They could continue, except for the absence of one important component. His wife was nowhere to be found.
She glared in to the pantry. How did the house run on such a meagre store of food? A bit of cheese and bread was all she wanted, but she’d expected to find more. The snack she was taking seemed hardly fit for the mice she’d startled when she came into the room.
Such stale bread. And such dry cheese. It was as unpalatable as the lunch and the supper. She imagined writing a plea to her family.
Dear Cici and Father,
I have come to Devon and married a duke. And I’m
more tired and hungry than I have ever been in my life.
Please let me come home.
‘What the devil are you doing in the kitchen?’
And why must everything you say to me be shouted? she wondered, rubbing her temples.
The duke was standing in the doorway, his arms folded in front of him. His words rolled over her in a torrent. ‘I came to your room, expecting to find you waiting, and had to chase through the whole of the house before I found you. And here, of all places. Did you expect to sleep next to the fire, like the kitchen cat? Was I to call the servants to locate you? Wouldn’t that be rich? To have the household know that his Grace has had a wife for less than a day and already misplaced her.’
‘Because it is all about you, isn’t it?’ she snapped. ‘And about what people think. That is why you had to marry me. That is the only reason I’m still here and I expect you’ll have cause to mention it whenever I make a mistake for the rest of my life.’
‘If you wish to stay in this house, then, yes, it is all about my wishes. And if I say that what people think is important, then you’d better believe it and act accordingly.’
‘But that’s just it,’ she retorted. ‘I don’t wish to stay in this house. What reason would I have to stay here?’
‘Many would think that a great house and a duke is reason enough,’ he growled.
And the rage and confusion broke in her and poured out. ‘Then many people have not met you. If they had, they might change their opinion. For I swear that I have never been so miserable in my life. Sir, you are foul tempered and foul mouthed.’ She sniffed the air. ‘And drunk. You do nothing but storm at me, but expect me to wait meekly in my bed for your arrival. You were eager enough to kiss me at the altar and yet show no hurry to come to my bed on our wedding night. I sat there for hours, and finally was too starved to wait longer and came to the kitchen for some food.’ She gestured around her. ‘And, lo, you keep none here. What a surprise that things should be managed more like the poorest hovel than the greatest of houses. Are you a miser as well as a bully, that the meals in this house should be so poor and the rooms so cold and filthy?’
He looked, she thought, like a dog that had been slapped across the muzzle in the moment of stunned realisation before he must choose attack or retreat. And she felt the world shift under her as she understood what she had done. The Duke of Haughleigh was unlikely to turn tail and run.
‘If you feel that way, madam—’ and his voice was ice and not fire ‘—then perhaps I should pack you off back to London.’
And she realised that she’d gone too far. She’d failed her father. She’d failed Cici. She’d enraged the duke. And she had nowhere to go. The room spun around her.
‘Damn.’ He saw her begin to crumple and lunged to catch her before her body hit the floor. Who would have thought, after such an admirable rage, that she would turn out to be a fainter? Then he pulled her body close and knew the answer. The poor thing was skin and bones. She hadn’t been exaggerating when she’d claimed that she was cold and tired and hungry. She was merely stating the truth of the abysmal hospitality he’d shown her.
He scooped a hand behind her knees and lifted her in his arms, surprised that, despite her height, she was so light a burden.
She roused and struck feebly at his chest, murmuring, ‘Put me down.’
‘And let you fall to the ground in a heap? Certainly not.’ He negotiated the stairs and made his way towards their rooms.
When she realised the direction, she struggled against him, but he held her tighter.
‘No. Please.’ And he felt the tremor rush through her body as they crossed the threshold to her room.
He looked in amazement at the top of her head, trying to see down into the rat’s nest that this woman must call brains, and suspected he understood. ‘Madam, fear not. Necrophilia is not among my many vices. I do not mean to drag you unconscious to bed and force myself on your lifeless body.’ He dropped her down on to the bed, and she curled up in to a ball, hands screwed in to fists and pressed to her face.
He looked down at her in the firelight, surprised at what he saw. She was amazingly thin, and the flames cast shadows in the deep hollows under her eyes and cheekbones. The nightrail was not the delicate trousseau he expected to find, but rough cotton, darned many times and a little too short for her.
He pulled her hands away from her face and looked down at them, rubbing his thumbs gently along the palms. They were rough with calluses and showed fresh blisters and the healing cuts and scars of someone who knew what it meant to work for a living. He let go and she hid them, looking at him in horror, and waiting for his response.
‘I will send Polly to your room with some nourishment. In the future, do not be afraid to ask for what you want, whether it be an extra log for the fire or an extra meal. I go to my room now, and expect nothing of you but that you rest and gain strength before making any decisions. Goodnight, Miranda.’
He closed the door softly behind him. What a strange bird she was. And willing to fly full into the teeth of a storm and beat her wings against it. He had a foul temper and a foul mouth, did he?
He smiled, then sat at his desk. She had his measure after only a day. And the sight of her in a towering rage against him had been quite—he stirred in his chair—arousing. Not the delicate flower he’d been afraid to touch. Or the calculating seductress meaning to trap him. This one had fire in the blood and didn’t give a damn for him or his title. And if anger and passion were intertwined? Then perhaps it was time and more for this marriage.
Of course, he’d need to undo some of the damage he’d done in the last day, if he hoped for her to come to him willingly. He needed to be cautious. It was thinking such as that that had led him into the disaster of his first marriage. With Bethany, it had been the sweet temper and dazzling looks that allowed her to wrap him so thoroughly in her web before sucking the hope out of him. This one could do it through sheer force of will, seducing him with passion, rendering him weak with a desire to please her.
He needed to know where she came from, before dropping upon him unsuspecting. Why she was roughened from work. What wrong his mother had done to her.
He thought for a moment and drew up a course of action, taking paper and pen from his writing desk. Dearest Miranda.
He crumpled the paper and threw it into the fire. How should he start a letter to a wife who was a complete stranger to him?
Miranda,
Somewhat cool, perhaps, but accurate.
I think it best, after last night, that we proceed with caution on this journey set before us. Your perceptions are accurate. I would not have chosen you, had the situation not been forced upon me by honour, just as you would not have sought me out, based on my behaviour of the last two days.
But that does not mean that our union is impossible. Sometimes it strengthens a marriage to see the worst and find the sweetness of happiness later. Thus I’ve decided to visit London for a few weeks and leave you alone to become accustomed to your surroundings. The house is yours; do with it as you please. The staff, also,