Page 30 of An Accidental Elopement

Archie sat down and had to suppress a sigh. Their usual way of talking to each other was through teasing and bantering but right now he needed... a more honest talk he supposed.

“Yes, well, that was not my finest moment,” he told his brother and took a large sip of brandy. He kept his voice even and could see how Gregory shifted in his chair and the smile slowly faded from his face. It showed Archie that Gregory had caught his changed tone. “I don’t know how I did not think of the consequences when I left with Cecilia. All I wanted was to lessen the blow of seeing Lord Lambourn and Hester together...”

“Are you unhappy together?” Since he was a doctor, Gregory jumped right to the most important question of the examination. “I mean, she seems like a sweet-tempered woman...”

His voice trailed off as he caught himself before saying anything that might upset Archie.

“She is sweet and funny and intelligent and beautiful and all the things I could wish for in a wife.” Archie looked at the rest of the brandy in the glass. “Or at least she was before we married.”

“Was it an act?”

“No!” Archie scowled at his brother for even suggesting it. There seemed no plausible way that Cecilia had been pretending with him as if her plan all along had been for him to marry her. The idea was absurd.

“No,” he continued in a more even tone of voice. “It’s simply... everything changed after we married.”

“You mean you started sleeping together,” Gregory said.

Archie cut him a scathing look, but did not answer, only swallowing the rest of his brandy.

“What? You have not...” Archie could see how Gregory was fighting not to smile.

“I hope you don’t do that with your patients,” Archie said and waved a finger at him.

“What?”

“Laugh at their illnesses,” Archie said.

“Oh, I doubt it’s an illness that is the problem of all this. Or is it?” his brother added in a more severe tone of voice.

“Heavens, no,” Archie said scathingly. At least impotence was not a problem. “It’s just... she does not want to be with me in that way I suppose.”

He rose as he was talking and walked to the side table and to pour himself another glass of brandy. The sentence needed to be said but he had no wish to sit still and watch the effect it had on Gregory’s face.

Whatever the expression was, it took a minute or more for Gregory to compose himself.

“Has she said as much?” he asked in a neutral tone that suited a doctor.

Archie stared at the different decanters that his parents kept on the side table. All of them filled for the upcoming wedding with liquids in different amber, golden and red shades.

“No, but she cried the first night and the second she just... went all stiff,” Archie mumbled. It felt as if he was betraying Cecilia, but when she would not tell him what the problem was, perhaps Gregory could deduce it. His little brother had always been better at analyzing others’ emotions and the consequences of actions.

Gregory cleared his throat behind him. Archie did not turn but kept looking at the decanters. Gregory cleared his throat again. Finally, Archie recognized it as a plea for him to turn around. He leaned gently against the side table as he watched Gregory’s expressionless face in the flickering light from the fireplace and the lamps.

“Did you force her?” Gregory asked almost gently.

Archie stood straight abruptly and walked towards Gregory, then changed his mind and headed for the window.

“Of course not,” he snapped as he watched the darkness outside. It was practically impossible to make out anything outside of the window, even though he knew the view by heart. He could see it if he closed his eyes. He did as he waited for Gregory to continue. He saw Cecilia with her long blonde hair spread over his pillow. Cecilia, that was crying and sobbing and telling him that she wanted to sleep with him regardless.

“Has another forced her?” Gregory asked in the same mild tone.

Archie opened his eyes and turned to him abruptly.

“What are you saying? Do you think Lambourn...?” He could hardly breathe at the thought of anyone having violated his wife. The thought that it might be the man that would marry his sister in only five days made his insides boil.

“Not Lambourn,” Gregory said as he rose. He came to stand by Archie’s side at the window and put a hand on his arm. “I don’t know Lambourn well, but I do not think so. And Hester is completely besotted with him.”

Their eyes met and they exchanged a grin.