The Earl's Untouched Bride (24 page)

'I just need to clarify one point,' he said. 'Will the money you gave Robert today clear all your outstanding debts, or is there anything else I should know before we leave town?'

'Th...that is all,' she stammered, amazed that he was taking it all so calmly.

He nodded, relieved that she had at least had someone she could turn to for help
—
but, dammit! He swore to himself, rising to his feet. He should have taken better care of her!

She tensed as he turned his back on her. Did that outward calm only conceal a deep disgust of her failings?

'I am sorry, Charles
—
' she began.

He rounded on her, a strange gleam in his eye. '
You
are sorry?'

Her heart sank as she saw he was not going to accept her apology. He was not going to give her a chance to prove she had learned a valuable lesson and would never behave so foolishly again. He was just going to pack her off to the country, where she could not do his reputation any damage.

'I suppose,' she muttered mutinously, 'I should thank you for not threatening to cast me off without a penny.'

He flinched as though she had struck him. 'You are my wife, Heloise. A man does not cast his wife off for being a trifle expensive. I might scold, or preach economy, or...' Manfully, he strove to gentle his voice. 'The truth is, you are the least expensive female I have ever
—
' He broke off, cursing himself for this tactless turn of phrase.

But it was too late.

Stiffening proudly, Heloise replied, 'Yes, in that I should have listened to Mrs Kenton. She told me how generous you are.'

Damn Mrs Kenton, he thought, slamming himself out of the room. If she was here now, he would be sorely tempted to wring her neck!

Heloise watched a Dresden shepherdess on a console table beside the door rock dangerously before settling on its plinth. Could she never learn to control her tongue when she was with Charles? He had told her it was not suitable to speak about his mistress, and what had she done? Dragged her straight back into the conversation again.

No wonder he felt he had no option but to pack her off to one of his country estates. It was she, after all, who had put the notion into his head when she had suggested they should get married! She had actually
offered
to go and live in the country and keep chickens.

Uttering a cry of pure vexation, she seized the hapless shepherdess and flung her against the closed door, shattering her into hundreds of tiny shards. Nobody would ever be able to glue her back together again.

She knew her eyes were puffy from weeping. She knew her face was blotchy. She would much rather have stayed in her room than face her husband's disapproval so soon after that last devastating scene.

But Giddings had told her they would be dining
en famille
in the small salon tonight. And once Charles had deposited her in his country house and come back to town it might be months before she saw him again. As hard as it was to endure his presence, writhing inside as she was with humiliation, it would be far worse to sit alone in her room, knowing he was in the house and still, ostensibly, within her reach.

Charles and Robert were already there, standing on either side of the fireplace, so engrossed in conversation they did not appear to notice she had come in.

At least her time in London had not been a complete waste. When she had first come to England they had barely been able to stand being in the same room. Now, as they fell silent, turning to look at her with almost identical expressions of distaste on their faces, she could see that disapproval of her flighty, irresponsible ways had united these two proud men in a way that perhaps nothing else could have achieved.

'I am pleased we are all able to dine together tonight,' Charles said, as Finch proffered a tray containing a single glass of the sweet Madeira wine she had recently developed a taste for. 'This may be the last time we are all three together for some time. I am taking Lady Walton down to Wycke as soon as all the travel arrangements are in place,' he informed Robert.

'Sloughing me off?' his brother replied bitterly. 'Not that I can blame you, I suppose.' Eyeing Heloise with open hostility, he tossed back his drink, then held his glass out to Finch for a refill. 'Oh, don't look at me as though you're some puppy dog I've just kicked,' he growled, when her eyes filled with hurt tears. After downing the second drink, he sighed, rubbing his hand wearily across his face. 'Best sit down to dinner and forget I said anything.'

A wooden-faced Giddings pulled out her chair, assisting her to take her place when, in response to Robert's remark, Charles gave the signal to commence dining.

They ate their minted pea soup in silence. Heloise could think of nothing to say that wouldn't make everything ten times worse. She kept stealing glances at her handsome, enigmatic husband, a sense of awful finality lining her stomach with lead. While she had been dressing for dinner she had analysed every aspect of his behaviour towards her. She could better understand his attempt to consummate the marriage now she knew he had not, after all, been availing himself of Mrs Kenton's services. Assuming she was experienced, he had decided he might as well try her out 'just the once'. But, from the rapidity with which he left the room afterwards, it was clear she had fallen way short of his exacting standards.

And the fact that he did not seem to mind too much about the gambling debt must be because he was glad she had finally given him the excuse he needed to send her away. He had said they must spend some time in London just at first, to silence gossip. Well, now that time was at an end, and who could wonder at him taking her to the country and leaving her there?

He was only just recovering enough from his disappointment with regard to Felice to be thinking about having another woman in his bed. But once she was installed at Wycke he could come back to London and trawl through the women thronging Covent Garden, just as the other men of his class did.

She briefly wondered what he would look like with pea green soup dripping down his supercilious face. Perhaps fortunately for her, Giddings cleared away her bowl before she had summoned up the courage to indulge her vengeful daydream.

Linney leaned over Robert's plate to cut up the collop of veal that comprised the second course, provoking Robert into thumping his one clenched fist on the tabletop. His wine glass went flying, splattering scarlet liquid all over the pristine white tablecloth, onto his plate, and into the nearby dish of bechamel sauce,

'Dammit, dammit,
dammit
!' As he tried to push himself to his feet, Finch, who had sped to the scene with a cloth to mop up the spill, inadvertently blocked his clumsy manoeuvre. Linney caught him as he bounced off the strapping young man's frame, deftly deflecting him back into his seat. Then, without so much as a raised eyebrow, calmly carried on cutting up his master's veal.

