She was married.To one of the handsomest men in theton.And the kindest.
They were to spend the wedding night in one of Marcus’s friend’s country house just outside Folkestone.
“Why Folkestone?”she’d asked when he told her his plans.“Isn’t Dover the usual place to depart for the Continent?”
“Yes, Dover would make the trip shorter, but my yacht is currently moored at Folkestone, so we’ll cross the English Channel from there.”He’d given her a searching look.“I don’t suppose you know whether you get seasick or not?No, of course not, since you’ve never even seen the sea.”
“Why would that matter?”
“It will make a difference to our destination,” he explained.“If you’re seasick, we’ll take the shortest route to the continent—to Calais—to cut your suffering shorter.Otherwise, we’ll make for Ostend.”
“Ostend?”She’d never heard of it.
“It’s the most direct route to the site of the Battle of Waterloo.I thought you’d want to go there first.And after that, I thought we’d head for Paris, if you wish.”
Tessa was delighted with his thoughtfulness.He’d taken her wish to see where Louis had died seriously.And Paris was ‘if she wished.’And he was concerned that she be as comfortable as possible on the sea journey.She hoped she wouldn’t get seasick.
For a time, the journey passed in silence.Tessa didn’t mind.She was enjoying the scenery.But she knew Marcus was tense; she could feel it.He fidgeted, and crossed and recrossed his long legs, as if uncomfortable.
After a while he said in a heavy voice, “Tessa, I have something to confess to you.”
“Yes?”She gave him an enquiring look.
“We were married—youwere married—on a false premise.”
She frowned.“False premise?”
He nodded.“I didn’t discover it until it was too late to call things off.”
She stiffened.“You wanted to call things off?”
“No, I didn’t.But you probably would have.”
“Why would you think that?”
“Because those rumors about you being my mistress and so on.They were false.”
“I know.”
“Yes, but what you don’t know is that the rumors were started by my aunt.”
Her jaw dropped.“By Lady Gosforth?”
He nodded.“And spread—under her orders—by my cloth-headed idiot friend Barney Wimple.Which he spread by energetically explaining to everyone that the rumors were false.”
“Which they were.”
“Yes, but denying them increased people’s interest and made them all the more certain the rumors must be true.”
“Oh, I see.”
“It was all a plot to ensure you married me.My aunt has long been determined to get me married.”
Tessa thought about that.“But you were taken in by those rumors, too.And if you hadn’t been, you would never have married me.”
“Not at all!”he said firmly.“I wanted to marry you almost from the beginning.The rumor nonsense was, I gather, to makeyouagree to marryme.To protect my reputation.”The carriage wheels jolted and rattled along a rough patch of road.Tessa thought about what he’d told her.
After a time, Marcus added, “I’m sorry.I only learned of it the morning of our wedding.In the church.”
