‘Did you enjoy your shopping trip yesterday?’
He would not have asked if he did not know the truth. She smiled sweetly. ‘Yes. Very much so. I bought a new bonnet.’
‘To replace the one you lost while carriage racing on the Hounslow Road,’ he finished, taking a slice of toast from the rack and reaching for the butter. ‘Did you not listen to a word I said, on the night we married?’
She touched a finger to her chin, pretending to think. ‘I believe you wished me to be frugal. Since I got the money for the hat off Mr Gregory, it cost you nothing.’
The bread in his hand crumbled under the pressure of his knife and he tossed it uneaten on his plate. ‘I also told you to avoid making a public spectacle of yourself.’
‘A public spectacle?’ She laughed. ‘It was only a mile down the road and back.’
‘In the company of a man who is not your husband,’ he reminded her.
‘A good friend of yours. Surely…’
‘And betting.’
‘One small wager,’ she said. ‘Which I won.’
‘The amount is not the point,’ Mr Challenger said. ‘The point is that I forbade you from driving…’
‘Not exactly,’ she said. ‘You threatened me with a pony cart.’
‘I do not threaten,’ he said.
It was not really a threat to be so overprotective. He might have been trying, in his own misguided way, to be kind. He had followed it by defending her against Marietta. For the first time in ages, someone had taken her side in an argument. Despite how much he annoyed her, she had wanted to kiss him in gratitude.
And then, on the ride back to the house, he had told her of his plans to abandon her for the evening to go to his stupid club.
An hour later, she had been tearing down the road toward Colnbrook with the wind in her hair and her husband’s friend swearing on the driver’s seat beside her.
‘You do not threaten?’ She smiled and took a sip of tea. ‘Well, neither do I. I said I had no intention of following the ridiculous strictures you placed on me. And I meant it.’
She waited for his response. He did not seem like the sort of man who would strike a woman. But what could he do to her, short of lock her in her room? She almost hoped he would try, so she might test the strength of the drainpipe outside her bedroom window.
‘Then I will renege on my part of the bargain,’ he said, smiling over his coffee cup.
‘And what might that bargain be?’ she asked, feeling the first hint of worry.
He set down his cup and stood, walking over to stand behind her chair, resting his hands on the back, so she could feel the heat of his fingers through the back of her gown. He bent down until his lips were touching her ear. Then he whispered in a voice so soft that the footman at the door would not hear a word. ‘You wish to live apart? If you do not obey me, it will never happen. You will never be rid of me, until death us do part, just as the bishop said. We will be together, night and day. We will live in the same house. We will sleep in the same bed.’
‘You would not dare,’ she whispered back. ‘I would not…’ She turned her head to whisper back into his face. And this time she was the one who forgot how to speak. Their lips were less than an inch from each other, so close that she could smell the coffee on his breath.
When he kissed her, it was more gentle than their last kiss had been, as if it was nothing more than his answer to the morning greeting she had just given him. His hands were on her shoulders, kneading the muscles until she was near to purring with pleasure. She could not help herself. She kissed him back, eager for more.
Then he kissed his way back to her ear, nibbling the lobe before whispering again, in a calm, unemotional tone, ‘If you do not obey me by choice, I have the power to make you beg to do exactly what I want. Do not forget it.’
Then he stood up and gave her an avuncular pat on the back. ‘Have a good time on Bond Street, my sweet. And be sure that shopping is all you do today.’
The man was insufferable. She had known it from the first moment they’d met. But then, she had not seen the worst of him. At first, she had hated him without reservation. Now, that hatred was mingled with confusion. When she’d agreed to the marriage, she’d had no idea that his kisses could make her act against her better judgement.
When he was not kissing her, she was as resolved as ever to go where she pleased and do as she pleased. But with one touch of his lips, she could imagine nothing more pleasurable than total compliance to whatever he suggested. And while he was not totally unmoved by her presence, she saw no sign that receiving a kiss from her could similarly move him to become more reasonable.
But knowledge of the fact did nothing to help her decide how to spend the day in a way that did not annoy him or bore herself. She wrote a brief note to her father to tell him of the carriage race, then tore it up before sending it. At one time, he’d have thought it the most amusing thing in the world. But perhaps now he would disapprove, just as her husband did. It might create an even greater wedge between them. In the end, she wrote a whole page of boring nonsense that even Marietta could not object to and closed with another invitation to tea.
After such a bland missive, it seemed only natural to spend the rest of the day behaving in the conventional manner that her husband expected. She spoke with the housekeeper about the week’s menus, spent some time familiarising herself with the household accounts, then dressed to go out. She made her first official social call: a visit to the home of her husband’s brother to see her sister-in-law, Caroline. Between them, they agreed to take his younger sisters shopping that afternoon.
He could not possibly object to her making nice with his family. Though she’d had no luck with her own, it was her duty to make an attempt with his. A success with the Challengers might prove to him that she was not as difficult as he claimed.
