Page 9
His eyes became so murderous she wondered if he’d lied just now. “You will be dressed in the best dresses. You will be fed dishes you’ve never tried. You will sleep in a feather bed. You will be safe, protected, and, I daresay, bathed. What you will not do is get into my business.”
“Your Grace, Duke of Cheerfulton, aren’t you?” she said. “You seem like a good man with your manners, but deep down, you despise everyone that’s beneath your rank, don’t you?”
He jerked his head up as though to say something but stopped himself. His jaw muscles jumped up and down.
“Just tell me why!” she yelled.
“I am very much starting to regret buying you,” he said through gritted teeth. “And understand why your husband couldn’t tolerate a day more being married to you! You’re a devil in a woman’s form, aren’t you?”
Like Sir Jasper’s words, these jabbed her in the chest. Sir Jasper bickered, criticized her, and tried to control her. He’d even told her she ate her breakfast wrong. One does not butter the toast with such a thick layer. It’s unladylike and will make you fat.
But just as with Sir Jasper, she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. And just as with Sir Jasper, she’d be fine. Somehow, everything would be all right as long as she maintained a positive attitude. She squared her shoulders.
Until she could find a way to escape him without returning to Sir Jasper, she needed to let him know the boundaries she would not permit him to cross.
“Do not dare to hope you will lay with me as my husband,” she said.
His darkening eyes traveled over her body.
“I need you to be my wife in every way, Duchess. It may take time to end your marriage and to legally marry you, but we will tell everyone we’re already wed. In the eyes of society, you will be my wife. And I expect you to be—in every way.”
It sounded like another cage. Every marriage was a prison. She’d always be a husband’s property.
He looked her up and down.
She swallowed hard. The way he affected her was incredible. A dark, dangerous desire boiled in her stomach.
No. That was wrong. What she wanted was not a husband. Not another jailor like Sir Jasper.
What she wanted was to get away. Now that she had escaped her horrible marriage, she didn’t want to go back. But she’d need to get away from the duke, too. They weren’t really married. They hadn’t signed a church register. Selling a wife was just a silly tradition.
As soon as she was in London, she’d run away. She wanted to be free and strong and independent so that no one could hurt her or manipulate her like Sir Jasper had.
But, just for now, she needed to keep pretending to be a swineherd’s wife.
Surely, a duke wouldn’t want to bed a swineherd’s wife.
She narrowed her eyes. “What are you not telling me?”
His face hardened into a grim expression. “My mother will not find it agreeable.”
“But I am not your true duchess, am I? You bought me. We’re not wed.”
He leaned his head back against the glimmering wall of the carriage. “Not yet.”
“Then let me go, Your Grace,” she pleaded, realizing her accent was slipping back into an educated one, but not caring. “I just want to get away from my husband. I will serve you as your servant until I repay you my price.”
There was now a pained and a dangerous look on his face. “I bought you, and you said yes. There’s no running away from me now, wife.”
4
It was already dark when the carriage stopped in a small yard in front of a grand house. While the duke climbed out of the carriage on the other side, one of the footmen opened the door for her.
She climbed down and looked around. Through the tall, wrought iron fence, she could see a town square on all sides of which were terraced houses and several mansions, all illuminated with gas lamps. None of them were as grand as this one.
Gas lamps flanked the wide stairs leading up to a large portico with four columns three stories high supporting a triangular roof structure with Greek statues on top. The mansion was perfectly symmetrical, and it spanned the entire length of the square. Grand rounded windows were lit on the ground floor, and she could see a curtain shift as a figure moved.
The courtyard in front of the house had perfectly cut grass on both sides of the semicircle driveway. And rosebushes bloomed along the length of the mansion.
