An Undomesticated Wife (22 page)

“I am.” He released her hands as he drew on his gloves. “I wished to tell you that I will be busy for most of the day, but that I hope you will stay close to the house.”

“Marcus, you should not stray far from here. You cannot guess if there might be danger for you, too.”

“If you accept Grandmother's opinion, the danger is past.”

“I have not spoken with Her Grace, and, in my opinion, the situation is still hazardous.”

“So you and Fisher believe.”

She grasped the banister. “What did Mr. Fisher say? He was unsettled when we arrived.”

“You will have to ask him or Father. I have several appointments I must keep.” The clatter of horseshoes on the street drifted into the house.

She resisted the urge to soften when he drew her into his arms and kissed her swiftly. Her hands clutched onto his sleeves as she gazed up at him.

“You were asleep early last night,” he murmured.

“I was tired.”

“Get your rest today, sweetheart.” He kissed her again before he went out the door to leave her to wonder if he would come to her directly from his particular's bed.

“I have not seen Mr. Fisher since last night,” Beatty said as she bustled around the room. “Shall I have Gardner tell him that you wish to see him upon his return?”

“Yes,” Regina answered.

The abigail glanced at her, but Regina did not elaborate. Sitting in her chair that overlooked the square, she did not want to own that she was watching for Marcus's return.

A knock on the door interrupted Beatty's next question. It opened before either of them could move. Aunt Elayne bustled in, her gold gown an explosion of ribbons and ruffles. When Beatty beat a hasty retreat into the dressing room, Regina guessed the two women had arranged this. She would have been more curious what “this” was, if every thought was not wrapped around Marcus and what was keeping him away from the house for hours.

“You look well in spite of your tribulations,” Aunt Elayne said, giving her a quick buss on the cheek. Sitting on the window seat, she rearranged the flounces and furbelows around her.

“I enjoyed my time in the country.” She almost laughed at the understatement. That time, while she and Marcus had been isolated from the rest of the world, might have been the best time of her life.

“Then why did you come back so precipitously?”

“The dowager duchess wrote, as you know, for us to return.”

Aunt Elayne sighed. “This is so upsetting. I have written to your father of this terrible set of circumstances.”

“Oh, Aunt Elayne, you shouldn't have.”

Her eyes widened as she shook a finger at Regina. “Now you needn't take that tone with me, young lady. I know you think yourself quite able to handle anything, but you are wrong.”

“No, I have no thought that I can handle anything.” She ran her finger along the sculptured edge of the table by her chair. The pattern of vines and fruit was softened by the layers of varnish, and she wished she could hide the splintered wreckage of her heart as readily.

“Then you must agree it was the right thing to do.”

Regina sat straighter as she heard the sound of horseshoes in the square. She sighed when she saw a carriage roll past. “No, I cannot agree to that. What can Papa do save worry about me? Can you doubt that he sent me here to marry Marcus for one simple reason?”

“Which was?”

“To get me away from the danger he saw coming in Algiers. He wrote of that to the duke.” She laced her fingers together so tightly that her knuckles whitened. “Who would have guessed that the same danger would shadow me to London?”

“You cannot be sure there is a connection between those men who tried to abduct you and the government of Algiers. They may have been nothing but common thieves who saw the opportunity to steal more than a purse.”

Regina opened her mouth, then shut it tightly. Before she had had the encounter with the man at the creek by the cottage, she might have been enticed to listen to her aunt's commonsensical assessment. But Aunt Elayne did not know the truth about the powder horn they had found, and Regina intended to shield her from it as long as possible.

Aunt Elayne refused to be so silent. She vented all her opinions, then, when she realized that Regina was in no mood to refute them, left with an urging that Regina rest.

Regina was grateful to be alone, but that ended when the door opened only moments later to reveal the dowager duchess. The elderly woman was wearing a flattering shade of green that she usually chose for calls, but this afternoon she clearly was interested in talking only with Regina.

