“The bill which went through parliament in 1813 abolishing the company’s trade monopoly with India, has only been moderately successful. What has happened is that many of their nabobs have returned from India with vast amounts of wealth. They have been buying up seats in parliament, and doing theirbest to stymie any further changes that might hurt the East India.”
He pushed off the wall. It was important that she understood what he had to say next, why he had been so driven to take up the battle against the East India. That what he had done went beyond an ongoing tussle over spices.
Victoria moved to the edge of her chair and sat with hands held in front of her. “I read the newspaper every day, not just the social pages, so I am well aware of what you have said. But what I can’t comprehend is why you, a duke from Essex, decided to take on such a powerful enemy, and in such an outrageous manner. You should be here at your estate growing herbs and vegetables, not robbing people at gunpoint.”
Robert scrubbed his good hand over his face and pressed on. “The East India still has a stranglehold on the spice market, both overseas and here at home. I’ve been fighting them for almost three years now, doing everything in my power to open up the trade. To allow local farmers like me to be able to compete in a fair market.”
“And yet you haven’t played fair yourself. You have held people up at gunpoint. Stolen lord knows how much bloody spice from your business rival.” She got to her feet. “Not to mention the fact that you wrote numerous favorable reviews for dining establishments who purchased your illicit goods. You might think what you have been doing is all in a good cause, but in truth, it makes you no better than them. At some point I think you crossed the line from hero to villain, but you didn’t notice.”
Now I understand why she wanted to have this out away from the servants and estate workers. We could be here for hours. And I am not going to win.
Robert took in his wife’s face. The expression on her countenance crushed his heart. She didn’t see his war against the East India Company as an honorable one.
“You think me a villain?” he whispered. It tore at him to ask her such an awful question, but he had to know. Did she really see him that way? Did the woman he’d been falling in love with actually hate him?
Victoria met his gaze, and there was no mistaking the heartbreaking pain which dulled her eyes. “Yes, I do. You think you are not a villain, but I expect all villains imagine themselves as heroes of their own stories. Your end game might be an honorable outcome, but the way you have gone about things...” She threw up her hands. “You’ve just caused pain in a different way.”
His wife’s words of rebuke hit him like a punch to the gut. He’d long ago resigned himself to accepting that some things he did crossed the line of legality, perhaps even morality. But he’d never thought he would ever hear someone accuse him of being as bad as the vile East India. Of having lost his moral compass.
Victoria took a step away from the chair, her gaze moving briefly to the door, then back to him.
“As I see it, you have a choice. You either give this insane battle against the company up, and I don’t mean just for me. I mean, for our children. For the people who rely upon you for their living.” She swept a hand through the air, then motioned toward him. “Or you and I are done.”
Her ultimatum was clear. He just didn’t know if he could meet it.
Robert shook his head. He’d thought to hold off on things for a time, wait until the heat had died down. Then he would reassess the situation. But Victoria was clear in her demand for him to put an immediate end to his smuggling operations.
If he gave up the fight, everything he’d done over the past few years would have amounted to nothing. “I… I don’t know if I can just stop,” he stammered.
He so very badly wanted to kiss away the tears that streamed down his wife’s cheeks. When Victoria got to the door, she stopped and looked back at him. The expression of heartbroken sorrow on her face almost brought him to his knees.
“If you can’t, then we are finished. I shall remove myself back to my family home at Mowbray Park. I will do it quietly, and without any fuss.”
“You don’t understand.”
“No, I don’t. But what I do know for certain is that you are living on borrowed time. The only consolation I have is that someday I may find another man who wants my love. Not that it will matter a jot to you, since you’ll be long dead.”
She went to take hold of the door handle, but Robert seized her wrist. He couldn’t let her go, not with this bitter, heartbreaking farewell. He would never let her love another.
“You are my wife, and no other man will ever touch you. Or hold your heart. Alive or dead, you belong to me. Do you hear?”
He pulled her roughly to him and smashed his lips to hers in a fiery, passionate kiss.
Chapter Forty-Three
She could taste his anger, his jealousy. The mere thought of her being with another man had let lose the wild beast in Robert. Victoria clung for dear life to the front of his coat as her husband kissed her senseless.
He broke the kiss and growled. “No other man,” then captured her lips once more. His tongue delved deep, touching. Claiming. Refusing to let go.
“You are mine. You hear me. Now and forever.”
It was all she could do to remain standing upright as he plundered her mouth.
“I’ll kill any other man who dares to touch you.”
A little voice in the back of her brain was telling Victoria that they had crossed the line from romantic declarations to borderline insanity. But she couldn’t hold back.
She broke the kiss. “But if you are dead, there is nothing you can do to stop it.”
