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“Our marriage would have been disastrous,” Yasmin said, guessing what he was thinking.

“Because he’s a damned fool,” her husband growled, drawing her to her feet. “It’s time for you to rest.”

Yasmin smiled again. “Good evening, Silvester.”

Silvester stood up belatedly, thinking about the fact that he genuinely liked Yasmin, but the emotion wasn’t love. He might well have been influenced by the fact that Giles wanted her. Perhaps their marriage would have been disastrous.

But his with Stella would not be.

One thing was clear. He had to convince Stella that he chose her.

That he would choose her next time, the next day, the next year, in another life. That she was the only one he ever truly wanted, and the only woman he could have lived with.

That they were not golden girls and boys, as the Shakespeare verse had it. They were sweaty and testy and real. Laughing in bed. They were so damned lucky.

Set upon his plan, he was blindsided when he escorted Stella into a carriage only to discover that his wife was furious. She sat on the opposite seat, her eyes hard, her arms closed over her chest.

For his part, he looked at her wrapped in her pelisse, and desire rose thick and hot in his body. Normally, he would catch her in his arms and bring her to his lap, and then amuse them both by kissing her with such carnal intent that they would stumble from the carriage and straight to the bedchamber.

Not tonight.

“What’s the matter?” he asked cautiously.

“The matter?” Her laughter had an acidic edge. “What could possibly be the matter?” Her wide eyes usually met his with a glint of shared desire. Now they were steely cold.

“I don’t know.”

“For all your faults, you are rarely unkind.”

He frowned. “Are you referring to when I compared you to a hammer?”

Stella leaned toward him. “Unkindnesses are not merely spoken. Your true love walks into the room, and instantly you trot to her side. You don’t think that was unkind?”

“I didn’t trot to her side. You were dancing.”

“Yes, I was dancing. You couldn’t wait to greet Yasmin until I was free, knowing that the world was watching to see your reaction? Not even to spare me that humiliation?”

She dashed away a tear with a jerky movement, and Silvester’s gut screwed into a sickening knot.

“I didn’t think of it that way.”

“As everyone surmised. You saw Yasmin, and she was all you thought about, so you went directly to her side. I might have expected it, but I didn’t anticipate that you would show the world. You? The man who lies every day about who you are? You, who created that romantic charade after our wedding? You couldn’t be bothered to put up a bit of a facade when it came to Yasmin?”

Silvester choked. He was never without words, except in the grip of emotion. “I didn’t think. I’m sorry.”

“I’ll get over it,” Stella said, her voice cracking. “I didn’t expect . . . Well, that’s not fair because I didn’t think ahead. But I would have thought that you didn’t want people to know that you’re still in love with her. After all, Yasmin is married to Giles. You lost that contest.”

Her words were whipping past his head so fast that he could hardly make sense of them. “It wasn’t a contest.” But then he remembered his own conclusion about his courtship. “Perhaps my courtship of Yasmin was a contest, but I’m not in love with her.”

She rolled her eyes. “You’re the only one who believes that. Your mother gave me a hug. Your mother! Also she said that you were a fool.”

“My mother said that?”

“Astonishing, isn’t it? For all she loves to scold, you are her golden boy. She adores you. Do you know how many sympathetic glances I received tonight, not to mention outright expressions of sympathy—along with an indecent proposal, given that your lack of interest is so clear that men feel you don’t give a damn what your wife does?”

Silvester’s back stiffened. “I give a damn.”

“I know you do. I also know you won’t be unfaithful. You did nothing that I shouldn’t have anticipated. But in the future, I would ask you to hide your emotion.”