“B-b-but-but she was refusing me,” Colborn choked out. “She is mine. To be my wife. She has to bed me—”
“She isyours? Shehasto bed you?” Ash’s voice rose. “She is not a bloody pocket watch, Colborn. She is not yours. She is a person, not a fucking possession. Not a whore. You do not lay a hand on a woman. You do not force yourself upon a woman.”
Felicity flinched. Ash’s voice dripped with a contempt that was poisonous, deadly—palpably so.
But Colborn, ever the rebellious son, scoffed, disrespect curling his lip. “Oh, like you never forced Mother to sleep with you. Even as a young boy, I knew she wanted nothing to do with you, yet you kept having more children. I wonder how that happened. Like you neverharmedher.”
The blood drained from Ash’s face so fast that by the time Felicity blinked, his face had turned ghost-white. The rage, the tremors wracking his frame, ceased, and his eyes dulled, clouded over. He released his son and stepped clumsily backward.
Felicity rushed to his side and grabbed his wrist, but he didn’t look at her, didn’t react to her touch. God, what just happened? It was as though he disappeared, even though he still stood in front of them. Gone. Somewhere deep inside himself, in his purgatory.
She cupped his cheek and turned him to her. “Ash. Ash, look at me.”
A flicker of life sparked in his eyes but just barely. She knew there was no way he had ever forced his wife. She knew Ash. She knew the man he was. He was not that man. He did not abuse women.
“Ash…” Colborn said, and her gaze flicked to his. He looked between her and Ash and then stared at Felicity’s hand cupping his father’s face. “What the fuck is going on here?”
She ignored Colborn and was fairly certain Ash hadn’t heard his son, too deeply lost inside his self-fabricated nightmare. His words about his marriage came rushing back. How there was no love, no affection, nothing at all between him and his late wife. There was something here, in his reaction to Colborn’s words, something telling. She just didn’t know what exactly it told.
She brushed her fingers over his light stubble, and a bit more life seemed to flow back into his blue irises. He reached up to grip her wrist, grip it like a lifeline, and then he came fully back to her, but pain and anger and torment creased his forehead, tightening his features.
“Ash,” she whispered, “Where’d you go? Come back to me.”
He swallowed convulsively, and the muscles in his jaw flexed under her palm.
Colborn’s incredulous tone interrupted their silent conversation. “Seriously, what in the bloody hell is going on here? Are you two sleeping together?”
Felicity finally dropped her hand, and Ash’s gaze shot to his son’s.
“Are you fucking my betrothed? Because that’s rich, even for you, father. You scarcely exist in my life, but apparently you make your presence known when you see a woman you want to bed.”
“Enough!” Felicity spun to face Colborn, slamming her hands on her hips. “God, can you be more of an ungrateful, spoiled child, Colborn? Your father and I are not sleeping together. Despite my best efforts, I might add.”
She stepped forward, and he shrank back. “That’s why I’m here. Thanks for asking, by the way. You didn’t wonder why I was randomly at your family’s country estate when you never asked me here? Whenyouweren’t here? And do you know why you didn’t bother asking? Because you are—” She jabbed a finger at him, thrusting with each word. “—So. Bloody. Self. Absorbed.”
Colborn winced and looked as though he was trying to disappear into the paneled wall behind him. Felicity wasn’t sure if it was her words that caused it, her finger-jabbing, or the fact that her tone would put any reprimanding mama to shame. She didn’t bloody care.
She advanced further.
“I came here for revenge. I came here to bed your father. I was going to rub it in your face and use it as leverage to get out of marrying your arrogant arse.”
She dropped her head back and let out a mirthless chuckle before glaring at him again. “And it would have beenglorious. But your father has refused me at every turn. And trust me, I have tried my fucking damnedest. Butheis honorable, noble, principled. Traits that clearly skipped right over you.”
He gaped at her. “You-you were trying to seduce my father for revenge against me? What on earth for?”
Her shoulders slumped, and it was her turn to be the one wide-eyed with shock. Was he serious?
“What on earth for?” She laughed and palmed her face, closing her eyes while she took a deep breath. “Have you completely lost your senses? You sleep with everything in a skirt. And explicitly said you would continue to do so once we married, yet you expected me to stay home as your little doll of a wife. You were going to make my lifemiserable.And after this little incident just now, I think I underestimated how miserable. So, yes, I came here under the guise of revenge and escape. Because I will not be youranything,”she spat.
She turned to Ash, and her voice went soft. “But revenge is no longer my aim. I’m afraid to say my desire for revenge was embarrassingly half-hearted. Vengeance fled my person my first day here.” She searched Ash’s gaze, torment swirling there, pain stiffening the muscles of his face. “I may still want in your father’s bed, but my aim is quite different now.”
“I-I do not understand what is happening,” Colborn said.
Ash broke their locked gaze and turned to his son. “What is happening, is you are no longer marrying Lady Felicity Jennings, son. The betrothal is off. I will write to Felicity’s brother immediately.”
Felicity’s jaw dropped in unison with Colborn’s.
“As for you and your petulance, Colborn,” Ash continued. “I think it is time you assumed some responsibility in your life. You are nowhere near fit to be a husband nor, God-help-me, a father to children.”
