“I rode to her sister and brother-in-law’s house,” Colin admitted, his voice a moan. “God, it was stupid, I know, but I almost couldn’t help myself. Knowing she was here, a few miles away, Ihadto see her.”
“Why?” Arthur asked, his tone tense and shrill.
Colin shook his head. “She’s my wife.”
“Hardly,” Arthur huffed out. “Need I remind you what she did on your wedding day of all days?”
Colin ground his teeth. “Of course not. I recall everything that happened that horrible day with perfect clarity, I assure you. But damn it, Arthur, it was six months ago. She has stayed in the countryside, just as I demanded, without so much as a peep to defend herself or demand anything. Word from my estate is that she has taken on her role as lady there with great gusto and purpose. The tenants and staff adore her.”
Arthur arched a brow. “I’m sure they do, especially the male ones.”
It was Colin who pushed out of his seat now and took a long step toward his cousin before he realized what he was doing. He stopped, the two men nose to nose, and his lips parted. “I’m…sorry. I should not vent my anger at you,” he whispered. “You have every right to be so harsh considering what she did and how you’ve had to watch me suffer.”
Arthur nodded slowly. “Yes. Your suffering has brought me no pleasure, cousin, I assure you. And I admit, I’m shocked that you would even consider seeing her again. Let her visit her sister and go back where she belongs.”
Colin sighed and walked away from Arthur. He stared out the window, a hand clenched against the glass. “I told her she should come and stay at my home while she is in the city.”
Arthur let out a great gasp and rushed up to Colin, grabbing his arm and spinning him around. “No!”
Colin wasn’t surprised at his cousin’s reaction, though the strength of it certainly set him back a pace. “TheScandal Sheetshall make the entiretontalk endlessly,” he explained, even though the words seemed hollow to him. “My best course of action is to reduce their whispers by making it seem as though IwantJane here. That this is an invitation ofmymaking, rather than a surprise sprung on me by my wayward wife.”
“You and your reputation,” Arthur spit out, his tone far harsher than Colin had thought it would be.
He held up his hands, almost as a defense. “My reputation is all I have, isn’t it? It’s how I manage to influence those in the House of Lords, it’s how I generate respect and initiate change in Society.”
Arthur rolled his eyes and Colin bit his tongue. While he took his duties to country and kingdom, as well as to those with less power than himself, very seriously, he knew Arthur thought him a fool. His cousin had often told him that if he held the title of viscount, he would do things very differently.
Arthur let out a long, put-upon sigh. “Iknowthose things are important to you. But I worry about you in this situation, not whatever causes you have taken up this week. If Jane is coming to stay in your house, that doesn’t mean you should soften your position toward her. Keep your distance, Colin. Don’t get caught in her trap, for I’m certain she will try to seduce you with her wiles.”
Colin tensed at the thought of Jane using her “wiles” against him. A very pleasing thought that was, actually. He often thought of the afternoon after they wed, when he’d stepped into her dressing room and dismissed her servant, and the two of them had passionately consummated their union.
He’d often dreamed of doing that very thing again, despite how angry he was at her.
And the fact was that she was his wife: he could certainly exercise his husbandly rights with her without forgetting what she truly was at her core. Perhaps it was his duty to do so, or so his mother kept reminding him by going on about heirs and Jane and the future.
“I won’t fall into her trap,” he murmured, as much to himself as to respond to Arthur’s words.
His cousin seemed relieved at that statement and clapped him on the shoulder gently. “Excellent.”
But as Arthur retook his seat and Colin did the same, he knew one thing for certain.
He didn’t intend to keep his distance from Jane either.
Chapter Three
Jane stood in the lady’s chamber in her husband’s home less than six hours after he had called on her. She remembered this room well. It was where he’d first made love to her. It was where he’d left her to weep after he coldly dismissed her and told her she would be sent to the country only one day after their wedding.
She stared at the bed and shivered.
This was like returning to the scene of a crime.
She’d done just what he asked of her that morning. Against her sister’s strenuous protests, she’d allowed her things to be placed a cart, put herself in the carriage and ridden “home”. But once there, Colin hadn’t been in residence to greet her. For two hours, she had waited for him, feeling more and more foolish.
She turned away from the bed and found herself looking at the door that led to the adjoining sitting room and through it, to Colin’s bedchamber.Thatroom she’d never been in. She doubted he would want her to look, to snoop around in his things when he could clearly hardly stand her.
“It’s his own fault,” she muttered to herself as she strode through the door, into the sitting room and right up to his chamber entrance. There she hesitated, then steeled herself and pushed the door open.
The room smelled of him. That was the first thing she noticed. Something with a hint of pine and a whiff of masculinity. She shut her eyes and took a deep breath of that smell, then stepped farther into the room and turned in a circle.
