Page 62 of Her Baseborn Bridegroom

“Linnet,” he said tightly and suddenly rolled her onto her back where she blinked up at him. “Why is it that you keep rushing in where angels fear to tread?” he asked silkily, his eyes hard. His hands either side of her head, caging her in with his big body.

“I keep forgetting that you don’t want to hear my thoughts,” she answered truthfully. “I keep thinking I can tell you anything.”

He stared down at her. “Why the hell would you want to do that?”

“Because—”

“Don’t answer that,” he cut her off, and abruptly rolled onto his back beside her.

He stared up at the ceiling as Linnet swallowed this fresh rejection beside him. She was so stupid. Why did she keep forgetting? Fools rush in where angels fear to tread, she remembered belatedly. Her husband was calling her a fool. And telling her he didn’t want any intimacy with her that wasn’t purely physical. She really needed to get that through her thick skull. Until she did, it was going to keep hurting. She bit down on her trembling bottom lip.

“Linnet,” he said sounding frustrated. “Maybe we should try perfect silence after I’ve bedded you. Everything’s well, up until you start talking.”

Linnet gasped but when she started to sit up, his hand shot out, anchoring her to his side.

“I didn’t say I wanted you to move, wife.”

A hammering on the door made them both jump.

“What the bloody hell!” shouted Mason, releasing her and springing out of the bed. He prowled to the door entirely naked.

Linnet fell back on the pillows. She pulled the sheet up to her chin as he yanked the door open viciously.

“A summons from the King,” pronounced a messenger in a feathered hat from the doorway. One of their own servants stood next to him, looking pale and scared. Though whether that was because of the royal summons or because of her naked, fuming husband was debatable.

“Give it here,” Mason growled, snatching it from the messenger’s gloved hand.

He tore open the scroll and marched to the nearest candle, where his eyes scanned the page. Linnet’s startled glance went from the embarrassed messenger and gawking servant to Mason’s rigid and furious face. She moistened her lips.

“What is it?” she whispered, wondering what could cause him to look so enraged. Had he been called back to the battlefield? Had the North uprisen again? A hundred possibilities clamored in her brain.

“We’ve been summoned to court,” he said grimly. “Sir Jevons and my brother have petitioned the King for an annulment of our marriage.”

XVIII

The next hour was a blur of activity. Servants yelling, trunks being stuffed with clothes, maids crying. Well, actually it was Nan crying when Linnet decided it would be easier for her to take Gertie with her as her personal maid. Cuthbert had a temper tantrum when she suggested he might be better off staying at home. Mason had grabbed him by the ear until he’d stopped yelling.

“Can your grandmother read?” he had asked. Cuthbert’s tearstained face nodded. “Then write her a note and tell her you’ll be a couple of weeks at court.” Cuthbert’s face had been wreathed in smiles in an instant.

“Send word down to the stables to have the horses ready in an hour!” Mason had shouted as Robards ran hither and thither with a long list and a harassed expression on his face. Clattering boots on the stair had announced her brother-in-law and father-in-law’s arrival in the great hall.

“Is this true?” bellowed Baron Vawdrey. “I’ll have his hide for this!”

Presumably he meant his youngest son, Sir Roland.

“We will, of course, accompany you,” said Oswald who looked shocked. “And show a united family front.”

“Apart from Roland,” seethed Mason, his face darkening.

Linnet could only be glad her footwear had arrived in time, though sadly none of her new wardrobe would be ready. She would have to borrow a cloak again for the journey, she thought sadly. And the one Mr. Postner had planned for her had sounded so perfect too. A sobbing Nan helped her pull on thick woolen stockings and her new ankle boots.

“Nan, I won’t be gone for long and I will bring you a present back, I promise,” she murmured soothingly. “’Tis only that Gertie is older and more experienced. That is the only reason. Next time I will definitely take you along.”

“You promise, milady?” sniffed Nan, looking up through her pale-blue eyes.

“I do.”

“We have plenty of work for you to be doing while the master and mistress are away, my girl,” blustered Robards crossly. He tutted at the scene the maid was causing. “Her ladyship has enough on her mind without reassuring the likes of you!”