'You'll feel much better, if you'll forgive me for saying so, sir, once you've got on the outside of some meat,' Linney observed. 'Been overdoing it today, he has, my lord.' He addressed Charles. 'Dashing all over town, knocking himself up, and getting into a pucker over the news.'

'Thank you, Linney. When I want you to speak for me, as well as cut up my food and put me to bed,' Captain Fawley stormed, 'I'll let you know!'

For the first time since she had come into the salon Heloise stopped thinking about her own problems and noticed that Robert looked really ill.

'Robert, what is the matter? Why have you been dashing all over town? Oh, please say it was not on account of my
—
'

'The news which has upset Robert, I believe,' Charles interrupted, hoping to avoid having his wife's gaming debts discussed before the servants, 'is
—
'

'Hell and damnation! Will you all stop trying to speak for me as though I'd lost my tongue along with an arm and a leg and my looks!'

'I beg your pardon,' Charles replied, calmly cutting up a portion of his own meat and spearing it neatly with his fork. 'By all means, repeat before my wife the news you related to me earlier.'

'Well, dammit, so I will!' he retorted. 'Grey lost the vote,' he told her. 'The government has finally decided to send British troops to support the forces the Prussians, Russians and Austrians have already assembled to put a stop to Bonaparte's ambitions. Britain is, in effect, at war with France again.'

He glared at her so ferociously that Heloise felt obliged to say, 'I know I am French, Robert, but I am not your enemy...'

He snorted in derision. 'But you're the only French citizen I'm likely to get anywhere near. Wellington and Bonaparte are finally going to meet, every able-bodied ex-soldier is volunteering, and what am I doing? Running errands for a French-born
—
'

'I think you have said enough,' Charles said.

Robert struggled with himself. 'Lady Walton,' he eventually said, 'it is not your fault you are French. I dare say the truth is that Linney is right. I have done too much today
—
knocked myself up. But if you had heard the way those fools were prating in the clubs! Laying odds on the chances of Wellington beating Bonaparte as though it was a cockfight! And all my friends, joining up and saying their farewells, and I'm stuck here
—
a useless wreck of a man. I just want to hit someone! I don't particularly care who. And I can't even do that,' he finished, glaring down at the empty sleeve which Linney had pinned neatly out of the way for dinner.

'Truth of the matter is I'm not fit company tonight, and I should never have come to this table,' said Robert, signalling to Linney to help him from his chair. 'I'll return to my rooms and stop casting a blight on your evening. Lady Walton.' He bowed to her. 'I carried out your little commission, as you requested. I gave the package to Charles. I apologise for my filthy temper, and my boorish manners. And I trust you will enjoy your visit to Wycke.'

Heloise's mind began to race. 'Charles,' she said, turning to him the minute Robert had left, 'it cannot be good to go away just now and leave Robert all on his own. He might sink back to the way he was when I first came here.'

If she could postpone her exile, even for a few days, surely she could come up with some way to prove to Charles that he need not banish her? Even if it was only a stay of execution, she would at least have had a few more days with him.

'No,' he said, with such finality it dashed all her hopes to the ground. 'My mind is made up.' He had to remove Heloise from the dangers London posed for such an innocent. 'We will leave in the morning.'

She sat like a stone, picturing her lonely, loveless future, while the servants efficiently cleared away Robert's place-setting. In a space of minutes it was as if he had never been in the room. Even his chair was removed and placed against a wall, where it blended in amongst its fellows. Charles would no doubt have his servants eradicate all traces of his errant wife from this house just as efficiently.

'Do you require any help with your packing?'

She blinked. Charles was set on his course. She had no doubt that if she tried to resist he would order these efficient minions of his to pack her things for her. She had a brief vision of Giddings wrapping her in brown paper, securing her with string, and stuffing her into a trunk.

'No,' she said, folding her napkin neatly and placing it beside her still half-full plate. 'But what of Robert?' It had occurred to her that her exile might be easier to endure if she had a friend to share it. 'I cannot bear to think of him alone in those gloomy rooms. Could he not come with us?'

Charles set down his knife and fork. If Robert came with them it would ruin everything! He wanted Heloise to himself.

'Robert has a standing invitation to view Wycke any time he pleases. He is my heir, if you recall. But he does not care to go,' he warned her.

Heloise went cold inside. Charles had just reminded her he had no further use for her
—
not even to provide him with an heir. He wanted Robert to succeed him.

Frantically she grappled for something, anything, that might still win her a tiny place in her husband's good graces.

What if she could get Robert to travel to Wycke? Would that not please Charles? It had to be worth a try. For as things stood she was never likely to set eyes on him again. Once he had settled her into her new home he would feel free to pick a fresh, pretty new mistress, and within a month he would have forgotten all about her.

'I am finished here,' she said, pushing herself to her feet.

On legs that felt like cotton wool she left the salon and wove her way across the hall to pound on Robert's door. She had to persuade him to come to Wycke. It was her last chance to show Charles she had some worth as a wife.

'Goodness !' Heloise exclaimed, leaning over Robert to peer through the window on his side of the carriage.

'How much land does Charles own?'

'More than half of Berkshire, I believe, besides swathes of land just outside London, and several minor estates dotted about the country.'

She sat back, a troubled frown on her face. 'I only meant how big is this estate of Wycke? It has been more than ten minutes, I think, since we drove through the lodge gates.'