Claiming His Wife (28 page)

"Hullo mother," Matthew said
dutifully, leaning down to buss her cheek.  "We arrived a bit
too late for that, so we just sat in the back and watched."
 He grinned at Wesley.  "Congratulations brother, or
should I say good luck, because you're going to need it with this
little devil?"  He opened his arms and Cynthia immediately
squealed and jumped into them, squeezing him about the
waist. 

Wesley plastered a smile on his own
face, even though right now he felt a bit like growling.  He
and Cynthia were going to have to have a talk about the proper way
to interact with other men.  Even his brothers.  His
smile became a bit more relaxed as he remembered their "talk" last
night.  From the way his bride had been fidgeting all morning,
he knew she was still feeling the marks from her birching.
 His marks, on her skin, reminding her of whose she was.
 That salved some of the possessive aggression that had boiled
up inside of him.  

Strangely, being wedded to
her didn't make him feel more secure.  If anything, he felt
more possessively guarded than ever.  As a wife, she was even
riper for seduction by the rakes of the
ton
.  Not that he thought she
would fall to their blandishments, she'd kept them off before he'd
ever met her, but that didn't mean he liked them looking or
thinking.  It almost made him feel sorry for all the husbands
that he'd cuckolded over the years.  Except that they'd been
stupid enough to neglect their wives, leaving them unprotected and
needy.

Not a mistake that Wesley would make.
 

Pulling his wife back to him and
tucking her in neatly at his side, he grinned at his brothers.
 With Cynthia properly secured, it was easier to enjoy seeing
them.  "I didn't know you were going to be here, but I'm glad
that you are."

His younger brothers both clapped his
shoulder, expressing their congratulations on his wedding.
 "Not something I thought I'd ever be able to say to you,"
teased Matthew.  "But I'm glad Mother was right."

"What do you mean?" Wesley asked,
frowning as he turned his head slightly.  The Dowager was
surrounded by her friends, all gleefully congratulating her on
getting her rakish son settled.  

"As soon as Cyn came to live with us,
Mother said she'd be perfect for you, once she was trained up a
bit," Vincent said.  The sparkling of his mischievous hazel
eyes were filled with laughter; it was obvious he knew that his
elder brother had had no idea. 

"She did?"  Wesley and Cynthia
chorused the words, in the same surprised tones, which made him
feel slightly better.  Slightly less trapped as well.
 For a moment his temper rose, but it quickly slid into
amusement as he looked down at his wife, who was glaring from
across the room at her new mother-in-law.  "Well, she was
right, much as I hate to say it."

Cynthia muttered something under her
breath, and he gave her a warning squeeze.  Even though he
couldn't hear the words, he was fairly sure that she'd just cursed.
 

Looking up at him, her expression was
puzzled.  "Aren't you mad?"

"At my mother's machinations?"
 He sighed and shook his head, his smile slightly crooked with
resignation.  "You'll get used to them.  Besides, how can
I be mad at her when she brought me you?"

Both of his brothers made
gagging noises as Cynthia's cheeks blushed a sweet pink.  She
looked so charmingly innocent at that moment, despite Wesley's
firsthand knowledge that she certainly wasn't.  It took quite
a bit of willpower not to drag her off to divest her of the last of
her innocence this very moment.

******

Standing with Hugh and his
parents, Alex kept one eye on Grace, who was talking with Eleanor
and Irene.  Edwin hovered behind the chair that he'd seated
Eleanor in, which had already sparked quite a bit of speculation
among the guests that she might be in an interesting condition.
 Many of them had tried to surreptitiously coax one of the
Hydes’ friends into confirming, so far without success.  It
helped that Eleanor's parents weren't hovering as well, most of the
gossips were sure that Lord and Lady Harrington would be watching
over her as well if she were
enceinte
.

Alex only had eyes for
Grace.

