La Flamme (Historical Romance) (3 page)

Spiteful laughter filled the night air, and Sabine slumped against the wide trunk of a gnarled oak tree and buried her face in her hands. The physical pain that she lived with daily was nothing compared to the agony she felt at the cruel words that had been spoken so carelessly and in jest.

Then she heard an angry voice cut through the laughter. "Don't speak of the child so. She was frightened and unhappy, and deserves our compassion. And as for Garreth, think you that he cares about her wealth? He merely fulfilled his father's pledge to the king."

"We meant no harm, Stephen," said a gruff voice. "We are all friends here. I'm Garreth's cousin. Come, everyone, fill your glasses and drink a toast to the duke of Balmarough and his duchess, that they shall know true wedded bliss."

Sabine couldn't see what happened, but the laughter started again.

"Aye," the man named Stephen called out contemptuously. "Drink to Garreth's health, and then mock him. We are all friends here indeed!"

Then Sabine heard what sounded like a silver goblet hitting the tree she was leaning against.

"What ails Stephen?" someone asked, "and where is he off to in such haste? Could it be that he goes to offer comfort to his beauteous stepmother now that Garreth is wed?"

"Nay, Stephen has no liking for his father's wife. And as for Garreth, many women will weep tonight because he's wed." Cortland Blackthorn spoke maliciously. "Think you the new little bride knows that Stephen's stepmother is Garreth's mistress and true love?"

"Better you should ask what Lady Meredith will say about the little bride. The child had best have a care or that cat will scratch her eyes out."

"It would be a pity," Cortland Blackthorn mocked.

Although Sabine had never met Garreth's cousin, she could tell by his voice that he had no love for her husband, and she was certain she did not like him.

"Come, Cortland," someone cajoled. "Don't be so harsh about the lovely Eugenia. Lord Meredith is old and ailing—some say he won't live past the summer. I have heard Lady Meredith say that she fancies herself as Garreth's wife. She had her heart set on one day being a duchess."

"Mayhap she would do better to remain Garreth's mistress. A wife is only a necessity to beget sons, while a mistress is for love and pleasure," another said.

The laughter cut into Sabine's heart. She wanted to leave, but dared not for fear of being discovered.

"Truth to tell, Garreth's child bride looked sickly to me. She may not even outlive Lady Meredith's husband," Cortland said. "My cousin may yet be free to marry whom he chooses. Fortune seems to always favor him, rot his soul."

Sabine clamped her hand over her mouth, wishing she were dead. The man she had just vowed before God to love and honor, did not honor her, nor did he love her. He loved someone called Lady Meredith.

3

When Lady Meredith heard the sound of a coach arriving, she jumped up from the chair where she had been lounging and rushed to view her reflection in the mirror. At last Garreth had come, and her long wait was over! She smiled at her reflection—long golden hair, deep blue eyes, and a figure that a sixteen-year-old girl would envy. She pinched her cheeks to give them some color, then moistened her lips with her tongue.

No one would suspect from her appearance that she was thirty years old. She had told Garreth that she was twenty, his same age, and he had believed her. She would tell any lie, do anything, to make him love her, and she had succeeded!

She had used all her wiles to overcome his reluctance to become entangled with a married woman. His friendship with her stepson, Stephen, had also been an obstacle. But now Garreth worshipped her, and for him she would control her natural urges and pretend to be the proper wife who was torn by her love for him.

Eugenia fantasized about Garreth touching her and making love to her. Thus far she had played coy and not allowed him to bed her. But he wanted her—she knew that. It had taken more scheming to entrap him than any of her former lovers, but one day Garreth would be the duke of Balmarough, and she intended to be his duchess.

Her eyes gleamed as she thought of lying in his arms with his hot kisses on her lips. This would be the night that she would pretend she could no longer hold out against her feelings for him. Tonight they would become lovers.

Eugenia patted her curls into place, and satisfied with her appearance, returned to a chair by the window and busied herself with some needlework she found in a basket on the floor. It would never do to let Garreth know that she had been watching for his arrival.

As she heard voices coming from the entryway, her heart started racing and every nerve tingled with anticipation. She managed to look startled and innocent when the door to her sitting room was flung open unceremoniously.

"Oh, 'tis only you," she said to her stepson, Stephen.

