Page 10 of Miss Barton's Mysterious Husband
Janet looked stubborn. “I know what I saw.”
“I was going to come to Leeder Hall,” Charmain said, shooting a worried glance between her aunt and Roland. She must feel the rising temperature in the room.
“Why didn’t you?”
“Celia Hibberd wrote to say that you were taking the Grand Tour.”
He frowned. “Did she know we were married?”
“I didn’t tell her. I didn’t tell anyone except my family. It was just one of those gossipy letters between friends, you know. Did you tell her we eloped? If you did, she never mentioned it.”
“No, I didn’t tell anyone that I’d found a bride who left me within a fortnight,” he bit out.
“Your pride again.”
Charmian’s disdain stung. Yes, he’d been proud at the start. Too proud. But it hadn’t taken him long to realize that pride gave a man no comfort when his bed was empty and his heart ached for the woman he loved.
He wasn’t about to admit that. It seemed that his pride retained its sway. “Pride was all you left me with.”
She flinched at his answer. “If you were heading off on your travels, you weren’t suffering too badly.”
A protest died on his lips. After six months without a word from the bride he’d married with such joy, he’d been sick to the soul. England only held painful memories. He’d escaped to foreign climes, hoping that Italy or France might offer balm for his suffering. They didn’t.
His only chance to restore his spirits was seeing his wife again. Three wretched years hadn’t changed that. Even tonight when she was so prickly, she made him feel more alive than he had since she’d left.
“Once we heard that, we knew we’d made the right decision,” Janet said. “When you’re a rich aristocrat, it’s so easy to run away from your sorrows.”
He glowered at the woman. “Except I was only away a couple of months and I wrote over and over to Charmian the whole time. And I came to find her again, as soon as I returned to England.”
By then, he’d realized that there was no future for him without Charmian. Or no future that he wanted.
Janet went back to looking guilty, while Charmian stared at him out of devastated eyes. “Roland, I’m so sorry you went through all that. I promise I didn’t know.”
When he met that troubled green gaze, he asked the question that had tormented him every moment of every day since thatstupid quarrel in York. “Would it have made any difference if you had?”
He’d waited so long for the answer. It seemed he had to wait some more.
Charmian shot a glare at her aunt. “Aunt Janet, you should leave us now.”
“But—”
“You’ve already interfered enough, wouldn’t you agree?” The question’s sweetness was poisonous.
Janet whitened and looked stricken, but her tone indicated that she left under protest. “As you wish.”
Charmian waited until the door closed behind her aunt before she faced Roland. “Well, husband, what happens now?”
Chapter 5
Charmian’s mind reeled after the revelations of the last half hour. The churning mix of emotions in her stomach made her feel sick. Anger was there. And sorrow. And astonishment and guilt. Definitely guilt. Guilt as gnawing and powerful as a disease. She’d promised to trust Roland when she married him, yet she never had. And she’d been wrong.
Roland stepped forward to take her arm. “Sit down before you fall down.”
It was the first time that he’d touched her since she’d left him. The contact slammed through her like gunfire, cut through her roiling confusion. She caught her breath, and her eyes fixed on his face. “How could they do that? It was so cruel.”
Roland’s lips flattened. “I suspect they thought they were protecting you.”
“That’s…that’s a very generous view of their actions.”
