Page 25 of Suddenly a Bride
“Of course she did. She’s probably wondering if you can perform as a man.”
“What the hell does that mean?” Edmund practically growled the question. “Do you believe I should bed her if I have no trust in her? I couldn’t use her like that.”
Geoff opened his mouth as if to respond, then sighed and shook his head. “I guess that would be a lie on your part, wouldn’t it?”
“I know what I am doing.”
“So you keep saying.” He suddenly put a hand on Edmund’s back and pushed. “But tonight you’re going to keep up appearances by eating supper with your wife, who baked something to please you.”
“Baked? Whyever would she do that?”
“Because that’s what she knows. Did you ever ask what she and her family did to survive?”
“But they’re cousins to the Langstons. She was the earl’s ward.”
“Then that old man doesn’t know the meaning of ‘ward.’ She never stayed with him. The house lived in by Gwyneth, her three sisters, and their parents is smaller than your stables. Gwyneth has spent years walking London’s dangerous streets, selling their baked goods to local bakeries.”
Edmund let himself be pushed toward the castle. “So she says.”
“I saw how she lived,” Geoff interrupted. “Did you even notice the poor quality of her clothing?”
“Even more reason for her to succumb to the earl’s pressure.” Edmund strode across the courtyard. The sun was setting and the servants fleeing the castle for the night, giving him guilty nods, which he returned. He glanced at Geoff’s angry expression and spoke in a lower voice. “If you must know, I never see her clothing when I look at her body, I only imagine what’s under—” He broke off at Geoff’s assessing gaze.
His friend gave him another push, which made him stumble. “Now go eat with your wife and give her my regrets.”
Chapter 7
When Edmund first glimpsed Gwyneth in the winter parlor, she hadn’t seen him. He watched her sitting by herself in front of windows which glistened with the setting sun. She steadily ate her food, but her face betrayed distant thoughts and a subtle melancholy that made him feel uneasy.
For the first time, he truly looked at her gown, at the plain, even rough fabric, and the lack of decoration. Not that she needed frills to look beautiful. He imagined her walking city streets, prey for every unsavory criminal—even a nobly born rake. When he sent her back to her family, he would make sure she had money to make her independent of the Langstons.
Gwyneth looked up with a bright smile. “Good evening, Edmund.”
He nodded and pulled out his chair. “Geoff asked me to tell you that he had to…that he forgot an appointment in the village.”
The lie was so clumsy that he waited for her to look suspicious. But her smile only softened as he sat down near her.
“I don’t mind,” she said quietly. “Allow me to prepare your plate.”
He watched as she served him from platters of mutton and beef then added a small meat pie. As she leaned forward to hand him his plate, he again only noticed her gown as it tightened over her breasts. He had not forgotten the sight of her in her revealing wedding gown and the sheer night rail, and if he wasn’t careful, he’d show her how undamaged his vital parts were.
They ate in silence for a few minutes until the awkwardness began to unsettle even Edmund.
“I’ve told you about my family,” he said gruffly, “but you have never mentioned yours.” As if they’d had dozens of conversations.Idiot.He didn’t want to make her suspicious as he pried for information.
She gave a happy blush. “I did not want you to think all I do is talk.”
“I don't think that.”
“Tell me when I start saying things that Lord Langston must have told you about me.”
The earl had never said anything except that Gwyneth was related to him.
“My parents are both still alive. When I was young, we lived on a small farm in the countryside north of London, but we moved to the city many years ago.”
“Why?”
“My father became ill and could no longer do the physical labor a farm requires. In London, he became a personal guard for a wool merchant.”
