Amanda Scott - [Dangerous 02] (30 page)

Rockland looked more uncomfortable than ever. Gabriel glanced curiously from one player to another. Elizabeth remained placidly in her seat.

Charley turned, intending to speak reasonably to Sir Antony, to explain that she had every right to know what Rockland had nearly said. However, one look at his stern expression, instead of steadying her, swept away what little control she had left. Before she knew it was happening, her temper ignited. “How dare you command me to be silent,” she cried. “I won’t be ordered about by you or by anyone else for the amusement of others. It is my life you have arranged between you, and by heaven, I have every right to know how it was done and by whom. By God, sir, I will—”

“You won’t,” Sir Antony said. His icy, implacable tone cut right through her diatribe and silenced her. For the few moments before he spoke, she had forgotten Elizabeth’s presence, and Gabriel’s. She remembered them now, flicking a glance at each before meeting her husband’s relentless gaze again. He said in that same chilling tone, “We will excuse you, Charlotte. Our guests can see that you are unwell.”

“Oh, yes,” Elizabeth murmured with obvious concern. “Perhaps you would like me to go upstairs with you, Cousin Charlotte. I am rarely vaporish myself, but—”

“That won’t be necessary,” Sir Antony said, “though you are kind to offer.”

Charley seethed. She had overstepped the bounds, she knew. But, believing herself to have been strongly provoked, she stood her ground, glaring at Sir Antony.

“Perhaps,” he said gently, “you would like me to take you up, my dear.”

Her determination collapsed in an instant, and she fled, certain that she heard Rockland chuckle before she slammed the door behind her. She went no farther than the stair landing, where she paced impatiently, wishing the others would hurry up and leave.

In the drawing room, Rockland’s amusement had overcome him. “By Jove, I’d have paid good money to see that. What a shrew!”

“You are speaking of my wife, sir,” Antony said evenly.

Rockland sobered at once. “I beg your pardon, I’m sure. It’s just that seeing you squash her tantrum so easily when she was practically hurling lightning bolts—”

“I saw no lightning bolts,” Antony said. “I heard a lady express her displeasure, as any lady has the right to do. If you heard aught else, my dear Rockland, I suggest that you inform
me
of it before you inform anyone else, for if I were to hear—”

“You won’t,” Rockland assured him hastily. “No tantrum, no lightning bolts. It shall be just as you say, Foxearth, and no more. Ain’t that right, Gabriel?”

“To be sure,” Gabriel said, looking from one man to the other in bewilderment. “I do not pretend to understand much of what happened after Lady Foxearth explained the difference between the City of London and London proper. Fascinating, that was. I do hope she will not be too much indisposed.”

“I will gladly extend your felicitations to her,” Antony said.

Elizabeth stood then and arranged her skirt, saying matter-of-factly, “It is time we returned to Tuscombe Park, my lord. Mama will grow fretful if we are away too long. Will you walk out with us, Mr. Gabriel?”

“With pleasure, my dear Miss Tarrant,” he responded instantly. “How well that carriage dress becomes you, ma’am. I protest, I have never seen a gown of just that shade of gray before.”

“Gray is gray,” Rockland muttered. “Not that she don’t look dashed well in that rig.” He glanced uncertainly at Antony. “Do you walk out with us?”

“I think not,” Antony said, ringing for the footman to show them out.

“I say,” Rockland said awkwardly, pushing a hand through his hair, “I hope you don’t think I meant any—”

“I think nothing at all,” Antony said blandly. “That is my greatest virtue, Rockland. I never judge by words, you see, only by actions.”

Rockland looked confused, but he said valiantly, “I don’t envy you the next thirty minutes, Foxearth, and that’s the truth plain and simple.”

“Therein lies another difference between us, my dear chap. I look forward to the next thirty minutes very much.”

When they had gone, Antony remained right where he was. He did not think he would have to wait long.

C
HARLEY WAITED ONLY UNTIL
the front door had closed before she swept back down to the gallery level, flung open the drawing-room doors, and stormed in. “How dare you send me away like that?” she demanded as one door banged back against the wall.

