Page 69 of Deceiving an Earl
His eyes narrowed on her. “Lady Fieldhurst had an affair and lied to her husband, pretending Philip was his. That’s quite a big lie to live with all these years.”
Ellen was struck mute. She had dreaded this moment for more than a decade, and every argument she had devised, every word she had promised she would say in defense of Philip and Arthur, vanished. She had no words, just flustered thoughts that flitted through her brain.
Run. Hit William on the head with the nearby vase. Sink to the floor in a dead faint to keep him from talking.
But she did none of those things. She was embarrassed to discover that she had no backbone, no strength, nothing to save herself.
“Such a stupid fool Armbruster is to be cuckolded all of these years.” He chuckled, and Ellen’s hand whipped out and her palm connected with William’s cheek.
They both stood there, stunned, as the slap reverberated through the room. She’d never hit anyone in all of her life, but her anger was so sharp and real when he’d laughed at Oliver that she hadn’t been able to control herself.
A large red welt the size of her palm slowly darkened on William’s face. His expression went from shocked to furious, and his eyes went flat with anger. He grabbed her wrist in a painful grip that made her cry out, and he yanked her toward him until she bounced against his chest and the air rushed out of her.
“Don’t ever hit me again. Do you understand, Ellen?”
She nodded, thinking she would never be in the same room with him again and therefore would never have the need to slap him.
He leaned toward her until his mouth was near her ear. She tried to pull away, to create distance, because her skin was crawling, but he wouldn’t give quarter, and his grasp was bruising, the bones in her wrist rubbing against each other.
“I won’t tell a soul,” he whispered, causing goose bumps of fear to rise along her arms. “Your secret is safe with me.”
His words did not make her feel better, because she sensed there was more. In the past two days she had seen a side of William that she had never seen before. A dark, terrible side.
He released her wrist and she rubbed it. “That is, as long as you wed me, your secret is safe.”
She looked at him in horror. “No,” she whispered. She could never marry this man. This monster. He had everyone fooled. The queen, his colleagues. Her.
He straightened his cuffs and adjusted them. “Oh, yes. We will wed and Philip’s inheritance, his name, his title, will all be safe. Of course, he will return to Eton next semester and will stay there. I won’t have that insolent bastard darkening my doorstep, but at least he will have everything he thinks is due him. As for Lord Armbruster, you will never speak to him again. He will never be allowed at our home and you will never cross paths with him outside of our home. You will always have a servant of my choosing with you at all times when you leave the house. I can’t risk another…indiscretion…with a former lover.”
He finally looked at her, and there was no life in his eyes. They were dead. No emotion. Nothing. She feared that she was seeing the true William.
He was cutting her off from everything. Everyone she knew. Her own son, even.
But if she didn’t comply. If she didn’t marry him, Philip would lose everything.
“Well? What is your answer, dear? I haven’t all day. People need me, and don’t think I’ll give you time to think about this. Yes or no?”
She swallowed. She so badly wanted to say no, to spit in his face, to slap him again and walk away. But she couldn’t afford to, and he knew it. He had her cornered.
“Why?” she asked instead. “Why me?”
“Because we suit.”
“No, we don’t. I would never willingly marry someone as coldhearted as you.”
A corner of his mouth lifted in a grin. “Then we’re both coldhearted, because it takes a coldhearted bitch to sleep with another man and lie to her husband, letting him believe the whelp is his own child.”
She flinched at the barbed words. He believed that she’d slept with Oliver while married to Arthur. She hadn’t, but was there much difference in what shehaddone?
“Come now, Ellen. Stop prevaricating and give me your answer. I have a cadaver and a roomful of students waiting for me.”
“Y-yes.”
He grinned. “Very good, love. I will place an announcement in the paper. Everyone will know by tomorrow.”
Every word he spoke felt like a death sentence. She was agreeing to life imprisonment. She would constantly be followed, constantly monitored, and she probably would never see Philip again after this summer, not to mention Oliver.
William stepped toward her, and it took all of her willpower not to cower or back away. He grabbed her hair and yanked her head back. She cried out in pain and surprise, but he swallowed her cries with a brutal kiss that ground his teeth against hers, bruising her lips. It was a kiss of power and dominance.
