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‘Why indeed?’
‘Exactly! And then, for him to suggest I stay with him, instead of returning to you, to avoid the shame of living in sin, as he put it…’
‘Now that I would not have permitted,’ he growled. ‘You are my wife. And I would never let you go.’
And then, to cap all the shocks she’d received so far today, he took her by the scruff of the neck and kissed her. Rather savagely.
When he finally let her come up for air, she could do nothing but gulp and stare at him. And then raise her hand to her bonnet, at which the wind was whipping, because they’d emerged from the close confines of the cove and were now out at sea once more.
‘Why are you looking at me like that?’ he sneered. ‘Did your estimable brother not warn you that I am a rake? Not safe to be alone with? Completely without morals?’
‘More or less, yes,’ she admitted.
‘And yet you came back to me,’ he said coldly.
‘Well, of course I did,’ she said, swatting his arm. ‘Apart from the fact you are my husband, not a word of it is true.’
‘You don’t believe I am a rake? A libertine?’
‘No. Or you wouldn’t have bothered to even pretend to marry me. Besides, there was a huge great flaw in his argument. And I’ve just realised what it is.’ She turned to him, her heart pounding with a sense of satisfaction in at last being able to put her finger on what it was about Clement’s standpoint that hadn’t added up. ‘Why on earth would you pretend to marry me and try to prevent me from escaping? I mean, surely the whole point of arranging a fake ceremony is so that you can dispose of your unwanted bride when you grow bored? And also, why would you try to prevent me from writing to him, let alone fleeing to him if I wanted to end it? You would just wash your hands of me and think good riddance, wouldn’t you?’ She shook her head. ‘Sometimes I think Clement must be touched in the upper works.’
‘You are a remarkable woman.’
‘What?’
He ran the tip of one finger along the curve of her jaw. ‘Remarkable, I said. And I mean it. To have been able to deduce so much, while you are clearly rattled by the way Clement spoke to you, is remarkable.’
‘I cannot really take much credit,’ she said, blushing under the intensity of his gaze. As well as struggling with the urge to lean into his one-fingered caress like a cat. ‘He went on and on about how much you hated him and what dreadful things you must have been saying about him, when you hadn’t said anything of the sort. Why, in spite of disliking him, you were even prepared to offer him a sort of olive branch, weren’t you, by bringing me on this visit?’
His expression closed up.
‘What dreadful things did he think I had been saying?’
‘Oh, a lot of nonsense about being the kingpin of some criminal gang, or something of the sort. Honestly, it was all so ludicrous I hardly remember the half of it. Though the way those fishermen on the quayside behaved, it wouldn’t be surprising if everyone did think he was up to no good.’
‘Hmm?’
‘Yes, you know. The way they all seemed to wait for his permission to so much as breathe. And that, coupled with the way he always did make up to the worst bullies in any area, and then compel them to respect him, or even follow him like as not, well…’ She finished on a shrug. ‘I know he only does it to make himself feel bigger. Or more powerful, or something.’ She finished on a sigh. ‘Oh, there is no point in dwelling on it. He and I are…well, now that I am married to you…’ She darted a glance up at his stern profile.
He did not look back at her, but kept his gaze fixed intently out to sea.
‘Would you mind very much,’ she said boldly, ‘if I asked you a few questions?’
He sighed, as if he thought she was being tiresome. ‘What sort of questions?,’ he said in a tone designed to warn her that he had the greatest reluctance to answer to her or anyone.
‘Well, to start with, I’d like to hear your version of how you came to fall out with Clement…and actually now I come to think of it, my other brothers, too.’
‘It wasn’t a falling-out,’ he said, turning his face, at last, to look at her. ‘It was more a realisation that they were not the sort of boys with whom I wished to spend my time.’
