The Ties That Bind (4 page)

"Tom, what on earth are you doing here?" She hissed the words after a quick glance over her shoulder at the door to James' room.

"I wanted to see if you were all right."

He came fully into the room, his gaze assessing her new rose satin gown and elaborate hairstyle.

"Why would I not be?" Arabella turned back to her mirror and powdered her nose.

"Because you had to bed your husband last night." He moved behind her, his fingers settling on the mark of a love bite in the curve of her neck.

"James was perfectly amiable."

Tom bent his head and flicked his tongue over the slight bruise. "Amiable, eh?"

Arabella shuddered as her body warmed and reacted to his slight caress. "I was able to accommodate his desires and then he left." An image of her straddling James as he suckled at her breast flooded her mind. She hoped Tom didn't see her blushing.

"I'm glad to hear it. I hope you still have enough energy to accommodate my desires tonight as well."

"If James doesn't return, I would be delighted."

He angled her face back until he could kiss her. "Tonight will be extraordinary, I promise you. We will explore new territory and expand our horizons." His tongue slid into her mouth and she forgot herself in his kiss. "Do you think his lordship knows who I am, yet?"

"He knows I have taken a lover." She pouted. "Although he doesn't seem too perturbed about it."

"You would prefer it if he shot at me?"

"Of course, not. It's just that I am unsure whether he simply doesn't care or if he feels unable to condemn me because he has lovers too."
   

"His lordship has never struck me as a man with much humility."

"Before our marriage, he showed me numerous examples of his good will and amiable disposition. I thought he was truly an intelligent and understanding man." Arabella frowned as she realized she was defending her own husband to her lover.

Tom knelt in front of her and took her hand. "Then why do you think he changed?"

"We've discussed this before. And I'm still not sure." Arabella got to her feet and took a few agitated steps around the room. "Although lately, I've wondered if my father had more to do with his desertion than I realized at the time. It's strange that he's chosen to come back, now, isn't it."

She glanced at Tom who now sat gingerly on the fragile couch. He shrugged. "Not so strange if you consider he now owns your fortune free and clear. He can do anything he wants, can't he?"

Instant words of denial crowded her throat. Was she so eager to forgive James after one night of passion that she'd allow him to fool her all over again? She nodded slowly at Tom.

"I'll remember that. I'll not let down my guard too easily until I've had the opportunity to talk things through properly with James.

"Good for you." Tom walked toward the servants stairs. "I saw his lordship heading down to his study. Why don't you catch him there before your dinner guests arrive?"
 

After seeing Tom safely down to the kitchen, Arabella retraced her steps to the ground floor and headed for James' study. She found him with his feet up on the massive desk smoking a cigarillo.
 
He was already dressed for dinner in a dark blue coat and gray waistcoat which enhanced the azure of his eyes. He didn't bother to rise as she approached him, just gave her a lazy intimate smile.

"Ah, my darling wife. Am I late for dinner?"

Arabella laced her gloved fingers together. "Last night you intimated that the reasons for your desertion were more complex than I realized."

James raised an eyebrow. "Did I really?"

Arabella prayed for patience. "I admit that you were struggling to think rationally at the time but I assure you, that is what you said."

"You, of course, were unaffected by my lovemaking then?" He sat up in his chair, knocking a pile of papers to the floor. "Your father was an overbearing monster."

Surprised by his abrupt change of subject, she fought an instinctive desire to defend her family. Every time she had a rebellious thought about how she was raised, she half expected her father to rise from his grave and accuse her of disloyalty.

"He was a difficult man to live with. He made his money with the sweat of his own hands and I think that gave him a distaste for the aristocracy he found hard to conceal."

James snorted. "It didn't stop him wanting his only child to marry into the peerage though, did it?"

Arabella met his cool stare with one of her own. "It didn't stop you from taking the lure either did it?" She took two steps forward until she was in front of the desk. "Because of your profligate nature, your family was desperate for money. You agreed to sell your ancient family name for money. Let's not forget that."

"I didn't."

"You didn't what? Marry me?"

"I didn't agree to sell my family name for money."

She struggled against a desire to cry. "Oh no, you were forced into it weren't you? A big strong man like you."

He got to his feet and stared down at her.
 
"Did your father tell you about my family's finances before or after our wedding?"

"Why does it matter?"

He came around the desk and caught her chin in his long fingers. "Because my guess would be that the old bastard told you just before I bedded you. Up until that point in the proceedings you seemed to be delighted to become my wife. While we're being so honest with each other, what else did he say?"

