The Sherbrooke Bride (9 page)

Alex was grinding her teeth. She stared down at Douglas, who was now sitting up in the middle of the road.

“I believe,” she said clearly, “that you, my lord, are also in need of new riding clothes.”

“These aren't really riding clothes. They're morning garb. Are you ignorant as well as a sham?”

“Sham? I am not!”

“Then why did you do it?”

Both Alex and Garth were motionless. She opened her mouth, then closed it. It was obvious that Tony had failed utterly to bring the earl around. She could
repeat that her father had been in horrible financial difficulties, repeat that all the Chambers holdings would have been lost, that the heir had fled to America, that her father would have been disgraced, perhaps had to blow his brains out with the shame of it. She shuddered with the thought of how those offerings would be received. Then there was the other truth, but she couldn't, wouldn't, tell him that.

“No answer, hm? Well, I'm not surprised, particularly after all the drivel Tony was feeding me last night.” Douglas got to his feet, queried his body, was satisfied with the response, and walked to his stallion. He picked up the reins, stroked the stallion's nose, and said slowly, “I am to believe that you were willing to sacrifice yourself on the marital altar because your beloved father was going to lose everything if you didn't? That you and your father convinced dear Tony—that traitorous sod—that it would save me having to find myself a proper female amongst the current batch of debutantes in London? That all of this was done for
my
benefit? But then you, honorable to your female toes, told your father you couldn't do it? Because of your nobility of spirit? Then he forced you?”

How could Tony have said that? It was ludicrous! Certainly she'd refused, at least at first she had. Before she could say anything, Douglas snorted, just like his horse. “Sorry, but I don't believe that. In this day and age, fathers cannot coerce their children to do anything against their will.” Even as he spoke the words, they rang false and he knew it. Actually Tony had said nothing of the like but Douglas was probing, and the chit wasn't telling him anything that sounded reasonable.

Alex said quietly, “No, Papa didn't force me. He loves me, but I had to—”

“Yes, I know. You had to save him and sacrifice yourself. I hope you're pleased with my purchase, since I have paid dearly to have a stranger for a wife.”

Alex straightened as tall as she could in the saddle. “I would that you would give me a chance, my lord, that you not despise me out of hand. I will make you a good wife.”

He looked up at the disheveled female atop Garth. She was pale now and he wondered momentarily if she had been hurt in her fall, but then she added, “Tony said you would rather have a tooth extracted than spend a Season in London. He said the last thing you wanted to do was be forced to attend all the routs and balls and parties and sniff out available young ladies for your consideration. He said you felt like a plump partridge in the midst of well-armed hunters. He said you hated it.”

“He did? And you believed him? I don't suppose it occurred to you during your spate of nobility that Tony would have said anything to try to find excuses for himself? To justify what he did to me?”

“I am sure that he still feels immense guilt. He is very fond of you.”

“But more fond of your sister!”

“Yes, he loves her.”

“He's a Judas and I should blow his brains out.”

“He did not intend for it to happen. Surely you don't believe he married Melissande to thwart you? To somehow spite you? No, even in your foulest mood, you wouldn't believe that. Did he lie about your feelings toward going to London?”

Douglas looked down at his scuffed Hessians.
Finkle would have a fit when he saw it. “No, but it wasn't up to him to make that decision for me. It is all a part of his justification, nothing more.”

“I'm sorry.”

Like hell she was! “You know, don't you, that I can have this farce of a marriage annulled and demand the settlement back from your black-hearted father?”

“Don't you dare speak of my father like that!” She waved a credible fist at him.

Douglas didn't move. He merely stared up at her, no expression on his face. “What am I to believe?”

Alex felt an awful wave of guilt for what she'd done to him. “I'm sorry, my lord, truly, but don't you think that perhaps you could allow me to be your wife for a while? By annulment, you mean you would send me home and the marriage wouldn't still be a marriage?”

“That's right. Our temporary union would be dissolved.”

“Please, you must reconsider. I don't want to be annulled or dissolved. Perhaps in a very short time you won't mind my being here at Northcliffe, for I will keep out of your way. I will try to make things comfortable for you—”

“Women! Don't you think a man can be perfectly content without one of you hanging about his neck, handing him brandy and cigars?”

“What I meant was that I wouldn't be obtrusive and that I would make certain your house runs smoothly.”

“It runs smoothly right now, or have you forgotten that I have a mother and more servants than I can count?”

She had momentarily forgotten the mother. He
also had two brothers and a younger sister. Hollis had told her they were all visiting friends in London. But they would return soon to Northcliffe. Oh dear. Would they hate her, despise her as much as Douglas did? Would they follow his lead and scorn her? She drew a deep breath and said, “I had forgotten. I'm sorry.” She leaned unconsciously toward him. “Please, my lord, perhaps you won't mind that I am in your home after some time has passed. Perhaps you won't even notice me after a while. I beg you not to annul me just yet.”

“Annul you? You make it sound like a violent act.” Douglas suddenly frowned; there was contempt in his eyes. “Ah, I begin to see the direction of your thinking or perhaps your sire's thinking. You hope to climb into my bed, don't you? You know that I cannot annul you—damnation!—obtain an annulment—if I take your virginity. That's what you want, isn't it? Once I take your precious virginity, then your precious father will be safe and all my money will remain with him. Did your father counsel you to try to seduce me?”

Alex could only stare down at him. She slowly shook her head. “No, I hadn't thought any of that and no, no one counseled me about anything.”

He was silent, staring up at her.

