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Chapter Nineteen
“What are you implying?” Marcella asked.
“I’m not implying anything. I’m always very direct with what I mean, but you aren’t. I’m tired of your games where you pretend to be a vapid, proper lady one moment and the realest, most wonderful woman in the next.”
“I’m not playing games with you,” she said, her lips curving into a clever smile. “If we were playing games, you’d know because I’d have won.”
Reginald chuckled. He strode nearer to her, and Marcella only drew herself up straighter. She resembled a cat preparing to pounce, and Reginald knew that her words were as sharp as any animal’s claws. “I think you’re playing right now, and I’ll concede that you’ve won. I can’t for the life of me discern what you’re doing. You’ve succeeded in being utterly baffling. Infuriating, even.”
Marcella drew in a sharp breath. Her eyes flashed with some passionate, fiery emotion which Reginald couldn’t quite put a name to. “You forget yourself, Reginald,” she said.
“No,” he replied. “I know who I am, and I’ve accepted that. What I don’t know is who you are.”
He crossed his arms and leaned slightly forward. Marcella was so near to him that he could’ve reached out and touched her. The lady’s breath quickened, her bosom rising and falling more rapidly beneath the fabric of her gown. A proper gentleman might avert his eyes, but Reginald wasn’t really a gentleman. He let his gaze linger on that most inviting part of her.
Marcella gasped. “You areleeringat me!” she declared.
“You’re welcome to leer at me if you like,” Reginald said. “However, you’ve still not answered my questions. Don’t try to deflect me by changing the topic at hand.”
“I’ll admit that I’m angry,” she said softly.
“Because you’re now a married woman whether you like it or not?” he asked.
The color in her cheeks deepened and spread to the lady’s delicate throat and down to her chest. “That is precisely it. You would be angry, too, if you did not have a choice.”
“Do you think I had more of a choice than you?” Reginald asked. “Do you think that I really wanted to return to thetonand marry a stranger?”
“You could’ve waited or refused. Why were you so eager to hurry into marriage?” she countered.
Because the estate was bankrupt and Marcella’s dowry had all but saved it. He couldn’t tell her that, though. Whatever awful feelings Marcella might hold for him, Reginald knew that revealing the truth would only make the situation that much worse. A woman like Marcella, especially, would be most unhappy to learn that he was only marrying her for her money.
“It would please my father,” Reginald said instead. “After disappointing him and hurting him for so long, I felt the need to do something right by him. That’s all.”
That was truer than he might like to admit, but Reginald tried not to linger on how much he’d hurt his father so long ago. He’d been trying to help and make the situation better, but he’d just made everything worse.
And I still have no idea how he found me. Surely, I didn’t find his carriage by happenstance.
That was a question that only Isaac would be able to answer, and now that Reginald was officially a lord and able to settle matters himself, he could work on finding answers, but first, he had to tend to his beautiful, angry wife.
“Your devotion to your father is admirable,” she said. “I do truly think it has done him good to see you.”
“And to see our marriage.”
Marcella smiled, a bit sadly. “It seems rather like everyone seems to have benefited from the arrangement except for me.”
“Shall I persuade you otherwise?” Reginald asked.
“You can’t,” she replied.
Reginald smirked. “Really? I seem to recall a very enthusiastic kiss in the rain.”
She inhaled sharply. “You ought not to mention such a thing.”
“Oh no,” Reginald replied. “How dare a man have tender, romantic feelings for his wife?”
“We weren’t married, then. It’s inappropriate.”
“But you enjoyed it,” he replied, making his voice low and sultry. “You had every opportunity to refuse me. You could’ve stormed away or called for Phillip. You could’ve turned your cheek and called me a rogue, and I’d have accepted your choice. You didn’t, though.”
