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Chapter 23
A wager may be laid as to which will get hold of the lips of the other first. If the woman loses, she should pretend to cry... and dispute with him saying, “Let another wager be laid.”
The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana
“The contract?” Alice echoed, her mind drawing a blank.
With a sickening lurch deep in her belly, she remembered the marital terms she’d asked Nick to have prepared. Patrick must have drawn them up for him.
She’d completely forgotten the existence of the contract.
How had she forgotten something so important? Had she changed so much in the span of a few weeks?
“The terms you asked for,” Patrick replied. He turned to Nick. “You told me she stipulated very specific terms.”
“Oh, she did,” he drawled. “Very clear terms.”
Alice avoided Nick’s eyes. “Of course I did. I’m sorry, I was only confused for a moment. I didn’t know that Nick had asked you to be his man of business in this matter.”
“Oh, Thea sent you this.” Patrick drew a jar from his satchel. “Some of her aunt’s famous marmalade.”
He handed Alice the jar and she held it to the window, watching sunlight tease the amber and orange into a rich glow. “March will be delighted,” she said dully.
Patrick gave her a perplexed look.
“Mr. March. Our footman.”
“I see,” said Patrick.
“Care for a drink?” Nick asked Patrick.
“Don’t mind if I have a small one,” Patrick replied.
While Nick was at the sideboard pouring something golden into a glass, Patrick moved closer to Alice.
“Are you sure this is the right thing for you, Alice?” he asked in a low voice. “You don’t have to sign the document, you know. Even if you asked for it. You’ve a right to change your mind.”
Had she changed her mind?
Everything was still the same, wasn’t it? She was still planning to leave. Her trunks were already packed. The ship sailed in six days.
“Nothing has changed,” Alice said.
“This contract details a business arrangement, but the scene when I arrived didn’t look like business to me.”
“The contract is still required.”
Intellectually, Alice knew that Nick could never be true to one woman, even if she wished the complete opposite were true.
Signing this agreement was the prudent, sensible course.
And Alice had been prudent and sensible her entire life.
Patrick’s eyes searched her face. “You’re signing away your right to bear him children. I thought that part was rather strange, and not something to be decided lightly.”
She didn’t have a chance to reply because Nick approached, handing the glass to Patrick.
“While you were away we had another delivery,” Nick said to Patrick. “One that will require a new name.”
