Page 99 of Lord of Temptation
“I’m not sure that’s wise.”
“I’m not going to marry her.”
“I’m not sure you’ll have a choice.”
“I was forced once before to do something that I didn’t want to do. It’ll be a cold day in hell before I’m forced again.”
Mary watched as her husband paled.
“I had no choice. I had to get you away from England. You were second in line.”
“I’m not blaming you. I blame Uncle. But I will not marry Lady Hermione. I can speak with her or I can simply set sail tonight.”
“If you leave, you’ll never be able to return.”
“Tell me, Brother, what the hell am I returning to?”
Mary watched as Tristan stormed from the room and her husband sank into a chair. She thought he’d moved beyond the guilt from what happened all those years ago but it still lingered. It probably always would, until his brothers were happy.
She rose, walked over to him, knelt before him, and took his hands. “Did you not once tell me that we must let him travel his own path?”
“But he’s lost, Mary. I can see that now and he has been since he was fourteen. Maybe marriage to the chit would help settle him.”
“Not when he loves someone else.”
Sebastian studied her. “Do you know who was on the ship with him?”
“I don’tknowbut I have a good idea.”
“Then why doesn’t he announce it and marry her?”
“Because just as he doesn’t want to be forced, my love, I suspect he doesn’t want to force her.”
“It makes no sense.”
“He’ll find his way.”
He sighed. “At fourteen, I thought we would be able to step back into our roles so easily. I should have kept us all together.”
“You made the best decision you could at the time.”
“You’re not going to let me feel guilty about this are you?”
“No. Come upstairs and I’ll distract you.”
Standing, he drew her to her feet and kissed her. She would never tire of his kisses, never tire of—
A knock on the door brought their prelude to lovemaking to an end.
The butler stepped inside and announced, “Your Grace, Lords Blackwood and Jameson would like a word.”
“Ah.” Sebastian exchanged a glance with her. “Would you care to wager that it was Lady Anne Hayworth on the ship with him?”
Smiling softly, she shook her head. It was whom she’d suspected all along.
Under the circumstances, Tristan supposed that he could have come in through the front door. Her brothers wouldn’t be happy to see him, but considering that they had confronted him at Sebastian’s this afternoon and informed him that he would marry their sister, he expected they would begrudgingly allow him to speak with her in the parlor. But quite honestly he felt a need to see her without anyone knowing.
So he was perched on the sill of her window watching her. She sat on a sofa before the fireplace. In spite of the warmer weather, tonight a fire burned in the hearth and he wondered if revealing their little trysts had chilled her. But what struck him the most was the loneliness he sensed coming from her. How often she had spoken of the lonely nights that awaited her if he remained in her life. Until this moment he wasn’t certain that he’d quite comprehended the full extent of what being with him would cost her.
