Eleanor stiffened.“Well, no wonder you will not tell me any of your affairs if you think I will babble of them to all and sundry!”
He looked up quickly.“Of course I don’t.But you might speak of family matters with Kit.You seem to have rubbed along very well before our marriage.”
Eleanor could not believe her ears.“I was under a misapprehension at the time.”
Nicholas looked at her.“And you cannot forgive him?But how were you planning to live in harmony with me when you thought I was the cause of your problems?”
“I anticipated seeing very little of you,” she snapped and then stopped, horrified at how rude that sounded.
He did look shocked for a moment, and then he laughed.“It’s all right.I do understand.I would ask you to try to forgive Kit, however, and to forget if possible.For better or worse we are a family now.Though I don’t always like what Kit does, the bond between us is too strong to be broken.We must all three find a way of living in harmony.”
Harmony!
Bitter feeling surged in her.“Good heavens, I had quite forgotten,” Eleanor exclaimed, leaping to her feet so abruptly that he had to rescue the tea stand from her skirts.“I am the Delaney bride.Share and share alike, I suppose.So I am to forgive Kit, am I?And behave with him as if nothing had ever happened.And what else?Perhaps I should live with him three days a week.And three nights?”She stopped suddenly, horrified at her words.
Nicholas was just looking at her with astonishment.She covered her face with her hands in shame.
He came to her and put gentle arms around her.He began to rub her back soothingly.“Do you know, my dear, I think you must beenceinte.I understand women are given to strange notions at such a time.You are my wife and no one else’s, and I will know how to protect my own if the question should arise.”He put a finger under her chin and raised her face to his.His eyes were smiling.“If you think you married a complaisant husband, my dear, you are quite out.I merely thought, as you had rubbed along well together at one point, you might be able to put that one aberration behind you.He would make a good friend when I am occupied, as I am likely to be.”
Eleanor stiffened in outrage at the thought of what he was doing when he was “occupied” and hid her face once more in his shoulder until she could command her emotions.There was, after all, no point and no justice in berating him.
When she was back in control she detached herself from his arms and blew her nose fiercely.“You are probably correct about the child,” she said.“It becomes more likely every day, and I am not usually given to such shrewish behavior.Forgive me, if you will.”The words were conciliatory, but she could not make her tone anything but hard.
He turned her set face to him, studying it with concern.“There is nothing to forgive,” he said at last.His thumb came up to tease at the corner of her mouth, softening her expression even as the bitterness ached within her.“Do you realize, Eleanor, that this is only our third day of marriage?I feel so comfortable with you I sometimes forget.But when I think of what you have endured, I wonder you don’t throw fits by the hour.Do as you wish with regard to Kit.”
With a start, she realized he was manipulating her again.He probably did it all the time, but at least there was no need for her to succumb to such a blatant attempt.
Eleanor removed herself from his arms.“I would prefer,” she said firmly, “to see as little of your brother as possible.Not only was he responsible for my ruin, he practiced a gross deception, and one against you as well.I find his total lack of contrition, of even awareness, unacceptable.”
She faced Nicholas, prepared for further intercession.
“It is your right to feel that way,” he said evenly.“I say again, you must do as you wish.”
In the face of such acceptance she weakened.“I will try to brush along with him when we have to meet, Nicholas.I will try.”With that she escaped to dress for dinner before she melted entirely.
How was she to behave with such a man, who could bend her so easily into bedazzled delight and then go off to dally with another?It was impossible.She could only do her best and hope in the end he chose wife over mistress.
Later, in Madame Augustine’s other dress—a deep blue lace over a pale lilac slip—she considered the box of jewelry she had been given.Because the dress was rather fine for a bachelor party, she chose only simple accessories.Jenny clasped a silver collar with an ivory cameo set in the front around her neck, and a plain silver bangle around her wrist.Surveying herself in the mirror, Eleanor knew she had never looked finer, but she still felt overdressed, and said so to Nicholas when he came into her dressing room.
“Not a bit of it,” he replied.“You will need all your dignity to keep such an unruly mob in line.And anyway, I want them to see you at your best and envy me my good fortune.”
It was the laughter in his eyes that robbed this absurd flattery of offense.While discounting it, it still raised Eleanor’s spirits and he continued such lighthearted flirtation as they descended the stairs.
As a consequence Eleanor felt lively and confident as they greeted their guests, six handsome and fashionable young men ranging in rank from Miles Cavanagh, a simple Irish gentleman, to Lucien de Vaux, Marquess of Arden.Despite the presence of high nobility, the atmosphere was more reminiscent of the young men’s Harrow days.
The six young bucks certainly appeared to admire her and vied with each other in showering her with compliments until she felt quite overwhelmed.She looked around and saw Nicholas watching her with a proud smile that swelled her heart.She held out her hand to him in appeal, and he came to claim it with a kiss.
“What have these rogues been saying that you must summon a mere husband to your side?”
“Oh,” she said with a blush, “nothing…”
“Indeed.”He looked round at his friends severely.“I felt sure you could do better than that.Eleanor, I see you were appealing to me to rescue you from boredom.”
The men all laughed and would have set out to prove his words wrong, but he led the talk into other channels and Eleanor could be comfortable again.
She saw how he was accepted as leader, even though none of these men was a nonentity.The marquess, for example, though pleasant, was coated with the arrogance one would expect of the handsome heir to a dukedom.She had already heard of Sir Stephen Ball, who was making a reputation for himself in Parliament.What had brought these men together?
When dinner was announced, Nicholas led her to the dining room and seated her at the head of the table.He took the seat at the other end and she rather wished he were closer.On her right hand, however, she had Lord Middlethorpe, who had the soulful beauty of a poet and exquisite manners.She could not be afraid of him.On her left, she had no less a person than the glittering marquess.She should be awed, she supposed.A few weeks ago she would have laughed to think she would sit beside the heir to a dukedom, but he was so roguishly charming that she could only enjoy the occasion.
