Page 75 of Secrets of the Marriage Bed
Chapter Thirteen
Alistair looked up as his wife entered his office.His wife.Why did his mind keep lingering over those two words as if the sound of them now gave him satisfaction? A sense of comfort when everything about their marriage was wrong and was set fair to get worse. Guilt rode him hard.
He frowned. Something was wrong. There were shadows in her eyes.
He got up and came around to lean against the front of his desk, removing at least the physical barrier between them. ‘How was the meeting?’ Even as he asked, his sense of her unease, her anxiety, intensified.
‘Your stepmother was there.’
He hissed in a breath, swallowing a curse. ‘At Beauworth’s?’
Julia wandered the room, touching the spines of books on the shelves, a china dog on the table, a pile of papers on the corner of his desk. Her fingers were long and elegant and the memory of them stroking his flesh made desire a heavy beat in his blood. He desired her too much, but more than that he wanted her happiness. The one thing that it was not in his power to give.
‘The meeting was held at Lady Wiltshire’s house,’ she said over her shoulder. ‘It usually is. Did I not say?’
She had not. Nor had he asked where the meeting was to be held, come to think of it. He’d simply assumed it was at Beauworth.
‘Lady Wiltshire is one of my stepmother’s cronies.’ Something Julia would not have known. Not that knowing would have made a jot of difference.
She turned to face him, her teeth sinking into her bottom lip in a way that made him want to bite it, too. ‘Alistair, she is very cordial.’
A black widow spider might seem cordial upon first acquaintance. He shrugged.
‘Your cousin, Percy Hepple, is also visiting Lady Wiltshire,’ she continued. ‘It seems your cousin is hopeful of speaking with you.’
He groaned inwardly. Though harmless, like all family, Percy was a royal pain in the buttocks. ‘Rusticating, is he? Hiding out from his creditors.’
A small smile curved her lips. ‘It would seem so.’ The smile disappeared, replaced by a frown.
‘He’s a wastrel and a fribble. Pay him no mind.’
The frown did not disappear. ‘Should we perhaps invite them to dine?’
She sounded so hesitant. So unsure.
How could he ever explain that the last thing he ever would want was to spend time with any member of his family and particularly not his stepmother? A woman who seemed cordial. Entertaining her would only serve to encourage her, then lead to accusations, tears and duns for money while she bludgeoned him with what she called his cruelty in going against his father’s wishes.
All because she refused to live within her means. Within the unbelievably generous settlement his father had put in place and that Alistair had struggled to maintain each and every quarter when he first returned to England. And while his cousin Percy was harmless and would be happy with a few guineas in his pocket, Percy’s papa would resent the interference. ‘I will send her a note. Did she say how long she was staying?’
‘No. She invited me to call on her again.’ She flushed. ‘She invited us.’
So that was the crux of the matter. The reason for her hesitation. ‘No.’
Her gaze shot to his face and away again.
‘You disagree?’ he asked, gritting his teeth.
‘I can have no opinion one way or the other, Alistair. She is your family.’
Ice filled his veins. His stepmother was working her wiles again. This time trying to turn his wife against him as she had done with his father. ‘She is no relation at all. It is my most fervent wish that you have no more contact with her or Percy for that matter.’
The anxiety in her eyes increased. ‘As you wish.’
He hated that she sounded so crushed. But he had no intention of starting down the road of confidences, of telling her the reasons for his antipathy, some of them founded on instinct rather than fact. One confidence might lead to another. The idea that she would learn just how badly he had betrayed his family, and her, made him physically ill.
As did the sight of her unhappiness. Hell and damnation. Things had been going along quite well between them these past few days. Why could she not simply accept that he wanted nothing to do with Isobel? If she could do that, then there was a chance this marriage could work reasonably well for them both.
They could even perhaps continue to make love. Surely, if any man could give her only the pleasure of his body, it was he.