Arabella studied his harsh expression. "He told me you were a wastrel and the despair of your family. He told me that he'd only agreed to the marriage so that he could wash his hands of me and that you had no intention of making our marriage a reality."

"And?"

"He was right, wasn't he? You were an inconsiderate oaf on our wedding night and you left never to return the next morning."

A muscle twitched in his cheek and he began to laugh. Enraged beyond belief, Arabella drew back her hand and slapped his cheek.

"Why did you do that?" His smile retreated to his eyes.

"Because…" she couldn't even imagine where to begin. How dare he laugh when she'd been forced to remember the most humiliating day of her life?

He took both her hands in his. "Arabella, your father was a master at planting discord and doubt. If we had known each other better, we could've avoided all the hurt and mistrust of the past two years."

"I doubt it."

"My family's fortunes were at a low ebb because of my older brother, not me. John was heir to the title and he was the one who gambled away our wealth."

"Then why would my father say it was you?"

"Because he didn't want us to be happy." James frowned. "He wanted to retain control of you and keep me on a leash of his own devising." He gripped her hands tightly. "My own father feared I would follow my brother's path. He probably communicated those fears to your father as well."
 

Arabella looked away from him. "Are you suggesting my father was wrong?"

"About me?" He hesitated. "I obviously think so, but then you have no reason to believe me either."

But she did. She thought about the sincerity and interest he had shown her before their marriage, his humor and intelligence. The way he'd stolen a kiss whenever they were alone for a few moments. What had happened to that man? The man she believed she'd fallen in love with?

"So you married to save your family fortune. Why wasn't your brother the sacrificial goat or isn't he as charming and handsome as you are?"

He released her and strode toward the window, hands clasped behind his back. "John is dead. He shot himself with his favorite dueling pistol when he realized the full extent of his debts."

Arabella pressed a hand to her mouth. "You never told me that."

"Well as you might imagine, he wasn't exactly a favorite topic of conversation in our family. My parents told everyone he had died in his bed rather than endure the gossip of the
ton
. "

"So you became the sacrificial goat. You were the one who had to marry for money."

He turned to smile at her, his blue eyes gleaming with an intimacy she couldn't deny. "It wasn't as difficult as you might think."

Arabella stared at him, her sympathy dying.

"Of course it wasn't. How stupid of me.
 
Family duty always comes first for your kind doesn't it?
 
I'm sure your father told you exactly what to do. Marry and then walk away as fast as a gentleman can. No need to proclaim the connection, just refill the family coffers and pretend that the smell of the shop only clings to your common, money-grubbing wife."

His smile died. "That's not what I meant. When I met you…"

Arabella was already on the move. She flung open the study door. "When you met me, you got what you wanted and left. Perhaps you should take the hint and repeat the performance as soon as possible."

"Arabella!" His roar followed her down the corridor. "Come back here!"

She ignored his command and hurried upstairs to seek a few blessed moments of silence before she had to face her guests.

Arabella wrapped her shawl over her head and shut the side door behind her. The wind had died down and the gardens lay before her, patterned silver in the waning moonlight. Considering her tangled feelings, the dinner party had gone extremely well. James was the perfect host.
 
Even Tom seemed to enjoy himself and had exchanged several innocuous remarks with her husband without provoking a response.

In the distance, the faint glow of a lamp in Tom's window guided her to his cottage. She swallowed a sob. Tom deserved better than a weeping water pot. He deserved a passionate lover. She thought about James and his insinuations that her father had meddled in their marriage with disastrous results.

If he had voiced his doubts when her father was alive would she even have considered them? She paused to readjust her shawl and looked back at the house where she hoped James lay sleeping. She was so afraid of her father, she probably would have ignored James simply to keep the peace. Was that why he had waited to try and set things straight between them or was he simply manipulating her again?

Despite her best efforts, she couldn't control her deep feelings for James. She'd tried to pretend she hated him, but one night in his bed had proved that she craved him on an instinctive level which surpassed all her feelings for Tom.
 
She'd fallen in love with him the first moment she'd met him. When her father had insisted that James was only marrying her for his money, she'd argued with him for the first time in her life.

Her steps slowed and she stared into the darkness. Of course, James had destroyed any illusions she had cherished when he appeared in her bedroom blind drunk and too angry to care whether he was careful with her or not. Tom's cottage loomed in front of her and she knocked on the door. It opened immediately. Tom awaited her dressed in his white shirt and breeches, his smile warm and intimate.

"I thought you might not come."

She forced a smile. For the first time she felt like she was being unfaithful. She quickly banished the thought. "I had to wait until the house was quiet and for James to start to snore."

"His lordship snores?"

Arabella gave a watery chuckle. "Like a pig."