Some of Sophy's natural spirit revived. "Well, you did say you were going to
seduce me even though I had distinctly told you I did not wish you to do so and
you did come to my room over my objections and I truly did feel menaced, my
lord. So it is not as if nothing would have happened, if you see what I mean. It
is just that nothing did happen because I took certain steps to prevent it. You
are not the only one with a temper, my lord."
"You drugged me." There was something between disbelief and rage in his voice.
"It was just a simple sleeping tonic, my lord."
The riding crop at Julian's side slashed against the leather top of his boot,
cutting off her explanation. Julian's eyes burned brilliantly green. "You
drugged me with one of those damn potions of yours and then you set the stage to
make me think I had raped you.'
There was really nothing to say in the face of that blunt statement of facts.
Sophy hung her head. The plume waved in front of her eyes as she looked down at
the ground. "I suppose you could view it that way, my lord. But I never meant
for you to think you had… had hurt me. I only wanted you to think you had done
what you seemed to feel was your duty. You seemed so anxious to claim your
rights as a husband."
"And you assumed that if I thought I had claimed those rights, I might then
leave you alone for the next few months?"
"It occurred to me that you might be satisfied for a while, my lord. I thought
you might then be willing to honor the terms of our agreement.'
"Sophy, if you mention that damned agreement one more time, I shall undoubtedly
throttle you. At the very least, I will use my riding crop on your backside."
She drew herself up bravely. "I am prepared for violence, my lord. It is well
known that you have the devil's own temper."
"Is it, indeed? Then I am surprised you would bring me out here alone to make
your grand confession. There is no one around to hear your cries for help should
I decide to punish you now."
"I did not think it fair to involve the servants," she whispered.
"How very noble of you, my dear. You will forgive me if I have trouble believing
that any woman capable of drugging her husband is a woman who is going to waste
time worrying about what the servants might think." His eyes narrowed. "By God,
what did they think when they changed your bedding the next morning?"
"I explained to Mary that I had spilled some tea in bed."
"In other words, I was the only one in the entire household who believed myself
to be a brutal rapist? Well, that's something, at least."
"I am sorry, Julian. Truly, I am. In my own defense, I can only point out again
that I really was frightened and angry. I had thought we were getting along so
well, you see, getting to know one another and then there you were threatening
me."
"The thought of my lovemaking scares you so much you would go to such lengths to
avoid it? Damn it, Sophy, you are no green chit of a girl. You are a full-grown
woman, and you know well why I married you."
"I have explained before, my lord, I am not frightened of the act itself," she
said fiercely. "It is just that I want time to get to know you. I wanted time
for us to learn to deal together as husband and wife. I do not wish to be turned
into a brood mare for your convenience and then turned out to pasture in the
country. You must admit that is all you had in mind when you married me."
"I admit nothing." He slashed the crop against his boot one more time. "As far
as I am concerned, you are the one who violated the basic understandings of our
marriage. My requirements were simple and few. One of them, if you will recall,
was that you never lie to me."
"Julian, I did not lie to you. Perhaps I misled you, but surely you can see that
I—"
"You lied to me," he cut in brutally. "And if I had not been wallowing in my own
guilt these past two days I would have realized it immediately. The signs were
all present. You haven't even been able to look me in the eye. If I hadn't
assumed that was because you couldn't bear the sight of me, I would have
understood at once that you were deceiving me."
"I am sorry, Julian."
"You are going to be a great deal sorrier, madam, before we are finished. I am
not anything like your foolishly indulgent grandfather and its time you learned
that fact. I thought you were intelligent enough to have realized that from the
start, but apparently the lesson must be made plain."
"Julian."
"Get on your horse."
Sophy hesitated. "What are you going to do, my lord?"
"When I have decided, I will tell you. In the meantime I will give you a taste
of the exceedingly unpleasant experience of worrying about it."
Sophy moved slowly toward her gelding. "I know you are in a rage, Julian. And
perhaps I deserve it. But I do wish you would tell me how you intend to punish
me. Truthfully, I do not think I can stand the suspense."
His hands came around her waist from behind so swiftly that she started. Julian
lifted her into the saddle with a barely suppressed violence. Then he stood for
a moment looking up at her with cold fury in his eyes. "If you are going to play
tricks on your husband, Madam Wife, you had better learn how to handle the
suspense of worrying about his revenge. And I will have my revenge, Sophy. Never
doubt it. I have no intention of allowing you to become the same kind of
uncontrollable bitch my first wife was."
Before she could respond he had turned away and mounted his stallion. Without
another word he set out at a gallop for home, leaving Sophy to follow.
She arrived a half hour behind him and discovered to her dismay that the
cheerful, bustling household that had emerged during the past few days had been
magically altered. Eslington Park had become a somber, forbidding place.
The butler looked at her with sad eyes as she stepped forlornly into the hall.
"We were worried about you, my lady," he said gently.
"Thank you, Tyson. As you can see, I am quite all right. Where is Lord
Ravenwood?"
"In the library, my lady. He has given orders he is not to be disturbed."
"I see." Sophy walked slowly toward the stairs, glancing nervously at the
ominously closed library doors. She hesitated a moment. Then she picked up the
skirts of her riding habit and ran up the stairs, heedless of the concerned eyes
of the servants.
Julian emerged at dinner to announce his vengeance. When he sat down to the
table with an implacable hardness in his eyes Sophy knew he had plotted his
revenge over a bottle of claret.
