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"Exactly what did he do to deserve your sharp tongue? He was nothing but polite to you when you were rude to him, and he even gave you a second chance to return his regard."
"He treats Grace horribly," Eleanor said, the only defense that she had. "I saw her yesterday... she's an emotional wreck and it's all his fault!"
Edwin wanted to bang his head against the carriage wall; the flickering
lights of the streetlamps allowed him to see glimpses of Eleanor's face as they traveled. She was upset, he could see that and he knew that she meant what she was saying, but he was also frustrated with her. Sometimes she could be so stubbornly immature when it came to relations between the sexes. That was something that he was grateful for the majority of the time, but sometimes - like now - it was a hindrance to her understanding.
"It is rarely all one person's fault," he said angrily, wrapping his fingers around his cane so that he didn't reach out and drag Eleanor across his lap. He itched to spank her but he didn't want to do so in a moving carriage. "Grace hasn't exactly been an exemplary wife. From what I can see she's been making Alex's life a misery ever since they married."
"You don't know how things are between them!"
"Somehow I doubt you do either. There are always two sides to every story, Eleanor, and while your loyalty to Grace might be admirable, the truth of the matter is that blind loyalty often means that you will find yourself on the wrong side of the equation. I can assure you that Alex is just as upset with her behavior as she apparently is with his."
"He’s had just as many lovers as her! More!"
"Why is it any of your business?" he countered.
"Because Grace is my friend."
"As her friend you should be her confidant and her support, but that does not mean that you go about willy-nilly making judgments on people whom you haven't bothered to have a conversation with, much less get to know them on their own merits."
Biting her lip, Eleanor privately conceded that Edwin had a point. It wouldn't have mattered what Lord Brooke said to her, she would have been rude to him anyway. But his responses to that rudeness had given her second thoughts about Grace's presentation of him already, and she was well aware that Grace had never given her all of the details about their marriage. Also, she conceded, she was sensitive on the subject of men with wives having mistresses. Not that she would tell Edwin that.
The long silence told Edwin that his wife was finally thinking about what he had said. Thank goodness, he thought exasperatedly. Just because he liked Alex didn't mean that he begrudged Eleanor her friend's company, even if he wished that his wife's best friend had better morals and less lovers, but he wasn't going to allow her to be rude to a peer in public either. Especially not one he did consider a friend.
The rest of the carriage ride was spent in silence, but the waves of resentment emanating from Eleanor's direction had ceased. Instead he saw a thoughtful expression on her face as she looked out the window. Rather than forcing her to talk about it, Edwin let her process his arguments on her own. Pushing Nell was not the way to change her mind, she would just dig in stubbornly. And it's not as if this was a behavior that he could spank out of her - although he certainly intended to spank her for her rudeness. His cock stirred at the thought.
Unfortunately he was going to have to wait until they were home before he could indulge in anything physical with her, whether it be punishment or pleasure. He wasn't going to rush her now that she was finally thinking things through instead of just reacting. Although even if she decided that she still didn't like Lord Brooke, Edwin was absolutely not going to tolerate that kind of lack of decorum in public from his wife.
******
Following Edwin upstairs, Eleanor did her best to drag her feet without actually seeming to drag her feet. She still couldn't decide whether she hated the way she responded to the punishment he meted out or if she was glad that she managed to find some pleasure in it. It seemed singularly humiliating that she should become so aroused while being demeaned by a spanking - or worse - and yet she couldn't be entirely sorry that her discipline was invariably followed by passion.
At least she knew that her strange reaction was entirely due to her husband. She'd certainly never found any kind of enjoyment during the spankings and birchings she'd received from her father. So perhaps it wasn't that she responded to the punishment but to Edwin. That made it slightly more palatable. And more embarrassing.
Worse, she found herself rather embarrassed by her behavior this evening as well. The more she'd thought about Lord Brooke's reactions and his defense of her, the worse she'd felt about how she'd acted. Not only had she been deliberately rude to someone her husband obviously considered a friend, but she certainly hadn't furthered Grace's cause at all in Edwin's mind and probably not in Lord Brooke's either. And lately she'd been thinking that perhaps it wouldn't be so bad to be in Edwin's good graces, to try and be the wife that he wanted. Perhaps he would be more inclined to show his feelings towards her if she behaved.
At least that was a theory. One which would, hopefully, cut down on the number of disciplinary spankings she received from him and the humiliation of her reaction. Although, she thought as she blushed a little, she did enjoy it when he gave her a light spanking just to warm her bottom and heat up her body before making love to her.
But that was very different from the kind of spanking that she knew she was about to receive.
Edwin preceded her into the room before turning and facing her; she could feel the color rising in her cheeks under his disapproving gaze. To her horror, her nipples tightened as he looked at her and she internally cursed her body's response. Reminding herself that she was here for punishment, not passion, didn't deter the arousal that was curling inside her stomach at all.
Then again, who could entirely blame her when the man she was looking upon was so devastatingly handsome in his evening attire? In the flicking light of the candles and fire Edwin looked even more like a fallen angel, his face partly shadowed, his dark hair and eyes seeming to drink in the light.
"Come here, Nell," he ordered, holding out his hand.
When she reached him, tilting her head back to look pleadingly into his eyes, he turned her around to face away from him and she could feel him pulling at the laces on the back of her dress. She started to tremble. Not because she was afraid, but because she so desperately wanting him to touch her. The feel of her clothing sliding off of her body always became erotic when Edwin was the one undressing her.
After she stepped out of the dress he tossed it to the side, treating her undergarments with the same lack of care until she was standing before him in nothing but her stockings and the blue ribbons holding them up. The same blue ribbons that he'd bought her because they matched her eyes exactly. As he turned her around to face him again his eyes were hot with desire and she knew that he'd noticed.
"Do you understand why I'm going to spank you tonight Eleanor?" he asked, cupping her chin in one hand and forcing her to look at him.
Surprisingly there didn't seem to be any fight in his wife tonight, instead she looked both resigned and almost relieved. As if she felt that she deserved the punishment she was about to receive - which she did - and accepted that fact. While he enjoyed her spirit, he was glad to know that he wasn't going to need to actually beat this lesson into her rebellious bottom; sometimes he was sure that his wife was contrary just for the pleasure of it.
"Yes, I do," she said, looking up at him with what looked true contriteness in her sapphire eyes. "I'm sorry I was rude to Lord Brooke."
"You would have done better to apologize to him," Edwin said mildly, pleased at this change in Nell. Of course he didn't want her without her spirit, but he also didn't want her to think that she could get away with bad or rude behavior, and it pleased him to know that she wasn't so self-involved and spoiled that she couldn't recognize and change her ways when the situation merited it.