“It is more ladylike to allow the footman to open doors for you,” Sir Antony said. “That also prevents doorknobs from crashing into the wainscoting and making holes in it. Please shut the doors properly now.”

She kicked them shut. Then, grabbing the first thing that came to hand, which fortunately for him was a pillow from the nearest sofa, she threw it at him, shouting, “By heaven, Antony, don’t trifle with me. Did you or did you not know before that sham wedding that Rockland had arranged for me to marry you instead of himself?”

“I did. Now it is my turn to ask a question. Did I or did I not warn you never to throw things at me again?”

“I didn’t
throw
the damned oatmeal. I’ll show you throwing.” She snatched up a book from a nearby table and hurled it at him.

He did not duck, but the book sailed harmlessly past him. “Don’t swear at me,” he said. “I don’t like it. I am perfectly willing to discuss this if you can do so in a civil manner.” He added in quite a different tone when she picked up a six-inch-high marble figure of Poseidon from the same table, “Don’t you dare throw that statue.”

She threw it as hard as she could.

Catching it easily, Antony stepped toward her.

Charley leapt hastily back, putting the sofa between them. “Don’t come near me,” she snapped. “I’ve every right to know the truth, for you tricked me, the pair of you, and most likely you’ve been laughing up your sleeves at me ever since.”

“I am not laughing now.”

Out of sheer bravado she caught up the silver-framed miniature of a bewigged Seacourt ancestor and held it poised to fling.

“Put that down.”

With every fiber of her body she wished she had the nerve to throw it, but she did not. She was horrified, in fact, at having thrown anything at him. Not since she was four and had flung a mug of milk at her nurse in a fit of temper had she thrown anything at anyone. Nurse had put away the mug, wiped up the spilled milk, and told her she would get no more that day. She did not know why she had thrown things at Antony. She had a notion that if he had never warned her against such tactics, she would not have employed them. His warning had seemed like a challenge instead.

Setting Poseidon on a table, he said, “Put down that picture and come here.”

“No.” The last thing she wanted was to step within his reach. Remembering his earlier warning and the threat that accompanied it, she felt her sphincter muscle contract. She wondered if Antony ever made idle threats. She suspected that he did not.

“Put it down. Now.”

She obeyed this time, watching him warily, paying no heed when the miniature tumbled over onto its face.

“Now you may come here to me.”

“I don’t want to.”

“Nevertheless, you will.”

She swallowed hard but remained where she was. You and Rockland had no right to trick me.”

“No, we didn’t. It was a scurrilous thing to do. Now, come here.”

“You admit it?”

“Of course, I admit it. It’s plain fact.”

“Then why did you agree to do it?”

“At the time, because it seemed expedient.”

“Expedient!
You and Rockland cooked this scheme up between you out of expediency?” She was shaking now.

He said calmly, “We did not cook it up together, as you so inelegantly phrase it. He had the notion before he went to Truro, but I didn’t know what he’d done till he returned. He told me he believes the notion was reinforced when we met that day, because you took him to task over something and I persuaded you to desist.”

“Are you saying he decided to marry me off to you right then because he thought you could … could
tame
me?”

“Not at that moment, no. He said the impulse actually to do so came later.”

“He acted out of
impulse?”

“As you did yourself,” he reminded her. “Or do you mean to pretend your decision to marry him was not impulsive?”

“Go on,” she said through gritted teeth.

“By the time Rockland explained all this to me, mind you, he had convinced himself that his actions were downright noble. He said you were making a big mistake to marry him but that he could not cry off because a gentleman cannot ever do so.”

“It is more gentlemanly, I suppose, to trick a lady into marrying someone else.”

“I didn’t say I agreed with him. I’m merely telling you what he said.”

“But, surely, he never said that to the bishop!”

“As a matter of fact, he said the bishop showed him the way.”

“What?”

Sir Antony’s lips twitched but he said only, “You may recall that Rockland mentioned difficulties that arise when a person from outside the parish attempts to acquire a special license. Apparently, Halsey demanded references from Rockland’s home parish before he would issue one. Rockland said it was then that he realized he had not actually said he was speaking for himself.”

