Pride had driven her back to the original terms of the contract. She was here on sufferance, merely to provide a means to an end. That Raith could countermand her request to the servants proved he did not consider her as the mistress of his home. Her interference was unwanted.
As for that other matter, she must assume his lordship’s requirement for an heir was to be put aside indefinitely. That one attempt, which she had bungled disastrously, was to be the end of it. If only he had warned her of his coming. She would not have been shocked into remembering. She would have prepared herself to receive his caresses. So different from the foul-breathed fumblings of her guardian. Oh, the fever of Raith’s kiss! How could she know that it would flame thus in her most secret depths?
The loss when he left her had been intense. More so than the alarming sensations he had aroused, for the instant he let her go, a tempest of longing erupted within her. If only he had kissed her once more, she would have responded quite differently. But he had instead taken hurt, and his withdrawal was complete.
They met only at dinner, and once at breakfast. Rosina had tried to reach him, but his barrier was of ice. He was polite, treating each overture with courteous attention, which did not extend to looking at her beyond an occasional glance of cool detachment. Rosina wanted often to hit him. Anything to break through that aloof isolation. She missed his irrational outbursts, even his cynically bitter remarks.
Rosina had abandoned her efforts to thaw him out. She had hoped Sunday would keep him at home, thinking that a whole day together must break down his reserve. But he had instead driven out, and Kirkham told her he had gone to spend the day with his maternal relations. Disheartened, Rosina feigned sickness, refusing to appear at dinner last night, and requesting a tray to her bedchamber. Joan attended her, and she had indeed felt so low that her poor appetite lent colour to the fabrication.
A half-formed hope her absence might rouse her husband to enquiry was found to be vain. He neither sent to her, nor ventured, as Rosina secretly dared to envisage, to enter her bedchamber to find out how she did.
This morning, driven by loneliness, Rosina had written to Gatty. Her old nurse would be anxious, and she had promised to let her know as soon as she could that all was well. She could hardly do that. But since Toly Aughton would be reading the letter, Rosina was obliged to write in coded phrasing, trusting Gatty would read between the lines. She mentioned cagily that her lord had an unfortunate scar on his cheek about which he was a trifle sensitive, knowing her nurse would instantly realise this was the deficiency over which they’d had such earnest cogitation. She said that a degree of understanding might have been set up but for this circumstance, and she wished it might not prove a barrier to an achievement one day of the sort of happiness that had attended the marriage of her dear mama and papa. Gatty would know from this that her feelings had become involved, and that her path was strewn with difficulties.
Rosina was glad it was outside of her power to explain the extent to which she had allowed herself to warm towards her lord, for she did not know the answer to that herself. She knew only that she had started out with the intention of living a separated existence in a cold marriage meant only for her protection. Instead, she was beset by yearnings she barely understood, and remembered glimpses of a ravaged creature whose distresses played upon her heartstrings. She could not conceal from herself that Raith had engaged her sympathies.
She ended her letter with an oblique reference to the state of the house and grounds, adding that she was glad at least to be the means of enabling his lordship to make much-needed improvements.
The reminder of the ills Raith had intimated were due to the activities of his half-brother caused her to wonder again about the ash-strewn lawns at the front. Rosina sealed her letter, wrote the direction to the Brinklow Receiving Office and laid it aside, intending to ask her husband for a frank. She sent Joan to fetch her a shawl, and, donning it over her blue kerseymere gown, came outside.
She had been strolling for about fifteen minutes, puzzling over the state of the grounds, when the sound of horses reached her from behind. Turning, she perceived a phaeton turning in at the main gates. It contained one gentleman, heavily coated against the cold, and a liveried groom. A trifle of apprehension stirred in her breast. It was the first visitor she had seen since she had arrived. How was she to greet him? She watched the approach of the vehicle down the long central drive, and realised as it came closer that the gentleman driving was none other than Raith’s lawyer.
She moved back towards the house, experiencing a rise of delighted anticipation at the prospect of seeing a friendly face, and one she knew at that.
“Lady Raith!” called Mr Ottery in a tone that gladdened her heart.
In a moment, he had handed the reins to his groom, and jumped down, doffing his hat. Rosina felt her proffered hand taken in a strong clasp, and found the well-remembered kindness in his face as he smiled down at her.
“How do you do, ma’am? I am very glad to see you again. How do you go on?”
“Mr Ottery! Oh, you cannot imagine how nice this is. I am safe enough, I thank you.”
“Safe!” His gaze was questioning. “I hope so indeed.”
Rosina felt a blush leap up. “I d-did not m-mean to say that. I am very well, I assure you.”
“I am glad to hear it, ma’am. You are settling in, I hope?”
“Settling? In some sort, yes.” What was she saying? In an attempt to gloss over this ticklish subject, she hurried into speech again. “You have come to see my husband, I dare say. He is out riding. He does so every day. Indeed, I never see him but at meals.”
She thought she detected concern in his face, but he said nothing untoward. “Ah, yes. I know his lordship to be extremely occupied about the estates. It is often the case, when first a gentleman takes possession of an inheritance.”
“I know nothing about it, Mr Ottery. The bargain is being carried out, in most respects.”
He looked as if he might probe the matter, but just then the sound of hoofbeats, travelling fast, interrupted them. From between the trees on the other side of the house, Raith came cantering through on to the drive. He saw the lawyer and reined in to a trot, riding up to where Ottery and Rosina stood. He touched his hat to his wife.
“Ma’am, your very obedient.” Then he turned to the lawyer, and smiled, holding down his hand. “A thousand welcomes, my friend. Do you bring glad tidings? Do not tell me your cursed legal complexities are any longer to keep me from my purposes.”
“By no means, my lord,” responded the other, laughing. “I am come with papers a-plenty for your signature, but no quibbles, I assure you.”
“Excellent!”
The marked difference in his greeting of his lawyer, to that which he had extended to herself, worked powerfully upon Rosina’s feelings. He was insufferable! How dared he treat her so? After all his protestations, his tender mouthings, thus cruelly to shut her out. She could not think how she had accepted it for so many days. What, was she to be thus slighted by the man who had shown her so violent a passion? He was not indifferent to her, as it would seem he would have her believe. Why should she endure it?
Vaguely she heard Raith advising his lawyer to send his equipage round to the stables. “I will meet you in the library, Ottery.”
He rode off towards the rear of the house, and she waited in a state of quivering indignation while Mr Ottery instructed his groom. She had no intention of betraying herself, but only to say that she expected to see him later in the day. But the lawyer most unfortunately said quite the wrong thing.
“My dear Lady Raith, forgive my interference, but I know his lordship of old. His mask is a shield. He will lower it in time.”
Tears stung her eyelids. “Oh, it was not always up so stiffly, Mr Ottery. Only I am lumped among those evil crones with whom he had past dealings, with no opportunity to redeem myself.” She caught herself up. “I should not have said as much. Forget it, pray.”
He took her hand. “Don’t mind me, ma’am.” She thought he was going to say more, but he evidently checked himself. He pressed her hand instead. “Take courage!”
Releasing her, he went off, heading for the front door. Rosina bit her lip, blinking away the threat of weeping.
