and stammered, “We have not… I did not want…that is…”

“You have not consummated your marriage, you mean?”

Arden smiled to herself at the frankness. “Yes, my lady. I mean, no, we haven’t been living as husband and wife. I confess that I have not thought of children much at all, and I am quite sure that Gareth hasn’t either. I think he is too caught up in the present unhappiness. I must say, however,” continued Arden with a bit more energy in her voice, “that whatever responsibility I bear in all this, it was not my idea that we marry.
That
was settled between father and Gareth.”

“Would you have chosen Gareth under different circumstances?”

“To be honest, Lady Thorne, I would not have chosen to marry anyone. Or anyone I met this Season. As angry as I still am with the two of them, they did me a strange favor by forcing me into this marriage, for now I know I would have been happy with no one else.”

“It certainly sounds like you have gotten yourselves into a proper coil. But I am not sure that returning to Stalbridge for a while is a bad idea, so long as it is not for too long. It might bring Gareth to his senses. And while he is here, I will be able to talk with him.”

“Oh, no, you mustn’t,” cried Arden. “I cannot believe I’ve revealed so much to you, but you must promise to keep it secret. I could not bear the thought of his discovering that I care for him.”

“I won’t betray your confidences, my dear,” Lady Thorne answered reassuringly. “I promise. But I most certainly can draw Gareth out to see where things stand with him.”

“I think you will find he despises me,” replied Arden.

I should be very surprised at that, thought Lady Thorne. He was absolutely right to fall in love with you, and if he has forgotten that, I will have to remind him. She kept her thoughts to herself and merely murmured, “We shall see, we shall see.”

* * * *

Gareth kept their visit short and himself busy so that his aunt would have no time with him alone. He was successful in avoiding her until the morning of their last day, when she arrived in the study, closed his ledgers with a snap and said, “Gareth, I want to know what is going on between you and your wife.”

When Aunt Kate spoke in that blunt way, there was no gainsaying her, and Gareth groaned, leaned his head back and grinned up at her.

“Sit down, Aunt, sit down. Although there is not much to tell, for there is nothing, quite literally, going on between us.”

“Even a fool would know that within a few days. What I want to know is how things have come to such a pass.”

“I suppose it is my fault for pushing the marriage on her in the first place.”

“From what you told me in London, it seems it was her father who pushed her into it. You were there and willing, of course. Much more than willing, if I recall,” she added in a softer tone.

“Yes, I loved her immediately. I knew she didn’t love me, but I was sure that there was something there, a current of attention that would help me win her heart as well as her body. Not to put too fine a point on it, Aunt, I have won neither.”

“Why is that do you think?”

“Because she is the same arrogant woman that I met in London, and more to the point, is still furious about how this marriage was arranged. I don’t know why I was fool enough to have any hopes at all, when she only chose me as the lesser of two evils.”

“Have you tried to woo her?”

“On a few occasions, but she is so resistant and so prickly that all my attempts have been for naught. And so I have given up and given in. I am letting her return to Stalbridge.”

“And what of the earl’s concerns? Won’t he send for Millicent?”

“I doubt it. Arden is now a married woman and can hire herself a companion. I will write him myself, explaining the situation, and asking him to spare her his sister. For all my anger and frustration, Aunt Kate, I would not condemn her to that!” said Gareth, with a twisted grin.

“Then the new Marquess and Marchioness of Thorne will live separately for the rest of their lives?”

“So it would seem, Aunt.”

“And the title?”

Gareth frowned. “I have not thought much beyond the present, I’m afraid. There will be no heir. I am sorry.”

“You could claim your rights as a husband, Nephew,” replied his aunt very coolly. “It is not unusual or cruel to do so. After all, most women would expect to be held accountable for the succession.”

“Arden made it clear to me on our wedding night that she did not wish for marital intimacy and I promised her I would not force her. I had hoped that she would change her mind on her own. But I will keep my word. And, indeed, I later told her that she would have to come to me on her hands and knees to make me break that promise.”

“I see.”

“I am sure you do, Aunt Kate. You always see more than most of us.”

“Yes, I see that you are hopelessly in love with her,” said his aunt, with great sympathy in her voice.

Gareth was about to protest, but thought better of it. It was, after all, some sort of relief to admit his feelings to someone.

“Yes, and the only thing I have to feel thankful for,” he said, “is that she doesn’t know it. I knew from the beginning that I couldn’t be the first to open my heart or I would never win her. Right now, she only despises me for marrying her, not for loving her. I have my own pride too, you know, as much as Lady Arden.”

“Pride makes for a cold bedfellow, Nephew.”

“But not as cold as an unwilling wife.”

“You are probably right, Gareth, although I wish you were not. And so you leave tomorrow for Sussex?”

“Yes, the sooner the better. I shall return straight to Sedbusk, Aunt Kate, for I can’t come to Thorne permanently until the family returns.”

“I understand.”

“They are due back in a few weeks, as a matter of fact,” said Gareth. “Why don’t you plan a short visit? I know my mother would like to see you. She was distraught that she couldn’t be with you and my uncle those last few weeks.”

“I know. She wrote me a lovely letter. I will think about a visit, but for now, let me go, so you can get back to your books. If there is to be no future marquess, I am glad that the present one is so diligent,” she said with a smile tinged with sadness.

The morning of their planned departure, Gareth pushed back from the breakfast table and announced that he was off to see to the packing of the carriage. “It will not take long, Arden. I trust you are almost ready?”

“Indeed I am, Gareth. You need only tell them when we are to leave and I will be waiting.”

Gareth nodded to his wife and aunt and left them together. Lady Thorne wanted to take both of them and shake them. Husband and wife talked to each other in pleasant but cool tones, and the barriers they had erected against each other were almost visible. There was nothing she could think of to help, except for one small thing, which she was determined to do.

“Arden, I have been thinking about our conversation the other day.”

“Yes, Lady Thorne?”

“Are you quite sure that Gareth has no feeling for you?”

“Quite.”

“Then why do you suppose he married you?”

“Why, for my dowry and my position.” Arden’s voice trailed off as she realized that what had seemed an obvious truth all summer no longer stood up as a reason, now that she knew about Gareth’s inheritance. “At least, that was always what I thought was the reason. That, and his desire to help out his commanding officer. But now…? Now I can only think it was to humiliate me,” she concluded bitterly.

“My dear, you are an intelligent and unusual young woman, but you are being quite stupid right now,” responded Lady Thorne with exasperation.

“Oh,” replied Arden, lifting her eyebrows.

“Do you really believe a man would tie himself for life to a woman simply to please his superior officer? Or merely to humiliate a woman? There must have been some attraction there too; I am convinced of it.”

Arden sat quietly, going over their first meeting in her mind. “There was something in the air the first time we met. At the time I thought it was only instant dislike. But when I look back, I know there was a moment or two of something else before we struck sparks off one another. And on our wedding trip, there was some…uh…evidence that Gareth was attracted to me.” Arden was blushing furiously. “But surely a man’s body can react to a woman whether he loves her or not?”