Or at
, Regina owned with a silent sigh, when the dowager duchess launched into a soliloquy about the upcoming wedding.

When the old woman paused to take a breath, Regina asked, “Your Grace, one question, if I may. Why did you send a message with Andrews for us to come home?”

“I told you.” Impatience glittered in her eyes, which were as volatile as her grandson's. “There has been too much talk about you and Marcus. Suggestions that you are living a sinful existence. Suggestions that you have gotten with child before your wedding.”

She glanced back at the square, not wanting to own that that was no longer impossible. The dowager duchess had believed that both she and Marcus would keep their vow to wait for the wedding. “But we are married. The
ton
should realize that.”

“Not all of them.”

“Then do not listen to those who are ignorant enough to spread such scanmag.”

The dowager duchess treated her to an hour of a reprimand and examples of what happened to those who were so careless as to disregard the rumors that fled through the elite. Knowing that no answer was required of her, Regina simply nodded and mumbled an apology when the old woman seemed to be done.

She sagged in her chair as the door closed behind the dowager duchess. The quiet of the cottage, where her only company was Marcus and her own thoughts, now seemed even more wondrous. She longed to return there and put this hellish day out of her head.

Knuckles rapped against the door just as Beatty came back into the room. Regina rolled her eyes, but bade Beatty to open the door. This must be the duke, for he was the only one of the household—save for Marcus and Mr. Fisher, both of whom were out on business of their own—who hadn't come to her door this afternoon.

She smiled as the duke bustled into the room. Coming to her feet, she gave him a kiss on the cheek.

“How are you, Regina?” he asked as he sat exactly where Aunt Elayne had.

“Very well.”

“Then why are you hiding in your room?”

“If my aim were to hide, it seems that everyone has found me.”

He smiled at her ironic tone. “You look strained.”

“It is uncomfortable to be here when the situation may not have changed.” She hesitated, then added, “And I am worried about Marcus, who seems to be unwilling to own that he might be endangering himself.”

“There has been no sign that he is in any peril.”

She walked to the door of the dressing room and closed it, not wanting Beatty to overhear. “Your Grace, if these are, indeed, the Dey's men, and I share Papa's and your suspicion that they are, they will strike where they may to reach their goals.”

“I should have guessed there was no sense in trying to bamboozle Rudolph's daughter.” He stood. “My mother and your aunt have been persuaded that the danger is less, but I am glad to see that you are wiser than they.”

“I have seen to what ends a dey will go in order to get what he wishes.”

The duke nodded as he walked out of her room. Regina shivered with a renewed wave of trepidation. He had come to her room solely to warn her not to fall prey to her yearning to believe the worst was past. Going to the window, she stared out. The duke need not worry. She knew the worst remained ahead of her while she sat, day after day, and waited for Marcus to leave his convenient and come back to her.

Regina was not surprised when, just as the tall-case clock in the hall was chiming four, Gardner came to tell her that she had a caller. Handing her a card, he said, “I asked the gentleman to wait in the sitting room, my lady.”

“Thank you,” she said. She turned the card over and smiled when she saw Benjamin's name. Today, more than any other she could remember, she needed a friend like Benjamin to come and get her mind off her compounding troubles. His message, which had been delivered no more than an hour past, had asked if he could call, and she had sent back a fervent yes.

Checking that her hair was neat and glad that she had selected this ashes of roses gown with the ruching along the hem which flowed with every step, she hurried down the stairs to the sitting room. She did not try to act as if nothing was amiss. Benjamin knew her too well. He would take note of any ploys she tried to use.

She pushed open the door and gasped when something caught on her sleeve. Her sharp tug was rewarded with the sound of ripping fabric. With a weary sigh, she stared at the brad on the door which had hooked her sleeve. She strained to see her shoulder and discovered she had torn the seam of her left sleeve.

Before she could do more than curse silently, Benjamin came to greet her, smiling. As always, he was dressed impeccably in the sedate colors which were the opposite of the bright uniform he once had worn. “Regina, I hope you can forgive me for being anxious to see you as soon as you returned.”

