His jaw hardened. “Adele, please. Give me a chance to explain.”
“Whatever has happened, we will see the marriage annulled. If he has forced you or importuned you in any fashion, I will bring the law down upon him,” her father interrupted.
“Trust me, Adele,” Dom entreated, repeating those three words.
“You cannot trust him,” Father snapped. “He is a liar and a thief and a murderer. You have no notion of the trouble you have just caused for yourself. For us all. I knew allowing you to attend that house party without your mother’s careful guidance was a mistake. And then, for your sister to abandon you there with those wretched people. Those cursed Winters.”
He said the surname as if it were an epithet.
“You cannot annul the marriage,” Dom said then, his tone firm and angry. “Lady Adele is carrying my child.”
Her father paled. “You cannot be certain of such a state already. I will have her examined by my physician.”
“You will do no such thing,” roared Dom, his tone lethal as he stalked toward her father. “She is my wife.”
“Dom, please.” Adele went after him, seizing his arm, staying him when he would have approached her father.
She had no wish for her father and her husband to come to fisticuffs or worse. Dom Winter was a strong, virile man. Her father could not possibly defend himself.
He looked at her, fury evident in every line of his handsome countenance. “I will not allow him to have you defiled by some physician. You are my wife. There will be no annulment. You have a choice to make, Adele. Will it be me, or will it be your father?”
Adele searched his stare, hearing anew the anguish in his voice when he had spoken yesterday.If anything should happen to you or the babe…
He cared for her, for their child. She knew he did. And whatever his reason for keeping this a secret from her, there was no denying the way she felt for him.
Dom’s gaze remained fierce upon her, searing. He awaited her answer.
“She will choose what is right and proper, of course,” her father intervened. “Lady Adele is the daughter of a duke. Although this regrettable marriage of yours will mean she is soiled goods, I can find someone to wed her. A baron or a country squire. Anyone would be better than a mongrel like you. Come now, Adele. Step away from Winter.”
“No,” she managed.
Because she could not choose anyone else over him. He was her husband, the father of her child.
The man she loved.
“No?” her father spat, as if he could not believe his ears.
“No,” she repeated firmly. The wallflower had found her voice. She was making her decision. She entwined her arm through Dominic’s. “I am married to Mr. Winter, and you must accept it.”
Her husband’s hand closed over hers. “I will see that everything is sent to you concerning the property.”
“There will be no sale of the property without an annulment.” Her father’s voice was frigid.
“If there is no sale without an annulment, I will be forced to call in all Lord Sundenbury’s debts.”
Adele stiffened at the mention of her brother.
Her father did as well. “You lowborn bastard. I will see you ruined if you try anything so despicable.”
Her husband inclined his head. “I think you will be selling me the land, Linross. You have two days.”
He sketched an ironic bow, and Adele forced herself to curtsy. She was still feeling numb as he propelled her from the room, leaving her father stewing behind them.
* * *
They were scarcely settled in the carriage when his wife spoke.
“You told me that if I married you, you would forgive my brother his debts,” she accused.