He swept his plumed hat from his head and bowed in the same movement. The smile he gave her was mocking and his gray eyes were filled with dislike. "You were expecting someone else, Stepmother?" he asked in feigned surprise. "I crave your pardon if my message failed to precede me."

Every gesture he made and every word he spoke to her was exaggeratedly polite, and she hated him because she knew that his actions thinly masked his contempt. In her anticipation of Garreth's visit tonight, she had forgotten that Stephen would be arriving today.

"Your father is confined to his chambers with some new malady, if you were looking for him," she said.

"No, 'tis you that I came to see. Had I wanted my father, I would not have come to your salon, madame, since one never finds the two of you together."

Eugenia's hands tightened, and she ached to slap the polite condescension off his face. "Everyone knows that Bertram is no husband to me. He's an old man, sick and dying."

Stephen ignored her affront to his father—he had heard this all before. "I hope that you will excuse my travel dust," he said, indicating his mud-spattered clothing, "but I hastened so that I could be the first to tell you that Garreth has wed and is safe from your wiles." With satisfaction, he watched Eugenia's face pale.

"You lie!" she cried, coming to her feet. "Garreth loves me, I tell you, ME!"

Stephen was unmoved by her histrionics. "I don't think what Garreth feels for you is love, Eugenia. He loves what he thinks you are. Pity he cannot know your true character."

"How self-righteous you are. Why should you care that Garreth loves me?" Eugenia asked pointedly. Her eyes were full of contempt. "Your father doesn't care."

Stephen shrugged. "My father knew the kind of woman you were when he married you. He wanted you as an adornment on his arm, and you've been that. If he has no complaint in the way you comport yourself, then neither do I. But I blame myself that Garreth has fallen into your little trap since he met you through me."

"Garreth is the love of my life. Nothing you can say will stop his loving me."

Stephen looked incredulous. "Did you tell him about Lord Havisham and Lord Early, Eugenia? Or how about Daniel Goodman? I believe that Goodman was a butcher by trade, but that didn't keep him out of your bed, did it?"

"You beast! Garreth would love me no matter what I did in the past."

Stephen smiled slightly. "Then why don't you tell him about the night three years ago? As I recall, I was sixteen at the time."

Grimly, she waited, knowing what Stephen was going to say. Until now, neither of them had spoken of that night.

"Father unexpectedly became ill at your twenty-seventh birthday party, so the guests left early," Stephen continued. "That was the night 1 became disenchanted with you, Eugenia—the night you tried to climb into my bed. You had been married to my father for less than a year." He was thoughtful for a moment. "Was it boredom that brought you to my bedchamber that night? You were no longer the loving stepmother after I refused you—were you, Eugenia?"

"You dare say this to me!" she shrieked, running at Stephen and scratching at his face. "You were just a boy with no experience—why would I have wanted you?"

Stephen grabbed her wrists, restraining her. "This is the real you, Eugenia. If only Garreth could see you now."

There were voices coming from the entryway and Eugenia could hear Garreth speaking to the butler.

"Stephen," she warned, "if you say anything to—"

"I won't have to tell him, Eugenia. Unless I am mistaken, Garreth has come to do the honorable thing and bid you adieu. But then you wouldn't understand about honor, would you, Stepmother?"

Garreth entered the room and when he saw Stephen, he paused, looking from Eugenia to his friend.

Eugenia shot her stepson a triumphant look before going forward to greet her visitor. "You need not pretend

,^24      CONSTANCE O'BANYON

with Stephen, Garreth. He knows about us, and has for a longtime."

"Leave us alone, will you, Stephen?" Garreth asked, hoping Stephen would understand. "I'll have a word with Lady Meredith."

Seeing Stephen's hesitation, Garreth added, "You need have no fear for your stepmother's reputation when she is with me."

"Think you that I care who my stepmother beds? There have been many before you; there will be many after you are gone."

Eugenia cried out in rage, and Garreth moved to her side, unbridled anger coursing through his veins. "You go too far, Stephen. I will not allow anyone, not even you, to speak of Eugenia in this manner. It matters not if you are my friend, you will not defame her. I love Eugenia."