“I must own to being continually astonished at the speed with which news travels through the Polite World.”

He led her to the settee and sat next to her. “A friend told me he had seen your husband this morning, so I took the chance that you had traveled back to Town with him.”

“We arrived back very late last night.” She said nothing more, though her silence made her uncomfortable. Once she could have told Benjamin anything, but now she wanted to say nothing of the higgedly-piggedly muddle her life had become.

“Did you have a nice sojourn away from London?”

“Yes.”

“I had thought you might not return now that the Season is nearly over.”

“The dowager duchess is determined that the wedding will be the finale for this Season before the
ton
seeks their country retreats away from the heat of summer.”

Benjamin folded her hands between his as he asked, “May I speak plainly?”

“Of course.”

“And will you speak as plainly?”

She faltered, then said, “I shall try.”

“I suppose I can ask no more of you now. Regina, I know that you fled London because of fears of trouble following you from Algiers.”

“How—?”

“I, too, have friends in the Foreign Office.” His grip tightened on her. “Why have you let these people panic you? You and I have lived in Algiers. We both know many of the Dey's viziers. You know that the Dey has enough troubles within his city and that he deals with them effectively and with fatal precision. He does not need to chase one woman to London to get what he needs.”

Regina frowned. How odd that Benjamin would be chiding her now for being frightened when he had penned a letter warning of the dangers to her! Then she wondered if he was trying to disguise his own needless trepidation in this way.

When she saw his eyes narrow, she smiled wryly. “I know.”

“I know you do.”

“I feel a bit foolish.”

He shook his head. “No need for you or anyone else to feel foolish. I only want you to remember that you can trust me.”

“That I know, too.”

“Then listen to me.” His voice deepened as his eyes narrowed. “I care about you deeply, Regina.”

“I care for you, too. After all, we have been friends for years.”

“I wish to speak of more than friendship.”

She drew back, but he refused to release her hands. “Benjamin, I know there are rumors among the
ton
, but Marcus and I were legally married by proxy.”

“
I
know you are Lord Daniston's wife, Regina, but you must face the truth. He will never be cured of his obsession with Jocelyn Simpson, even though she is making a doodle of him by welcoming others to call upon her.”

“You have a very low opinion of Mrs. Simpson.”

“The lowest,” he assured her quickly.

“Yet you ask me to become no better than her, worse truly, for she has not promised to be faithful to one man as I have.”

His smile fell from his face as he cried, “Regina, that was not my intention. I wish only to let you know of my affection and devotion. Think of the life we could have together, roaming the world and seeing all those wondrously peculiar things that belong to other nations. Far from the constrictions of England, no one would need to know the truth.”

“But I would.” She stood and put her hand on his shoulder. “Thank you, Benjamin, for your kind offer, but one of the first lessons Papa taught me was that a successful diplomat never reneges on a vow.”

“So you will live here, pining for the life you should have?”

“Yes,” she whispered, although she was glad he did not ask which life she spoke of. Before she and Marcus had sought sanctuary in the cottage, she would have thought solely of her yearning to return to the life among the diplomats. Now she could think of little besides being in his arms again as he shared the splendors of passion with her.

“If you were to change your mind …”

“I shan't, but thank you again for your kindness. I shall never forget it.” She bent to kiss his cheek.

She gasped as he turned so her lips met his beneath his brush of a moustache. When his arm came around her waist, pulling her closer, she swayed. He swept her down beside him on the settee. She tried to escape, but he pressed her back toward the cushions.

“Good afternoon, Regina. I—”

The sound of Marcus's voice must have startled Benjamin as much as her. His grip on her loosened, and she stood, brushing her trembling hands against her dress. Rage burned in Marcus's eyes, but his gaze was aimed at Benjamin, who was slowly coming to his feet. When Marcus took a step forward, she ran to his side.