Vanessa nodded. She hadn’t even considered that as an option. Men scarcely ever noticed her, so she never thought about that. Perhaps that was why she’d gotten herself into so much trouble the night before.
They entered the house, and Graeme brought her trunk to the room that she’d slept in last night. “Why don’t you get settled while I go and talk to my family. Let them know you’re here.”
“What about our bargain?” she asked. “You answer my questions, and I give you that annulment?”
He smiled. “We’ll negotiate that later.”
Graeme stepped out of Vanessa’s bedchamber and went in search of his family. He didn’t have to journey far, as his mother had magically appeared in the parlor.
“Were you spying on me?” he asked.
“Aye,” his mother said with a grin. “So I see you found the girl.”
“Indeed. She had not yet left for London.” He decided that there was no reason to tell his mother about Vanessa’s interaction with Niall.
“So have you made a decision?” she asked.
“About what?” Graeme had no interest in discussing this matter with this mother.
“About staying married to the lass,” his mother said impatiently.
“We will get an annulment,” he said. “And then I will promptly send her back to London. But she needs somewhere to stay until the legal matters are resolved.”
“It shouldn’t take too long,” his mother said.
“I hope not.”
Later that night, Vanessa remembered the words she’d overheard through the door. She sat upright in bed, and the coverlet fell around her. Graeme had told his mother that they would get the annulment. He’d already made the decision, without her, not that she disagreed. She didn’t want to be married any more than he did.
But it was what he’d said after that, about how he’d send her back to London. She refused to return to London just yet. Therefore, she could not allow him to dissolve this marriage, at least not now.
Allowing the annulment would mean returning to London without accomplishing her goals. And who knew what awaited her back at home? Had Jeremy and Violet gotten married instead? Were they all relieved that finally the one family member who had never truly belonged had simply disappeared? Of course, she had left them a note, not very detailed, but something that let them know she was leaving.
She needed to stay married to Graeme long enough to get herself into those caves and to find the fossils she needed to prove her theories.
But how could she ensure that Graeme did not seek out the annulment? She supposed she could simply ask him. She was normally forthright with people. But hadn’t her mother always told her that there were better ways to deal with a man? You had to be crafty. Clever. And hadn’t being straightforward with Graeme only made him evasive? The man had yet to give her a detailed answer.
“A man will give you anything if you wait for the right time to ask for it.” That’s what her mother had always said.
Select the perfect time.
But what made a man not want to leave?
She closed her eyes to mentally search her thoughts for ideas. An image of Jeremy and Violet flashed through her mind. They’d been writhing on the floor of the study, both completely nude, glistening with sweat from the nearby fire. It had taken both of them several minutes to even notice that she’d entered the room.
She’d stood there like a damned fool watching them copulate, her face flaming with humiliation. Even now, she could feel the heat settle in her cheeks. Jeremy had claimed to not believe in love. He’d said he agreed with her that it was based on nothing more than a bodily reaction and more akin to lust than anything.
She herself had never felt even a twinge of lust, even when she and Jeremy had kissed. It had been a scientific experiment. They’d both been utterly unmoved—proof that their life together would never be so distracting that they’d forget their heads and their work. It had been perfect. But Violet—passionate, beautiful Violet—had ruined it.
That was it. Passion.
Men were defenseless against passion. And were she to ruin herself by consummating their marriage, Graeme could not send her away. She’d worry about the long-term repercussions later. Right now, she had a problem, and this was the perfect solution. She had to seduce her husband to keep herself married. That way she could stay here and complete her research. She couldn’t bear to go home and face Jeremy and Violet if she hadn’t at least accomplished something worthwhile with her studies.
It seemed such a simple solution, but she didn’t have the faintest idea of how to seduce anyone. She jumped from the bed and moved about her room searching for something, anything, that would guide her in this quest. She frowned, wishing that she’d paid more attention to her mother when she’d tried to teach Vanessa how to flirt—how to use her womanly wiles, as her mother had called them. At the end of the day, her mother had declared that Vanessa possessed no wiles, womanly or otherwise. Vanessa exhaled, and her hair fluttered above her eyes. What had Violet done to get Jeremy in that position?
Vanessa stopped pacing. They had both been nude. And Violet had rubbed her naked body against Jeremy’s, ran her hands over his torso. Perhaps that was it. Perhaps all that was required to produce passion was a lack of clothing. She glanced at her reflection in the mirror. She must have briefly fallen asleep, as she still wore her brown wool dress, which did absolutely nothing to enhance her figure. That had never been anything she’d taken care with, choosing her clothes for their durability rather than those that made her bosom look the most voluptuous.
She was attractive enough, she supposed, not too round, but not too thin, either. Of course, it mattered not because there was absolutely nothing she could do to enhance her figure right now. She would merely remove her clothing and press herself against him, and perhaps he would take over and do the rest. Then the damage would be done.
