“I understand that you have your grievances,” he continued, towering over her, “but that does not give you the right to do this.”
“Then I shall ask you again what you would have had me do. I was alone, Spencer, and that was because of you. If you do not like what you drove me to do, then you should not have been away for so long.”
“You could have written to me.”
“And where, pray tell, should I have written to?”
“In any case,” he dismissed, “you had no right to ruin my name and reputation over… well, what was it exactly? Were you bored?”
Anna wondered if this was him daring her to talk back, or him trying to intimidate her into silence, but that was not going to happen.
“I find ways to entertain myself. The question, Your Grace, is whether or not this marriage has ever meant anything to you at all. I have been waiting for you to return, and the only way I seem to have found is by causing a scandal. Tell me, does your reputation truly mean more to you than your wife?”
“You knew what our arrangement was,” he said bluntly, not looking away from her.
She could feel the anger blazing within her. The gentleman standing before her had abandoned her, then had the audacity to tell her that she should have expected it.
“I knew what you told me,” she said as steadily as she could muster. “It was to be a loveless marriage, one without passion and adoration, and that was…acceptable to me. I was prepared to marry a man who had little interest in feeling such things for me, but you never once told me that you would immediately walk away, leaving me here in this cold household with no indication that you would ever return.”
“That is not what happened.”
“Oh? Then do enlighten me, Your Grace, for I am more than willing to hear what truly happened, and where you have been all this time. As if I do not know.”
“Where exactly do you think that I have been? You have a most accusatory tone. One might have expected you to simply be pleased that I have returned.”
“Yes, that would have been convenient for you indeed. Unfortunately, though I may not have meddled in youraffairs, you should know that I am aware of them. Were they prettier? Or were they simply not expecting you to return, and you liked that about them?”
For a brief second, he did not look smug. It almost brought a sense of satisfaction to her to know that he was not completely impenetrable. It was a bold accusation, but she was certain of it. There was nowhere else for him to go, not for as long as his absence had been.
“You had no right to do this,” he repeated. “You have brought shame upon me, my title, and my family. It is inexcusable, regardless of what you think of me.”
“Iam your family, in case you have forgotten. Whether you like it or not, you chose to marry me. You were not forced like I was, and you entered into it knowing what you wanted. You may feel humiliated now, but that pales in comparison to the humiliation that you have subjected me to for a year.”
“You have been taken care of.”
“You have abandoned me for another woman, and you never bothered to produce an heir before running the way you did.”
He looked at her in thought for a moment, and then his lips twisted upward into a grin. There was no apology, nor was there any remorse in his eyes at all. He did not regret what he had done to her; that much was clear.
“An heir?” he echoed. “I see what this is all about.”
He stepped toward her, and when she stepped back, she realized that she was pressed against the wall, with him keeping her there. He put a hand by the side of her head, and her heart began to pound. In spite of everything, she was still his wife.
He could do anything he wanted to her.
“You are upset,” he rumbled, “because we never consummated the marriage.”
“That is not– I–”
Her heart beat faster, cheeks flushing at the very suggestion, and her words left her. No clever thoughts remained, only the fact that she very much had wanted to experience such delights as the ones she read about for herself.
But not with him, not after what he had done. That was what she repeated to herself as she felt the heat rising in her cheeks. He pressed the back of his fingers to her skin, chuckling softly at her.
“Warm to the touch,” he commented. “Perhaps you are not as stoic as you might want me to believe.”
“Even if that was what I wanted, it does not make a difference. You need to fulfil your duties, Your Grace.”
“And fulfil them I gladly would.”