Stephen laughed, but it was without humor. "How can it be, Garreth, that you are older than me by a year, worldly and sophisticated, yet you have so little knowledge of my stepmother's sort? Think you that my father doesn't know about all her lovers? Did you really believe that you were the first?"

Eugenia watched helplessly as Garreth's face paled. She could see the growing distaste in his expression. He must not believe Stephen. She had to do something quickly. "You are simply jealous, Stephen."

"Madame, I may be the only man who finds nothing in you to love or admire," Stephen replied as he walked toward the door. He could only hope that Garreth would see Eugenia's true character for himself.

Garreth was confused. He did not want Stephen to think that he and Eugenia were lovers. "Before you go, Stephen, I would ask your pardon for deceiving you. You must believe that we have done no more than profess our love, but for the one time I kissed her."

Eugenia could see that she was losing Garreth. She lashed out at him. "Don't be so noble, Garreth. You didn't have me because I deemed it so. Had I wished it, you would have come to my bed fast enough."

When Stephen saw the sickened expression on Garreth's face he almost found it within himself to pity his stepmother—almost, but not quite. "If you need me, Garreth, I'll be with my father," he said as he left the room.

Slowly, Eugenia raised her eyes to Garreth. "If I spoke unkindly it's just because you've wounded me so deeply. Was Stephen mistaken when he told me that you are married?"

"He was not mistaken," Garreth admitted. "Although I would have preferred to tell you myself. I could not write you about the marriage and there was no time to come to you before the wedding."

She felt unbridled fury. "You said you loved me. Why would you marry someone else?"

"I was compelled to take a wife," he said. "That's why I'm here. To tell you."

Eugenia's eyes flashed and her breath came out in a hiss. "You betrayed our love, Garreth! How long have you professed to love me, while scheming to marry another? For the first time in my life, I discovered the true meaning of love. I wanted to live with you as your wife, to grow old with you, to have your children."

He looked stricken and confused. "That could never be—you have a husband, and now, I have a wife."

Eugenia's voice rose. "Could you not have waited for me? My husband is old. Each day I watch as he grows weaker—he is dying. If you had been patient, we could be together!"

Garreth saw her clearly for the first time. "If I am not myself, you will have to forgive me. My father has but recently died."

Her eyes gleamed and her hands laced together. "You are a duke now! Oh, Garreth, I knew this day would come."

He was stunned. There was no pity in her. She saw only his new rank, not the grief his father's death had caused. What had happened to the shy, helpless woman that brought out the protectiveness in him? This woman was a stranger to him. It didn't even matter anymore whether Stephen's accusations about her infidelities were true, though they probably were. How could he have thought he loved her?

Eugenia fortified herself—she would not give up so easily. She smiled, and her tongue flicked out to moisten her lips as she moved toward him, ever the seductress. "Garreth, Stephen has always hated me. Surely you see that he would discredit me in any way he can."

Her lower lip trembled and her eyes grew teary—a ploy that had worked on Garreth in the past. But she could see coldness in his eyes, and it pierced at her heart.

"Would you take Stephen's side against mine?" she asked softly.

"I'll take no one's side. I want only the truth." His eyes bore into hers and she quickly dropped her gaze.

"I thought... everyone thought that I was to be your wife." She buried her face in her hands. "How will I face the humiliation?"

"Eugenia, at no time did we discuss marriage."

"You said you loved me."

Garreth pondered his feelings. "To me, Eugenia, love and honor are one and the same."

He watched as her lip curled and an expression not unlike a predatory cat's masked her face. "Spare me your boyish romanticized illusions of love," she said. "And you have no honor!"

"I admit that I have not acted honorably with you. All the blame is mine, and I can only apologize if I conducted myself badly. It was never my intention to hurt you."

"Hurt me. You tore my heart out! I was going to give myself to you tonight."

Garreth looked at her with pity. "And I had come here to tell you that we could not see each other again."

She was frantic now, her hands like claws, clutching at his shirtfront. "No! That cannot be! We were meant to be together. You must not leave me!"

He pried her fingers loose and walked toward the door, only to pause in the archway. "I wish you happiness, Eugenia."

She was gasping for breath. She wanted to see him dead! "And I wish you and your new bride a life of misery." Her breasts were heaving and her lips curved in anger. "If possible, I'll send you both to hell, no matter how long it takes!"