There was an astonished pause. “Then why marry?”
Reggie shrugged and gave her a dazzling smile. “It seemed a good idea. For me anyway. I was tired of the constant whirl of parties and such. I much prefer the country life.”
“Which doesn’t explain why Nicholas would marry.”
Reggie raised a brow. “Surely you know why. I wasn’t present myself when Nicholas agreed to marry me, but your sister and mother-in-law were there.”
Miriam frowned. Of course she wouldn’t ask the same question again. Nor would she admit that she didn’t communicate with Eleanor or Rebecca. She was being left to wonder about the marriage, which was just what Reggie had intended.
“We are rather isolated here,” Miriam warned.
Reggie smiled. “That sounds wonderful. My only regret is that I must ask you to select other rooms for yourself.”
Miriam drew herself up stiffly. “I am told you have taken over Nicholas’ rooms.”
“But they won’t do for long, you see. I must have the nursery close at hand.” She patted her belly lovingly.
The Countess appeared ready to choke. “Nonsense. You can’t be expecting. You were married only yesterday, and even if you stopped at some inn after the wedding, you couldn’t possibly know—”
“You are forgetting your son’s reputation, Lady Miriam. Nicholas is an expert seducer. I was quite helpless against his charm. I am now four months along.”
The Countess stared at Reggie’s belly, and Reggie said, “Isn’t it fortunate I am not showing?”
“I don’t see how you can think any of this fortunate in any way,” Miriam said with stiff hauteur. “People can count, you know. It’s shameful that you don’t even blush when you—just shameful.”
“I don’t blush, madame, because I feel no shame,” Reggie replied coldly. “No shame, no guilt. And if my child is born five months after the marriage, well, other babies have been born early. At least I have a husband, even if he won’t be around very much. And my child has a name. Considering your son’s reputation, no one will be surprised that Nicholas could not be held off for the four long months of our engagement.”
“Well, I never!”
“Haven’t you?”
Miriam Eden turned crimson at the innuendo and stalked out of the room. Reggie sighed. Well, she had made her own bed, so to speak. She shouldn’t have alienated the sour old bird, but…Reggie smiled. That last look of outrage on the Countess’ face had been worth whatever unpleasantness she could expect from the woman.
Chapter 22
“PUTTING on a little weight, aren’t you, puss?” Anthony asked as he kissed Reggie’s cheek and then sat down next to her on the lawn. “Must be eating because you’re miserable. And no wonder, living with that cold fish.”
Reggie put down her sketch pad and smiled fondly at her uncle. “If you mean Miriam, she’s not so bad. After our first two rows, we reached an agreement. We simply don’t speak to each other.”
“I suppose that’s one way to get along with someone,” Anthony replied in his driest tone.
Reggie laughed delightedly. “Oh, Tony, I’ve missed you this last month. I really did expect you sooner. Everyone else has been here.”
“You wouldn’t have cared to see me right after I heard what was going on. It has taken me this long to cool off.”
She sighed. “I suppose you wanted to kill him again?”
“Damned right. I tried to find the blackguard but he has disappeared.”
“I could have saved you the trouble of looking,” she told him levelly. “He told me he was leaving England. I guess he meant it.”
Anthony’s temper rose. “We had better talk of something else, puss. Your husband is not my favorite subject. What is that you’re drawing?”
Reggie handed over her sketch pad. “Just a hound chasing falling leaves. He ran off into the woods a few minutes before you arrived. I’ve been getting some good poses of the gardeners, though, and the grooms exercising the horses.” He turned the pages and admired her work. “That’s Sir Tyrwhitt, a neighbor,” she said when he got to her sketch of a middle-aged dandy. “Would you believe he and the Countess—?”
“No!”
“Well, I don’t know for certain, mind you, but she’s like a different person around him, actually girlish, if you can believe that.”
