The Earl's Untouched Bride (33 page)

As he opened the box to reveal the long strand of perfectly matched pearls, her eyes widened in horror.

'How dare you?' she cried, drawing back as though he was holding out a snake. 'I won't be treated like this! No
—
not one minute more! Oh, yes, I know I promised I would not stop you from amusing yourself, however you wished, but I have to tell you that I cannot keep to that stupid bargain we made one minute longer!'

He went cold with dread as he heard her telling him their marriage was over. And all because he had given her pearls? He looked down at the box, lying open in his hand, wondering where he had gone wrong this time.

He was about to find out. Flinging the covers aside, Heloise rose from the bed, completely forgetful of her nudity, and advanced on him, her eyes spitting fire.

'I am your wife! Your
wife
! She swiped at the box, knocking it from his nerveless fingers. 'And if you think you can pay me off with pearls, when even that Mrs Kenton got rubies, you are the greatest imbecile! And I know you never made
her
stay within doors, not to mingle with your so perfect friends. Even poor little Nell gets trips to the theatre every now and again. And you think, you
really
think, that I will walk out of your life quietly after you give me the kind of jewels that a mother would give to her daughter when she makes her first curtsey in society? Well, I tell you,
no
! I am not going back to Wycke, and I am not going to sit at home any more while you go out and amuse yourself without your embarrassing wife hanging on your arm. And if you think I am going to do nothing while you set up another mistress, then you are very much mistaken. If you dare...if I find out where you are keeping her...I shall...I shall...'

For much of the tirade Charles had been too bemused to take in more than the fact that she was furiously angry and gloriously naked. But at last some of her meaning began to percolate through.

'What,' he said, his heart pounding, 'will you do, Heloise, if you find out where I have set up my mistress?'

'Oh!' She drew back, as though him saying it made it real. Her eyes filled with tears. She began to shake. 'I shall do something terrible,' she whispered, her face grim. 'Of that you can be sure.'

'Thank God,' he sighed, drawing her into his arms. She loved him. She must do to be experiencing such fierce jealousy! It was a feeling he recognised only too well.

'No!' she whimpered, struggling to break free. 'You shall not subdue me with your kisses again. I won't let you. I hate you!' she cried, raising her fists to beat at his chest.

'No, you don't,' he countered. 'You hate feeling weak and helpless under the force of your feelings. But your feelings for me are not hatred. Ah, no
—
don't cry, my little love,' he crooned, scooping her up and carrying her back to bed. 'I have not set up a mistress. I promise you,' he said, kissing her forehead.

'You...you have not?' she hiccupped, frowning up at him through tear spiked lashes.

'Of course not. Why ever would you think I would do such a thing?'

'Well, I know you are only putting up with me...you only married me, after all, to save face so that no one would know Felice broke your heart. I...I know you will never love me like you loved her.'

'That much is true,' he said dryly. 'For I was never in love with her at all.'

'What? That is not true. When she ran off with Jean-Claude your heart was broken!'

'Actually, no, it was not. Not in the least. The truth,' he said ruefully, 'as you pointed out with such perspicacity at the time, was that she had severely dented my pride. You see,' he said, taking her hand, 'Felice was such fun to be with. I had never met anyone like her before. When I was with her she made me feel as though there was something about me as a person that she valued, since she made no secret of the fact she despised the aristocracy as a class. She was not forever hinting that she wanted me to buy her things, either.' He shook his head, a frown clouding his brow. 'And I was in a peculiarly vulnerable state of mind at the time.'

Though Heloise still seemed oblivious to her state of undress, he felt obliged to reach down and pull the coverlet up, tucking it round her shoulders as he considered the best way to explain.

'I had suffered a series of shocks. Discovering I had a brother. Learning that the men I had trusted throughout my youth had perpetrated a crime against him and my stepmother...and then finding that I was totally unable to escape their pernicious influence!' He laughed bitterly. 'I could cease seeing them, but I could not undo my training. No matter how much I wished it, I could not find the least desire to behave with anything less than complete decorum. And then I took Robert into my home and endured his scorn, while seeing how very much he was valued by his friends... In the end I fled to Paris looking for...well, I don't know what I was looking for, to tell you the truth. I only know that for a while I felt that Felice was the answer. She made me feel as though I could slough off all that I had been and make a fresh start. It was my dreams of becoming a better man she stole, not my heart, Heloise.'