“Good mercy, the man is deranged.”

“He would tell you it was not lunacy but Providence. He swore the only reason he told Halsey he was acting for me was that he feared arousing your temper again if he delayed the wedding. He said you were interested only in marrying quickly, that you did not care a whit who the bridegroom was. In truth, angel, you said the same to me.”

“I did not want to marry you, however, and you are no more a member of the parish than Rockland is.”

“Ah, but in my case, that’s debatable, you see, because if I should prove my claim to the earldom I’ll be very much a member. Moreover, Rockland told Halsey that our marriage was being arranged primarily to protect your future. At that point, he said, Halsey apologized for the ‘misunderstanding’ and offered no further objection.”

“And you simply agreed to go along?” Charley’s voice sounded shrill.

“Not at once,” he replied calmly. “Rockland next pointed out that you would have two chances to put an end to the scheme. You could scotch it at once if you happened to know that marriage by proxy is illegal in England.”

“But I didn’t.”

“Well, I thought there was a good chance that you
would
know. You are very well read, after all. When you didn’t, I pressed him to end the charade, but he said it had been a sign, and that you could still end it the minute you heard Halsey say the wrong name. He insisted that if you didn’t know the name was wrong, it would only prove you didn’t know him well enough to be marrying him. That’s when I decided to go along. I agreed, you see, that in marrying him you were making a grave mistake.”

“You should have put an end to the whole thing at the outset.”

“Perhaps, but the whole tale would have come out if I had. I realized that much when you didn’t tumble to the name. I honestly thought he had been wrong about that, but when you did not stop the ceremony, I knew I could not do so either. Not in front of Alfred and Edythe, or the bishop. I thought we could resolve it more quietly afterward. In fact, at one point, I thought you kept silent for that same reason. It was not until Rockland made his announcement that I knew you truly had been fooled.”

Bitterly she said, “I assumed that he had fooled you, too.”

“I know that now, but by then it had occurred to me that marriage to you would relieve some of my more pressing problems. In my determination to convince you not to demand an instant annulment, I overlooked the fact that you had not accused me of being a party to the plot.”

“But I took Rockland to task for tricking you as well as me!”

He shook his head. “You accused him of having dragged me into it. He had done just that, so I assumed then that you knew I was in on the scheme. By the time I realized you didn’t know, I had my hands full trying to figure out a way out that would not create the devil of a scandal for all of us.”

“It never occurred to me that you could be part of such a thing. As for Rockland—”

“He wanted to pay you out for the way you had been treating him,” Antony reminded her. “You had not been very kind to him, you know.”

“I know.” She had treated Rockland shamefully, but the temptation to do so had been overwhelming at times. He never stood up for himself. It was as if she had wanted to find out just how far she could push him. Well, she thought, she had certainly found out. She wondered if she had been doing the same thing with Antony. That thought sent another shiver up her spine. Antony was not Rockland.

“Now will you come here?” His tone was patient, but she knew his patience was limited.

She shifted from foot to foot. “What will you do if I obey you?”

“I’m making no more bargains, angel. You will do as I bid. Come here.”

With a sense of walking to her doom, she moved around the sofa, coming to a halt some four or five feet away from him.

“Not good enough,” Antony said.

She gritted her teeth, wishing she were a man. That thought, coming unbidden as it had, nearly made her smile. She did not want to be a man. She liked being a woman, and at the moment, she did not want to be anything else. Beneath her concern about what he might do lay a teeming mass of unfamiliar emotions and sensations. The way he looked at her made her skin tingle. Nerves she had not known she possessed seemed to sizzle just under her skin. Something else deep within her burned like the molten core of a volcano. It was a wonder, she thought, that he did not see the heat rising from her. She was no longer angry with him, but the emotions that threatened to overwhelm her now were easily as hot and as dangerous as her temper.

She nibbled her lower lip, and as she did, she saw the look in his eyes change. He nearly stepped toward her. She was sure of it. But it was not punishment he had on his mind now. Visibly, he tried to collect himself.

“I’m waiting,” he said. His voice sounded rougher and came from deep in his throat. Letting her gaze drift lower, she saw his arousal.