“Gaultier will be insulted.”
“Then he may leave and I will welcome that.”
“And you would insult Tulley, who sent him to Annossy!”Melissande retorted, flinging out her hands.“You must think of repercussions beyond your own whim!”
“Whim?”he roared.“I must be surrounded by men I trust!”
“Alas, I am not to have that luxury!”she replied before she could stop herself.“I am to stand aside while you claim every iota of affection and loyalty, while you push aside people chosen by me in favor of your own choices, while you turn Annossy into a hideous echo of Sayerne.I am to stand aside in silence while you make your father’s fondest dream come true, even as you destroy all that my forebears and I worked to achieve.”
“You scarcely stand in silence, my lady.”
“I will scream at the injustice, should it be necessary!”she countered.“I will not cede all to you so willingly as you might wish, whether you be my lord husband or nay.”
“I am your lord husband and this match is consummated!”Quinn bellowed.
“Nay.”Melissande shook her head.“It can still be dissolved, because I had a previous betrothal.”
Quinn growled beneath his breath and took a step closer, his eyes burning with fury.Melissande feared a moment too late that she had pushed him overmuch, but then he shoved a hand through his hair, pivoted and paced the width of the solar and back.When he spoke, his voice still thrummed with emotion, but he was more controlled.“Is that the root of it?You do not trust me and my comrades?”
“I do not know them, and I do not know you that well.”
Quinn paced more quickly.“As opposed to Arnaud, the knight who holds your heart in thrall,” he said with some heat.“What if he had been the one to change the guard at the mill for his comrades?Would you welcome that choice whether you knew them or nay, simply because he is your beloved?”
Arnaud.The mention of that man’s name stopped Melissande cold.What manner of woman was she that she had forgotten all about him so quickly as this?She turned her back upon her husband.“Berthe thinks you intend to abandon Annossy for Sayerne,” she said, not having intended to breach that topic at all.
“Does she?I suppose that would suit you well enough,” he said, his voice a low growl of dissatisfaction.
“Is that what will happen if we have a son?You will leave?”
What would happen if they did not have a son?
He did not reply.Melissande looked over her shoulder to find him watching her intently, his lips set.The air fairly crackled between them and when he spoke, his low words surprised her.“You would rather I had never returned from Palestine.”
“I would rather I had not been compelled to wed you,” she replied curtly.“Beyond that, I have no concern for your survival or location.”
Quinn averted his gaze and she saw a muscle work in his jaw.She feared anew that she had said too much, especially when his hand clenched into a fist at his side, then relaxed again.He took a breath and lifted the fur-lined cloak, swinging it over his shoulders and wrapping it around himself.“Now this is a fine garment.I thank you for it.”
Melissande watched warily as Quinn strode around the perimeter of the solar.What did he mean to do?She could not imagine that her blunt speech would create no repercussions.He closed all of the shutters across the windows, save the one that faced the mill, then drew a chair beside it.Wrapped in the cloak, he sat there, watching over the forest to the distant mill.
As if she did not exist.
As if she had been forgotten.
Melissande knew she should not have been surprised that Quinn did precisely as he had said he would.She had told him not to come to her bed.He had said he would watch the mill.
She was surprised by her own annoyance with the situation.Their dispute had made her keenly aware of him, as arguments had done before.That he could ignore her so completely indicated that he was not so powerfully affected by their lovemaking.It was a warning of what might be, and she told herself to be glad to have seen the truth of it so early.
Berthe knocked on the door then and came with hot water.She spared a glance at Quinn, but she did not speak to him and he never glanced her way.It might have been Melissande’s forbidding expression that silenced any question that might have fallen from the maid’s lips, and she was quick about aiding her lady to prepare for bed.Still, Quinn did not change his posture or look her way.Melissande laid abed after the maid was gone, watching him, but he might have been alone for all the attention he showed her.
She was a fool to feel its lack.
Melissande did not think she would sleep, but to her surprise, she did.
Chapter 12
The moon was riding high when Quinn heard Melissande roll over in the great bed.She sighed, as if her dreams saddened her, and the sound tore at his heart.Her breathing remained slow and deep, though, and he knew she had not awakened.
The most vexing thing about his wife was not that she was inclined to be outspoken.It was not that she challenged him, for Quinn welcomed that.The most irksome thing was that he lost his composure in her presence, like some brute, and then, invariably, had to acknowledge that she was right.
