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“To do what? Sit downstairs with your mother while she snipes at me and tells everyone who comes to call that I’m the new baronet’s wife in that disappointed voice she uses? Or is it so that I can make love to you in your study when you’re feeling frustrated? Because those are the only two avenues that seem to be open to me at the moment.”

“It’s not like that.”

She leaned in close, fury pulsing through her. “You do not get to take this away from me. This is who I am, Gavin.”

“You’re also my wife!” he shouted. “Circumstances sometimes change and a husband and wife need to stick by one another.”

“Then why do I feel as though I’m the only one giving things up?” she asked. “My home? My sculpting? What’s next?”

Abruptly, he stood and began pacing the room. “What am I supposed to do, Ina? I can’t hand off the stewardship of Oak Park. It has to be me making these decisions.”

“You say that as though I don’t understand what it is to be saddled with responsibilities I didn’t ask for.” She was on her feet now too, hands planted on her hips and her color rising.

He threw his hands up in the air. “Do you? I tell you that I need to be here to work with Chase to sort this mess out, and all you can think of is how you wish to be back in Edinburgh—as though I don’t want the very same thing. But it’s not possible right now, and you aren’t hearing me.”

The words were like a slap in the face. “Not hearing you? All I’ve done for these past two weeks is hear about your worries that you won’t live up to some ludicrous legacy that your father placed upon your brother. Gavin, you aren’t Richard.”

“Thank you for reminding me of something I’m confronted with every day,” he said, dragging his hand through his hair.

“You think I want you to be Richard?” she asked.

“That’s what everyone’s thinking—you included!” he roared. “Everyone knows it would’ve been far better if he hadn’t died.”

“Of course it would’ve been,” she said. “No one wished for your brother’s death, because no one wants to see a young man perish in an accident that could have been prevented if they hadn’t taken the carriage out on treacherous roads.”

“And yet all I can see when people look at me is how much they wish it was my brother sitting across from them.”

She shook her head in amazement. “You just said he was making poor deals and abandoning schemes that were costing Oak Park dearly.”

“But he was the eldest. The right son. The one my father was proud of.”

“And you’re being an ass.” That brought them both up short, and she shrugged. “I’m sorry, but you are.”

“I don’t think a lady’s ever called me an ass before,” he said.

“I’m learning today that there’s very little about me that’s ladylike.”

“Who said that?” he asked.

“Your mother.”

His expression grew stormy and he made as though to stride out the door.

“Gavin, don’t,” she said, stopping him with a hand on his arm.

“She has no right to speak to you that way.”

“And yet she does.” Ina sighed. “She speaks to everyone that way, Gavin. I’m not excusing it, but I can’t come running up to you tattling on your mother every time she says something sharp to me.”

This time had been far worse, but she wasn’t ready yet to show him how hurt she’d been. Not while in the middle of this fight. It would be too explosive and she risked showing too much of her vulnerability.

“I’m sorry about her, Ina. I have no excuse,” he said.

“Nor should you. She’s the problem.” One of them.

“She needs to move out of the house,” he said with a sigh.

So tell her to move out of the house again, she wanted to shout. Instead she took a deep breath. “I’m sorry your brother and father died—I truly am—but their deaths shouldn’t define our lives.”