A forbidding silence descended on the dining room. It seemed to Sophy that all
the figures in the painted medallions set into the ceiling were staring down at
her with accusing eyes.
She was trying her best to eat her fish when Julian sent the butler and the
footman out of the room with a curt nod of his head. Sophy held her breath.
"I will be leaving for London in the morning," Julian said, speaking to her for
the first time.
Sophy looked up, hope springing to life within her. "We're going to London, my
lord?"
"No, Sophy. You are not going to London. I am. You, my dear, scheming wife, will
remain here at Eslington Park. I am going to grant you your fondest wish. You
may spend the remainder of your precious three months in absolute peace. I give
you my solemn word I will not bother you."
It dawned on her that he was going to abandon her here in the wilds of Norfolk.
Sophy swallowed in shock. "I will be all alone, my lord?"
He smiled with savage civility. "Quite alone as far as having any companions or
a guilt-stricken husband to dance attendance on you. However, you will have an
excellently trained staff at your disposal. Perhaps you can amuse yourself
tending to their sore throats and bilious livers."
"Julian, please, I would rather you just beat me and be done with it."
"Don't tempt me," he advised dryly.
"But I do not wish to stay here by myself. Part of our agreement was that I not
be banished to the country while you went to London."
"You dare mention that insane agreement to me after what you have done?"
"I am sorry if you do not like it, my lord, but you did give me your word on
certain matters before our marriage. As far as I am concerned, you have come
very near to breaking your oath on one point and now you are going to do so
again. It is not… not honorable of you, my lord."
"Do not presume to lecture me on the subject of honor, Sophy. You are a woman
and you know little about it," he roared.
Sophy stared at him. "I am learning quickly."
Julian swore softly and tossed aside his napkin. "Don't look at me as if you
find me lacking in honor, madam. I assure you, I am not violating my oath. You
will eventually get your day in London but that day will not arrive until you
have learned your duty as a wife."
"My duty."
"At the end of your precious three months I will return here to Eslington Park
and discuss the subject. I trust that by then you will have decided you can
tolerate my touch. One way or another, madam, I will have what I want out of
this marriage."
"An heir and no trouble."
His mouth crooked grimly. "You have already caused me a great deal of trouble,
Sophy. Take what satisfaction you can from that fact because I do not intend to
allow you to create any further uproar in my life."
Sophy stood forlornly amid the marble statuary in the hall the next morning, her
head held at a brave angle as she watched Julian prepare for his departure. As
his valet saw to the loading of his baggage into the coach his lordship took his
leave of his new bride with chilling formality.
"I wish you joy of your marriage during the next two and a half months, madam."
He started to turn away and then halted with a disgusted oath as he caught sight
of a dangling ribbon in her hair. He paused to retie it with a swift, impatient
movement and then he was gone. The sound of his boots echoing on the marble was
haunting.
Sophy endured a week of the humiliating banishment before her natural spirit
revived. When it did she decided that not only had she suffered quite enough for
her crime, she had also made a serious tactical error in dealing with her new
husband.
The world began to seem much brighter the moment she made the decision to follow
Julian to London.
If she had a few things to learn about managing a husband, then it followed that
Julian had a few things to learn about managing a wife. Sophy determined to
start the marriage afresh.
FIVE
Julian surveyed the solemn scene that greeted him as he walked through the door
of his club. "There's enough gloom in here to suit a funeral," he remarked to
his friend, Miles Thurgood. "Or a battlefield," he added after a moment's
reflection.
"What did you expect?' Miles asked, his handsome young face set in the same grim
lines as every other male face in the room. There was, however, an unmistakable
air of ghoulish amusement in his vivid blue eyes. "It's the same at all the
clubs in St. James and everywhere else in town this evening. Gloom and doom
throughout the city."
"The first installment of the infamous Featherstone Memoirs was published today,
I assume?'
"Just as the publisher promised. Right on time. Sold out within an hour, I'm
told."
"Judging from the morbid look on everyone's face, I surmise the Grand
Featherstone made good on her threat to name names."
"Glastonbury's and Plimpton's among others." Miles nodded toward two men on the
other side of the room. There was a bottle of port sitting on the small table
between their chairs and it was obvious both middle-aged lords were sunk deep in
despondency. "There'll be more in the next installment, or so we're told."
Julian's mouth thinned as he took a seat and picked up a copy of the Gazette.
"Leave it to a woman to find a way to create more excitement than the news of
the war does." He scanned the headlines, looking for the customary accounts of
battle and the list of those who had fallen in the seemingly endless peninsular
campaign.
Miles grinned fleetingly. "Easy for you to be so damn sanguine about the
Featherstone Memoirs. Your new wife ain't here in town where she can get hold of
the newspapers. Glastonbury and Plimpton weren't so lucky. Word has it Lady
Glastonbury instructed the butler to lock poor Glastonbury out of his own house
and Plimpton's lady is reported to have staged a scene that shook the rafters."
"And now both men are cowering here in their club."
"Where else can they go? This is their last refuge."
"They're a pair of fools,' Julian declared, frowning as he paused to read a war
dispatch.
"Fools, eh?" Miles settled back in his chair and eyed his friend with an
expression of mingled laughter and respect. "I suppose you could give them sage
advice on how to deal with an angry woman? Not everyone can convince his wife to
rusticate in the country, Julian."
Julian refused to be drawn. He knew Miles and all his other friends were
consumed with curiosity about his newly acquired bride. "Glastonbury and