Last night she slept in his arms
without protest, warm and soft, and he'd fallen asleep filled with
hope.  This morning she'd pulled away immediately, a wary
expression back on her face.  Studying him.  Judging him.
 If only he knew for what.

Unfortunately, they hadn't had any
time to talk as they'd had to prepare for the wedding.
 Cynthia had asked Irene, Eleanor and Grace to stand on her
side, so Grace had disappeared to join the women as soon as she'd
dressed.  At least Alex had had the pleasure of looking at her
barely pink bottom before she'd gotten dressed.  The spanking
she'd received the night before hadn't left much visible evidence
behind, but he could tell that she was still sore from the way
she'd winced when she'd sat down for her maid to do her
hair. 

They needed to talk.  

It was a thought he'd had before,
especially when she'd said things that confused him, but he'd
always allowed himself to be distracted by other means of
communication.  Alex always felt that actions spoke more than
words.  It was why he'd waited until after Grace had taken her
first lover to take a mistress to his bed.  Now that had
translated into spanking her when she was naughty and holding her
for comfort afterwards.  Actions were easier than words.
 

But it was looking as though words
were going to become necessary, because every time he spoke, he
felt as though Grace was weighing what he said.  And when she
spoke, half the time he wasn't sure what she was talking about.
 There seemed to be some third part of the conversation that
he wasn't aware of.  It would be so much easier if she would
just trust in him, in his return, his worship of her body, his
discipline... after all, he was taking the time to correct her
behavior and continue to try and reconcile, rather than giving up
on their relationship.  Shouldn't that speak
volumes?

Well, perhaps he was just
being impatient, because it did seem like things had changed
between them - for the better.  But he didn't think they could
go much further without him knowing what was going through her
pretty little head, and she seemed to feel the same.  Because
every time he told her, she didn't act as though she trusted what
he said.

"Why don't you just go over to
her?"

Alex came back to himself with a
start, guiltily turning to look at Hugh.  Lord and Lady
Harrington had already moved away, leaving the two men alone.
 "Sorry, I didn't mean to ignore you."

"No apology necessary," Hugh said,
shooting him an amused look.  "I just don't understand why
you're standing here with me, when it's obvious you want to be over
there with her."

"I just thought I'd give her some
space," he muttered, looking back at her.  She was laughing at
something Eleanor had said, looking gorgeously happy and making his
chest ache.  "She never smiles like that when I'm
nearby."

Hugh studied her for a moment, his own
expression softening when his gaze lit upon his own wife.
 "Give it time.  You've already made a great deal of
progress from when you first arrived in Bath."

"Yes, but she's keeping something from
me... and I'm sure that whatever it is makes up part of the reason
why she's so determined to remain estranged."  His jaw
clenched.  "Or become divorced."

"Have you asked her?"

He felt just the slight hint of a
blush tinging his cheeks.  "I've meant to... but there hasn't
been much time to really sit and talk and when there
has..."

"You've gotten distracted," Hugh
finished for him, grinning at Alex's discomfiture.  Alex
cleared his throat, searching for his usual indifference and
finding that it was harder to slide the blank expression over his
face than it used to be.  Fortunately, Hugh understood.
 "I know how that can be.  But you should make the time
now that the wedding's over.  If I'd made the time to truly
talk to Irene, perhaps things wouldn't have ah... gone quite the
way they had this Season."

Remembering that
horrifyingly awkward scene in the garden, Alex shifted
uncomfortably.  Just thinking about that night made his skin
crawl.  He still didn't understand what had come over Irene,
although she’d explained what had gone on in her head; her actions
that night had been shocking.  Most of the time he could
forget about it when they talked now, but he still held back from
the way their friendship used to be.  Not just out of respect
for Hugh and Grace, but also because it made him
anxious.

"It'd be easier if, when I did tell
her something, she actually believed me," he muttered.
 