He stopped fussing with the coverlet and looked her straight in the eye as he confessed, 'My heart belongs to you, Heloise. It is a poor, stunted thing, I know. But, such as it is, it beats for you alone.'

'But when...? But how...?' She sat up, an intent expression on her face. 'When you brought me to London you left me utterly alone. After giving me a long list of things I was not supposed to do and people I was not to talk to, as though I was a complete nuisance!'

He took her face between his hands. 'Do you know how much it hurt that you never understood?' He took a deep breath. 'You always put me in mind of a little bird. And when I saw that picture you drew of yourself, chained in an intolerable marriage, I knew I did not want it to be like that between us. I know I said a lot of damn fool things at the start, but once you were mine I did not want you to feel you were caged, or chained. I wanted you to be able to fly free and come to me because you wanted to come to me, not because I compelled you.'

'I...I thought you did not care what I did. And I felt as though my heart was breaking. Because I loved you so much...'

'You said you didn't!' he protested, rearing back. 'When you suggested we get married...'

'I don't think I did
—
not at that precise moment. Or perhaps I had not allowed myself to, because I thought your heart belonged to my sister. But by the afternoon, once I knew you were to be my own husband, I could not bear the thought that you might want any other woman. And then, when I feared Du Mauriac would kill you, then I was sure. I was so scared! I had to get you away from France to safety, no matter what it cost me!' She reached up and stroked his cheek, her expression full of remembered concern. 'I told myself I would not care if you never loved me back so long as you were safe. Oh, but when we got to London, and you were so cold, I made such a fool of myself trying to win your approval,' she finished ruefully.

'You were trying to win my approval with all that time you spent with Robert?' he groaned. 'While I was trying to show you how tolerant I could be, letting you do as you liked!'

'Oh, don't be tolerant any more, then,' said Heloise. 'It made me so unhappy!'

'Very well, since you ask,' he growled. 'From now on I shall be the most intolerant
—
' he kissed her hard on the lips '
—
jealous
—
' he pulled her down until she lay flat on her back '
—
possessive husband that ever drew breath! In fact I will never let you out of my sight again. When I think of the torment, I suffered when I thought you planned to leave me...'

She looked perplexed. 'When was that? I never thought of leaving you!'

No... The day he feared she had run back to London with Robert she had in fact been stuck in the tower. And the day he had assumed she was trying to raise money to elope with him she had been trying to sell her pictures to pay off her gambling debts. Even in France, when he had thought she would want to flee an intolerable marriage, she had already been in love with him!

She had never thought of leaving him. Nor had his stepmother, come to that. And at that revelation something inside him seemed to unfurl and blossom. He felt tears prick his eyes. Somewhat appalled, he blinked them away, before burying his face in the silken cocoon of her hair.

'I love you,' he said, for there was nothing else that summed up so neatly the enormity of what he felt at that moment.

Her answer, 'I love you too,' was exactly what he needed to hear.

Some time later, she whispered, 'And you promise you really won't send me away and take a mistress?'

'I would not dare,' he groaned, rolling onto his back and pulling her into his side. 'Besides, you would not let me
—
would you?'

'How could I stop you if you really wanted to?'

He chuckled. 'Are you serious? Don't you know how powerful you are?'

'Powerful? Me?' she squeaked.

'Yes, you. You have been able to mould me like putty in your hands from the first moment you set your sights on me. When I had vowed to have nothing whatever to do with your family you persuaded me to marry into it. I had decided nothing would induce me to leave Paris until my lease expired, and scarcely a day later you had me racing for the coast like a lunatic. And worst of all, when I had always believed love was a debilitating emotion from which I would never suffer, you wrung it from my stony heart. Nobody else could have done it.'

'Are you sorry?' she asked in a small voice.

'Sorry?' He snorted. 'I have never been more glad of anything in my life. You are my life, Heloise,' he said softly. 'The light of my life. If you had never bullied me into marrying you I would have been the coldest, loneliest man in London. Instead of which...' He paused, his eyes suspiciously bright with moisture. 'Ah, don't talk any more,' he groaned. 'Just kiss me.'

'With all my heart,' she sighed. 'With all my heart.'