Page 80 of In Want of a Wife
Oh, she wished to thrash him. Her hands shook at her side as she glanced up to the sky, certain she would be sick any moment.
“Miss Abrams, please come inside.” The earl gestured for her to join him in the house. “I am sure it has been a long journey, and given that it has been with my brother, I am sure you are in desperate need of a break.”
A woman appeared behind Henry, with a crown of red hair piled on top of her head, clutching a book.
“Henry, I think we need to talk. Before you dismiss Miss Abrams…”
“Wait, Rafe!” she hissed between her teeth at him.
Henry held out his hand. “You can stop there, Rafe.” He stepped aside and snaked his hand around the woman’s waist, drawing her close. “I am not in want of a wife because I already have one.”
Rafe shook his head.He hadn’t heard right, surely. There was no way on Earth that his brother was married.
Especially to Miss Matilda Brennan, one of London’s most popular actresses.
“I’m sorry, I’ve been traveling for some time, and we have not had the easiest of journeys, but I believe you just announced you were married, Brother.”
“He is, yes.” Matilda stepped forward. Her warm Irish accent seeped into her words. “You must be Rafe. I was warned about you.”
There was a reason London adored this woman. She stood on the stone stairs with her chin high as her fiery orange hair was swept up and hung around her shoulders in loose curls. The dark blue of her dress only magnified the crisp green-gray of her eyes. Matilda was tall, taller in person than when he had seen her once on stage at Drury Lane.
Rafe was speechless. He had played this exact moment over and again in his mind since leaving Cumbria with Lily.
But he had never expected this.
“Come inside, dear,” Matilda said, reaching out a hand for Lily. “I think it is best we catch up over tea while the men talk this over.”
“Hmm.” Henry’s glare did not falter.
Rage bubbled up within Rafe. He might have placed the advertisement after a bit too much to drink, but he had been right, Henry needed a wife, and yet his brother was talking to him as if he were a child. As he always had. As if he weren’t a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy who had seen more of this world than Henry could comprehend.
Rafe wasn’t a child and hadn’t been for some time.
He couldn’t look at Lily as she followed Matilda into the great foyer of Cliffstone, leaving Henry staring down at Rafe in the drive.
Once the women were out of earshot, Rafe raced up the stone steps. “What is this? How long have you known?”
Henry held out his hand, staying Rafe. “You left without so much as an explanation. You left and returned with an unmarried woman, unchaperoned. And to what end?”
“You needed a wife! I can’t possibly stay here any longer, or I will go mad.”
“And you were sane in London?” Henry scoffed. “I have a wife. I had a wife when you placed that advertisement to spite me.”
Rafe tugged at his jacket and loosened his damn cravat. “I don’t understand.”
“We were married over Christmas. There were some matters that needed to be settled privately before I could announce the marriage and move her safely to Cliffstone.” He dropped his voice before he continued, “She has a son.Wehave a son now, who we will soon be sending for to live with us here.”
“Wait, a son? We will discuss that later because…” Rafe shook his head, feeling the betrayal of being kept in the dark ripple through his body. “How was I supposed to know you were married?” Rafe bent closer. “And to Matilda Brennan, no less?”
Henry waved his arm toward the open front door with thick, peeling green paint. “I don’t wish to discuss this outside. I have set up an office in the library.”
It had been several years since Rafe and his brother resolved an issue with the use of fisticuffs, but he wasn’t above it now.
“You are married,” he hissed, chasing at his brother’s heels. Henry might be superior in many ways, but Rafe was still taller. “You are married and have made a fool of me.”
He strode inside just in time to avoid having the door slam shut on him by Henry.
“No, you have done that for yourself, Rafe.”