“Truly, my lord, I know nothing of seduction. Surely seduction isn't something done between husband and wife. My mother told me that seduction was only done by wild young men who wanted to ruin innocent young ladies.”

“Really? Did this motherly Delphi warn you of anything more specific?”

“That if a man ever flattered me or stepped too close to me or held my hand too long after kissing
it, that I was to leave the vicinity immediately. He was up to no good, she said.”

Douglas laughed, he couldn't help himself.

Alex brightened. She'd amused him, that or he was laughing at her. She waited, then said, “I will do my best to please you, to make you a comfortable wife. My temper is usually rather placid and—”

“Ha! You were beyond vicious, a shrew, a fishwife, and a less comfortable female I've yet to encounter. You knocked me off my damned horse!”

Alex frowned. “Yes,” she said, surprise in her eyes and in her voice, “yes, it appears that I did, which is very strange. It is very unlike me.”

Douglas saw that the top two buttons of her riding habit had come unfastened. He saw a patch of white flesh. Very soft-looking white flesh. He thought of her virginity and he thought of taking it, of pushing through her maidenhead. “Perhaps,” he said, continuing to stare at her breasts, “perhaps I could be proved wrong. It is possible that you could be the one to demand an annulment. Perhaps you will want to leave Northcliffe as fast as your carriage wheels can roll away with you.”

“Oh no, I want to be your wife—”

“Let's see, shall we? Unfasten the rest of the buttons. I can only see the curve of your breasts. I would like to see the rest of you. You're quiet? Is that a touch of pallor I see? You're shocked at my bluntness? I've assaulted your precious virgin sensibilities? Well, so there are ways to shut you up.”

He was right about that, she thought, stunned.

“How old are you?”

“You know I am eighteen. I told you last night.”

“Old enough to be a woman and a wife. You said that too. Oh, hell. Just be quiet, all right?”

“But I didn't say—”

“Damnation, be quiet or I shall demand that you take off that riding jacket and let me see your breasts and your nipples and your ribs. All your upper parts I've paid so dearly for.”

Alex was silent as a stone.

Douglas eyed her, waiting, but she remained silent and still, that broomstick firmly in place down her back. He shrugged. “I will lead Garth. A good walk is balm to a weary soul.”

She wondered why he'd gotten that bit of errant treacle, but was wise enough to keep her curiosity to herself. She watched him walk ahead of her; there was a jagged rip in his buckskins. She could see a patch of hairy thigh. Black hair. It looked rather nice to her. She looked down at herself then, jerked her chemise about, covering any hint of skin. She straightened again, and kept her eyes on the back of her husband all the way back to the stables.

This annulment business was still somewhat a mystery. She would have to ask Tony about it. She knew too little about marriage sorts of things. All she knew about virginity and virgins was that she was one. She would have to be in her husband's bed before she wasn't one anymore.

She should ask her husband, but she doubted he would take any question of that sort in a proper frame of mind.

He stopped suddenly in the middle of the road and turned back to face her. “I'm tired. Garth is tired. Get down and come here. We will rest a moment beneath that oak tree.”

Alex slid from the saddle, saying not a word.

Douglas didn't bother to tether Garth, just left his
reins loose. “Sit down,” Douglas said, pointing to a grassy spot.

Alex sat.

Douglas sat also, a good three feet away from her. He leaned back against the thick oak trunk and crossed his legs at his ankles. He sighed, folded his arms over his belly, and closed his eyes.

“I am sorry you're so tired,” Alex said. “Tony said you were on some sort of mission and that was why he'd come to us rather than you.”

“Yes. I certainly made the wrong choice, didn't I? I certainly chose the wrong man to trust. Jesus, my entire life ruined because—”

“Was your mission successful?”

“Yes.” He opened his eyes then and looked at her. Perverseness sang through his veins. “Actually, I would have preferred the lovely lady I rescued in France to be here rather than you. Her name is Janine and she's a woman, not a girl playing at being a woman, and she was more than interested in me as a man. She offered herself to me, without guile, without playing the coquette. However, since I believed I was a married man, believed that Melissande was awaiting me here, I didn't take her. Indeed, I pushed her away.” He closed his eyes again.

“You are a married man.”

“You, however, are not Melissande.”

“This woman you rescued, she is French?”

“Yes, and a very important man's mistress.”

“Surely you wouldn't want a mistress for your wife.”

“Why not?”

“That's beyond foolish! You're only saying that to hurt me, to make me feel horrible. No man wants a
woman who isn't all that is proper. It's all a matter of heirs. I heard my father saying that to a neighbor.”

“There speaks eighteen-year-old wisdom and eavesdropping.”

“Will you annul me?”

He was silent.

“Won't you at least give me a chance?”

“Be quiet. I wish to rest now.”

Alex eyed Garth, who was placidly chewing thick grass at the side of the road. If she coshed Douglas, then he couldn't whistle for his horse and then the horse would take her back to the Sherbrooke stables. She sighed, closing her own eyes. The morning was warming and becoming clear. Soon the sun would shine fully.

Alex said then, “I had the oddest dream the first night I was here in your home, sleeping in the countess's bedchamber. I dreamed there was a young lady in the room and she was standing next to the bed, just looking down at me. I thought she wanted to say something, but she remained silent. She looked so sad and beautiful. When I awoke fully, she was gone, of course. A dream, yet it seemed so real.”

Douglas opened his eyes. He stared at her. He said very slowly, “The devil, you say.”

“Dreams are strange, aren't they? They seem so real, so tangible, but of course—”

“A dream, nothing more, nothing less. Forget it. Do you understand?”