Page 28 of Brutal Serpent

Inside, Rosewood Manor was surprisingly lovely and well-maintained. I hadn’t even realized I had been expecting cold and utilitarian, but the downstairs was full of spacious, airy rooms with fresh-cut flowers.

I felt a flicker of hope for the first time since I had gotten married as I went up the wide staircase with the housekeeper Mrs. Jeremiah and was shown into my rooms.

My room had a big four-poster bed with a delicate rose bedspread and rose sprigged wallpaper. The window was open and a sweet-smelling breeze blew in.

“Why does it look like this?” I asked suspiciously.

Mrs. Jeremiah, unlike my dour new maid Rebekah, was a cherubic-looking woman with a crown of soft white hair.

I could not picture my husband picking out bedspreads.

“The Viscount gave us a good deal of money to keep up the manor house and lands,” Mrs. Jeremiah said.

“I was forced into this marriage,” was all I could reply, my exhaustion making me feel helpless and blunt. “He doesn’t really love me.”

“Wereyou dear?” said Mrs. Jeremiah. “Look at this view, though.”

She waved a hand over at the window, which showed us a perfect view of lovely green hills of Somerset crowded with yellow and white daisies and little dappled streams. “Simply lovely.”

“Where are my husband’s chambers?” I asked sullenly, trying to act as if I was only mildly interested.

Apparently the amount of money St. Erth had laid out for renovations trumped any other considerations for the housekeeper.

“Oh, only across the way, my lady,” Mrs. Jeremiah said, indicating the other end of the hallway. I breathed a sigh of relief that he was not next door.

When St. Erth did not appear immediately at dinner, I was even more hopeful. Perhaps he would be so busy with estate management that I only saw him rarely.

But then he strode into the great dining hall. I noticed he had changed from his traveling clothes into a plum-colored jacket and pantaloons.

“Why do you insist on eating together?” I burst out, when the servants had left for the next course. “We could easily eat at different times.”

St. Erth frowned at me, and I felt a shiver of fear go down my spine. “As my wife you are to be available to me forwhateverI desire,” he said. “And I desire to eat dinner with you.”

CHAPTER 15

St. Erth

Ihad very little interest in what the servants had done with the money I had sent ahead for the house, but it was a bit amusing to see Catherine’s eyes widen at the beautiful confines of her prison.

Because that’s what Rosewood Manor is for her.

The Wendovers had done such a shit job maintaining the land and house that it was an act of revenge to hear the grumbling from the village about how the Wendovers had wrung every bit of money they could from the land and left it dried and barren, then put my own money into it.

Just another way no one will mourn Lord Philip when he dies.

I led Catherine into the drawing room. It looked out onto the lawn, now dark and shadowed with night.

“Play something for me,” I ordered, sitting down on one of the couches.

She looked startled. “Why?”

“Because I told you to,” I said, leaning back and stretching my legs in front of me.

My pose was lazy, but I wanted to see if Catherine would obey.

She glanced over at me. There was only a touch of pink on her cheeks that indicated she had tramped miles in the muck and dirt this afternoon.

For a moment she hesitated, looking at me.

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