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“I will escort—”
“I am not going anywhere with you, my lord.”
“Do you understand the magnitude of the scandal you just caused with your reckless—”
She stepped close to him so her breast was flushed against his chest. “You, my lord, have no cause to berate me. You came here with your mistress!”
A flush worked itself along his cheekbones. “I did nothing of the sort. I encountered her in the hallway and we only spoke of business. Now, we will leave, and I will escort you home where we will have a calm and reasonable discussion.”
“No,” she said. “I will stay at the ball and dance the night away.” She was very aware of the crowd gathering on the terrace and the loud murmurings filtering through.
“She challenged Lady Arabella to a duel!”
“How shocking and scandalous.”
The tick in her husband’s cheek grew more pronounced. Embarrassment and hurt vacillated through her in equal measure. He would never forgive her now for the scandal erupting. The reconciliation she had been hoping for would never come. Tears pricked behind her lids, and she stood frozen. Livvie almost fainted when her husband grabbed her and threw her over his shoulder and calmly walked through the throng, as if such a spectacle was an everyday occurrence.
Chapter Twenty
The carriage traveled with speed through London, jostling Livvie uncomfortably. No doubt her father’s coachman was responding to the veiled anger in Tobias’s tone. She was still in a daze from being carted off from Lady Branson’s ball. It was too overwhelming to even think of the scandal they would face tomorrow. He’d said nothing after he had none too gently stuffed her inside the carriage and taken a seat opposite her.
“You threw me over your shoulder,” she finally said, still unable to reconcile his actions.
“It seemed the most efficient way at the time to get you to leave. I could see you were preparing to be stubborn.”
“The scandal…it…”
“It will roar through the ton and linger for weeks, months, years,” he said flatly. “No doubt they will all recall the way my father acted in the past and celebrate my behavior in a similar manner. Bevies of callers will descend on the town house and the papers will sensationalize everything and a great deal of lurid speculation will be attached to our names.”
Her throat tightened. He appeared so dispassionate. “What were you thinking?”
“That is the problem, wife. I never seem to think or act sensibly around you.”
There was an intolerable ache of tears burning in the back of her throat. She knew how much he despised the scrutiny of society and she had done nothing to temper the rage and pain she had felt. She had acted on pure emotions, a state in which he despised. “You must resent me,” she said softly. “Since I’ve entered your life I have done nothing but cause you heartache.”
The silence thickened and her heart broke a bit more. She gripped the edges of the cushioned seat, a strange sort of desperation worming through her heart. Was her mother truly correct in her insight? For their marriage to work, would she have to bury all sense of herself?
“Tobias—”
“I would never dishonor you by taking a mistress.”
That blunt but earnest statement unnerved her. “Her lips were pressed to yours and her body contoured perfectly onto yours. I daresay you welcomed her advances.”
Tobias sighed in evident disgust. “She flung herself at me. I was about to throw her off the balcony when you arrived.”
“How convenient, but that is not what I witnessed.”
He gave her a steely smile. “You will trust me, wife.”
“My father—”
“I am not your father, nor am I like many men who take a mistress, dishonoring the vows they’ve made before God and their wives. I’ve made promises to you and I’ll be damned before I break any of them. You frustrate me with your willful and reckless ways, but you also hold my desire unlike any other woman I’ve ever met.”
Her heart lurched, and sweet hope bubbled inside her. Might their marriage truly work?
“You will return to the country,” he continued dispassionately.
Her heart calcified in her chest. “Tobias—”
