Page 44 of Midnight Rider

“I thought you told Lupe that she should pack?”

He stiffened. “She pleaded not to be sent away without my grandmother’s company. I didn’t have the heart to refuse her, especially after her sincere apology.”

“Was it sincere? How nice.”

“You make fun of her.”

“Now, why should I wish to make fun of your cousin?” she asked reasonably. “Your family is unique. Your grandmother has the bearing of royalty and your cousin Lupe is as beautiful as an angel.”

He scowled. “You don’t like them.”

“I don’t know them.”And I never will get the chance because they hate the very sight of me,she added silently. But she smiled at her husband, hiding her misery and disappointment quite carefully from him. “I will visit my father from time to time, of course,” she added. “And I would like to go and visit my brother soon, to tell him and my sister-in-law about the wedding. And to see their new baby.”

“We will discuss this later,” he said. “It is hardly appropriate for you to travel so far this soon after our wedding.”

“Why ever not?” she asked innocently. “If your family can camp here during our honeymoon, why can’t I go and visit my brother?”

“Bernadette!” he said curtly.

She lifted her chin pertly. “Do you think it’s appropriate to have a houseful of people wandering around here at such a...delicate time?”

His cheeks went ruddy with temper. “It will not be a delicate time!”

“Certainly not with an audience,” she agreed. “But they aren’t supposed to know that, are they? For all practical purposes, we’re a newly married couple.” She indicated the room. “And we’re going to be living and sleeping apart, for all the household servants to see and gossip about.” She smiled wider. “My, my, won’t that look as if...well, you know how it will look.”

It would look as if he wasn’t capable of consummating the marriage, and he knew it. “If you continue this,” he said slowly, “you may invite a situation that will be quite unpleasant for you.”

“You mean you might ravish me?” she teased.

But he didn’t smile, as he might have only weeks before. He looked cold and unapproachable—and insulted.

“A man does not ravish a wife.” His gaze was cold. “At the beginning of all this, Bernadette, I told you our alliance would offer a mutual slaking of passions. At the moment however, you do not appeal to me in that light.”

“How odd, given what you said the nights we were in the desert and in the pantry.”

“A lady does not speak of such occasions.”

“I’m not a lady,” she replied. She smiled a little icily herself. “I’m the daughter of a railroad hand who built a fortune with his own hands.”

“I’ve been a long time without a woman,” he said finally. “You were willing and I lost my head.”

“I see.”

He sighed irritably, putting his hands behind him. “I won’t invade your privacy and I’ll expect you not to invade mine. We should get along well enough. As we discussed, you have a measure of independence and freedom here that you didn’t have at home, and I will have a loan that was gained honorably, not through subterfuge and deception.” His eyes narrowed. “I never pretended to love you, Bernadette. I have been honest.”

“And I haven’t?” she probed, trying to make him admit what had created this horrible situation between them.

He drew in a long breath. “God help me, I don’t know.” He turned away. He felt empty and betrayed...and confused.

“I’ll stay here for two weeks,” she told him. “If at the end of that time, your grandmother and Lupe are still here, I’m going to see my brother.”

He whirled. “You think to dictate to me?”

She didn’t back down an inch. “I’m telling you what I’m going to do,” she replied with great dignity. “You think that your family wants nothing except your happiness. You’re in for a rude awakening.”

“I owe much to my grandmother,” he said harshly. “She took me in when I had no one. She raised me, fed me, clothed me!”

“And made you aware every minute of your life that she’d done it,” she fired right back. “Isn’t that how she talked you into marrying Consuela?”

---