Page 52 of So Wild A Heart

“You care for him, don’t you?” Rachel said, laying her hand on Miranda’s arm. “You didn’t marry him for all this, did you?” She waved her hand in a broad gesture.

Miranda laughed pleasantly. “No. All this can be bought. A husband requires a great deal more than payment. I would not tie myself to someone for life to acquire a house, however grand it is.”

“I knew it!” Rachel looked gleeful. “I am positive that you will make Devin happy.”

“I cannot guarantee that,” Miranda demurred, then added with a glint of a smile, “I will do my best, however.”

Her husband was at that moment making his way through the room, doing his best to appear to be aimlessly chatting with his guests, all the while glancing around for Leona and plotting how best and most unobtrusively to separate her from the others and take her out of the room. Finally he spotted her at the other end of the room, standing close to one of the doors. She was watching him, and when their gazes met, she nodded her head toward the door and slipped out. Devin made a polite excuse to the vicar’s cousin, who had stopped him to congratulate him, and followed Leona.

He wound his way through the crowd and out the same door. There was no sign of Leona, but the staircase just a few steps down the hall led to the back garden, so he followed his hunch that she had taken it. He hurried down the steps and out the back door. Sure enough, there was Leona, waiting for him, an alluring, mischievous smile on her face.

“What the devil do you think you’re doing?” Devin burst out, his eyes flashing. He strode over to her and grabbed her wrist.

“What’s the matter?” Leona asked with a pout. “Aren’t you happy to see me?”

“It is my wedding day!” He glanced around, then pulled her behind one of the overgrown hedges that had grown up all over the yard. “Have you run mad? What are you doing here?”

“Oh, Dev, don’t be angry with me.” She smiled up at him, one hand coming up to his chest in a placating way. “I just wanted to see you.”

When he did not respond with a smile but continued to stare at her in a stony way, Leona took a step back, one eyebrow going up and an angry light flaring in her eyes.

“How else was I supposed to see you except to come here?” she asked bitingly. “You didn’t even come to call on me before you left. You sent me a note!”

“You refused to see me when I came to call, if you will remember,” Devin replied. “I got turned away three times by your butler. It was tiresome.”

“What did you expect after you walked out on me at the opera?” Leona pointed out. “And with Stuart and Geoffrey there to witness it, too! It was humiliating.” She paused, then added, “You used to be more persistent. You know I would have given in eventually.”

“Yes, well, I had to leave for Darkwater, so I didn’t have the time for games. That is why I sent you a note, telling you what I was doing. I never expected you to show up here.”

“What else was I to do? I wanted to see your bride. Besides, I thought you might enjoy a little…diversion after two weeks of being locked up in Darkwater. So I decided to take a few weeks’ rest at Vesey’s estate. It is where we met, you know. Do you remember that?” She moved back to him, smiling in a beckoning way.

To Leona’s surprise, Devin did not soften or smile back. He said only, “Of course I do. But surely you must see how…how wrong it is to come here today. You were flaunting our relationship in everyone’s face.”

“Since when did you and I worry about right and wrong?” She went up on tiptoe and brushed her lips against his. “Come, Devin, don’t be angry. So I gave everyone a little something more to gossip about. We have long done that, haven’t we? And we could…alleviate your boredom, if you’d like.” She slid her hand down his chest and into the waistband of his trousers.

“Bloody hell, Leona!” Devin jerked away. “Are you mad? Our house is full of wedding guests. Anyone could come out here and find us. It’s an insult to my wife for you to even be here.”

Leona’s eyes narrowed. “My, my, aren’t we protective of the little wife all of a sudden. When did you become so provincial?”

“Good Lord, Leona, she is Lady Ravenscar now. I cannot allow her to be insulted in my own home. What did you expect? You are the one who wanted me to marry her, if you’ll remember.”

“I didn’t expect you to suddenly become a doting husband!” Leona lashed back. “I didn’t think you would hare off to Darkwater, leaving me not knowing when you would return. Or that you would stand there smiling like a fool because you were introducing some insipid little colonial as your wife. The idea was for you to marry her, then return to me and our life in London.”

“I know. And that is what I am doing. I married her, and after a decent stay here I will come back to London.” Devin realized even as he said the words that the idea of leaving Miranda and returning to London left him strangely uncomfortable.

“Decent stay?” Leona repeated. “I cannot believe what I am hearing! When did you start worrying about what was decent or acceptable? When did you turn all proper and respectable?”

“Proper? Respectable?” Devin had to chuckle. “Leona, my dear, I think you are being a trifle farfetched. I did not want to get married. It was you who insisted on it. But now that I have done it, I have to go on with it. I couldn’t exactly leave her at the church and hie off to London.”

“Once you would have,” Leona told him.

Devin said nothing. He knew that what Leona said was true. Years ago, even a few months ago, he could not have waited to get away from Darkwater. He would have spent the past two weeks dreaming about Leona and returning to London. The truth was, he had scarcely thought about either one of them; most of his thoughts had been occupied by the supremely irritating Miss Upshaw.

“You told me you hated this girl,” Leona went on.

“She is the most annoying female I have ever met,” he responded candidly, but his words were accompanied by a softening of his expression, and a faint smile played over his lips.

Leona frowned. “Whatever is the matter with you? Don’t tell me you have developed a tendre for that insipid female!”