"Well then maybe it's you
that needs to listen, instead of talking," Hugh said, shrugging.
 They both looked across the room at Grace.  "She's
stubborn and when she gets an idea in her head, it can be the devil
to knock it out again.  When she and Eleanor were younger, our
Cook at the time told them that if you eat a pie just out of the
oven, before it’s had the a chance to cool, it's poison.
 Eleanor didn't believe her, but Grace still won't eat a fresh
made pie."

Now that was something Alex definitely
hadn't known about his wife.  The very silliness of it made
his lips twitch, wanting to smile.  "She's never said anything
about it to me."

"She wouldn't, it's just one of her
habits now," Hugh said, grinning.  "I daresay she doesn't even
realize she still does it... it's just an idea that got stuck in
her head."

So what idea did she have stuck in her
head about Alex and their marriage?

He was just about to
excuse himself from Hugh when a seductive waft of feminine perfume
made him turn his head.  Beside him was Lady Astor, a
beautiful young widow who had just recently come out of mourning
her much older husband.  She looked like delicate springtime,
all soft creams, pinks and golds.  Even her doe-like brown
eyes were soft looking as she smiled up at him, completely
sincerely and with open invitation.

"Lord Brooke, Viscount Petersham," she
said, with the tiniest curtsy that allowed her to dip just enough
to lean forward and show off rather splendid
cleavage. 

"Lady Astor," they chorused together.
 Alex's bow hid his wince. 

"You look splendid this morning," Hugh
said, somehow managing to strike just the right note of admiration
in his voice, without making it sound as though he was interested
in her personage.  

"Thank you, Viscount," she said,
obviously pleased by the compliment.  She glanced at Alex, her
lashes lowering as if inviting him to compliment her as well.
 When he didn't immediately speak up, it didn't seem to faze
her at all.  "The wedding was beautiful, I'm so glad I was
able to come to Bath for it.  Quite the event of the Season.
 Those who stayed in London will be sorry they missed
it."

They exchanged meaningless social
niceties for another few minutes, Alex shifting away every time
Lady Astor tried to reach out and touch him.  He didn't want
her damn hand on his arm.  It didn't take very long for her to
smile and excuse herself, having finally gotten the
hint.

Unfortunately, that seemed
to be the cue for the other women to take their own run at him.
 Alex held himself stiffly aloof, although he had to be
polite, and let Hugh do most of the talking.  Unlike himself,
Hugh had a wife who felt secure in their relationship, one who
wouldn't mistake the necessary social graciousness for something
more than it was.  His own situation was more
precarious.

When he next glanced
across the room, and saw that Grace was watching him with an
expression of surprise and wariness on her face, he was even
gladder that he'd decided to be so aloof to the flirtatious ladies.
 

******

It was like a game of cat and
mouse.

Grace watched Alex, but only when he
wasn't watching her, making sure that their gazes never crossed.
 Part of her mind was busy with the conversation going on
around her, while the other was completely occupied by observing
Alex.  She was still trying to decide whether or not to trust
him.

Last night had been... wonderful.
 Terrible.  Her body ached to repeat it.  Her heart
ached to believe in it.  

"Are you going to be
alright on his estates?" Eleanor asked her softly, leaning in so
that the other women around them couldn't hear what she was saying.
 They were involved in their own conversation anyway, so none
of them were trying to listen.  While the
ton
 hadn't lost interest in the
continuing saga of Lord and Lady Brooke, this morning they were far
more interested in the Earl and his new Countess.  "I'm not
sure if I'll be able to talk Edwin into leaving the Manse once we
get there... considering..." She gestured discreetly at her
belly. 

"I think I'll be fine... I
don't know."  Grace let out a huff of air.  She'd told
Eleanor everything she'd found - and hadn't found - in Alex's study
last night.  Although she hadn't told Eleanor about what had
come after Alex had disciplined her.  "I just... I want to
believe that maybe this is real, that maybe he does feel something
for me... but I’ve been wrong before, why would I be right this
time?  I don't think I can go through that again, Nell... it
just about killed me the first time.  Why would I set myself
up to fall a second time?"