Page 38 of The Banished Bride
His mouth quickly composed itself into a grim line. “Good Lord, must you always argue with me? Just once, will you tryto act like a normal, biddable female and listen to reason?” he muttered.
“I thought you said the two of them were unacquainted,” whispered Seymour.
“That was my understanding,” replied Perkins, sounding equally perplexed.
“Well, they certainly sound like an old married couple ….”
“OUT!” The Earl of Woodbridge’s command could best be described as a bellow. A very loud bellow.
The room was quickly emptied of all but the two of them.
Aurora,the odious scowl still on her face, stood up and moved over stand by the high mullioned windows. Her gaze drifted to the teeming street below for several moments before turning back to him. “Well? Now what?”
Alex drew in a deep breath. He had thought facing a troop of howling Kashmiri bandits required a steady nerve! Ha! He would much rather face off against a hundred flashing knives than the pair of emerald eyes that was now throwing daggered looks at his person. His teeth clamped together as he sought for a strategy to break the tense silence. He’d be damned if he would let her take the offensive, for it wasn’t as if she didn’t have a good deal to answer for herself.
“First of all, I suppose we had best deal with the matter at hand before anything else,” he began haltingly. “It appears that we may have to revise the proposal my man of affairs presented to you in his letter, now that certain facts have come to light. Obviously we cannot proceed as before, due to the truth of?—”
“Oh, we certainly wouldn’t want tolie,” she interrupted with withering sarcasm. “Would we, Major Woodmore? But really, what is yet one more untruth, when added to all the others?”
Alex flushed despite himself. “On a clandestine mission one never reveals one’s real name,” he muttered a bit defensively. “Other than that, I did not seek to …” His words cut off as he quickly recovering his equilibrium. “My God, you don’t think I set out to deliberately deceive you,Mrs. Sprague.
Two spots of color came to her cheeks. “Sprague was my grandmother’s name, and considering all that had taken place, the only one I felt proud to bear. Anyway, I never thought of Fenimore as my real name. And it would have raised too many awkward questions when Robbie and I chose to leave my father’s house and make our own way in the world.”
He muttered something unintelligible under his breath. “Why was it you never took up residence at Rexford?”
“You need ask?” she replied in a scathing tone. “I was heartily sick of bullying male despots. Why should I have merely exchanged one for another?”
His color deepened but he let the matter drop. “That is something we shall discuss at a later time, but for now, we had best address the current situation. What … happened in Scotland has made things a good deal more complicated?—”
“Why?” Her chin came up. “If you insist on being a stickler for honesty, why not simply do as I have suggested and change the petition to one of divorce on the grounds of adultery. A physical examination, as Mr. Seymour so delicately put it, would confirm the fact.”
“No! I will not permit it.”
“Afraid you will become a laughing stock if it is bandied about that your wife was not satisfied with your own prowess, considerable though it may be?”
“There will be no sordid talk of adultery,” he said through gritted teeth. “For your sake, not mine.”
Aurora’s lip curled in contempt. “Well, it is the truth, in thought if not in deed! I certainly did not know I was slipping between the sheets with my lawfully wedded husband!”
“The devil take it!” Alex was on his feet too, and stalked to within arm’s length of her. “Don’t be such a stubborn fool, Aurora. Have you no idea what disgrace you would bring upon yourself and your friend Robbie with such an outrageous announcement? I would have no trouble weathering the scandal, but you should find yourself a total outcast from Society.”
She gave a harsh laugh. “As if it would matter! It isn’t as if I have any desire to seek out another husband. Hell will freeze over before I should ever contemplate another marriage, especially with a so-called gentleman.”
Alex knew full well that he deserved a measure of scorn for the past, but still he was cut by the razored disdain of her words. Without stopping to consider what he was saying, he lashed back. “You may sneer all you like at men in general and me in particular, but it was not ice flowing in your veins when you lay in my arms. Don’t deny you took a full measure of enjoyment from the experience.”
Aurora turned white, and her hands clenched into fists. “You appear to have inherited not only a lofty title, sir, but the same arrogant, bullying attitudes of your despicable father. And mine. To think I ever thought you any different from the rest of them! A plague on all of you men who think females want or need nothing more than a tumble in bed to keep them satisfied and submissive.” She turned, throwing her profile in shadow. “You may write up the papers however you wish. I shall inform Mr. Seymour I will sign any agreement to be rid of a scoundrel like you.”
With that, she turned on her heel and quit the room, the door slamming shut with a thunderous bang.
Eleven
Aurora stumbled into the cab of the waiting carriage, ignoring the offer of assistance from the startled footman standing by the steps. It was not until the door was latched shut and the horses began to move that she allowed the tears that had been welling in her eyes to fall.
This was absurd, she thought with a watery sniff. Had the plot unfolded on the pages of one of Robbie’s horrid novels, she would have laughed herself silly, dismissing the author as guilty of possessing either a overly vivid imagination or an overfondness for the brandy bottle. Perhaps both, for on second thought, she would have considered it impossible that any sane person could have contrived such a story unless under the influence of strong spirits. Or drugs.
Indeed, she had felt as addled as an opium addict on hearing the distinct baritone voice behind her. Her first thought had been that she was hallucinating. Her second thought had been that she was going mad. Her third thought had been that if any solid object, such as a vase or marble bust, had been close at hand, the Earl of Woodbridge would have had a rather large lump on his head.
Drat the man! How dare Alex Woodmore—or Fenimore or Woodbridge or whatever his deuced name really was—appear back in her life, just when her heart was beginning to recover from the bruising of his lies. Hehadlied, in spirit, if not in word, and somehow that had made the betrayal seem even worse. She had allowed herself to be seduced by the thought that Alex might have cared for her, when in truth their liaison had been just another casual flirtation for him. It had been the frisson of danger that had heated his blood, not her in particular, and his admission after their lovemaking had merely been a none too subtle reminder that time together was at an end. He would move on to another mission. And another mistress.
