Page 2 of The Seductive Love of a Lady
He did like her. She was sure of that at least.
She smiled. ‘Goodbye. Enjoy your evening too.’
He bowed his head.
She settled into the seat beside Kate. Then the carriage door shut. Andrew raised a hand as the carriage pulled away.
Mary rested back against the squabs, still looking through the window, unable to look at her family. The infancy of her marriage was nothing like theirs. It felt as if she were playing a game of husband and wife. She had stepped back into the life of her childhood this morning, when she walked back to John’s town mansion to collect some books and sewing to keep her occupied if Andrew was not in his rooms, and now again, she was with her family, going to a musical evening, without her husband.
‘Why is he not coming?’ John asked.
‘It is not Andrew’s sort of entertainment.’ This morning, she told them he was in a business meeting. If he continued to choose not to face her family, she would spend her marriage weaving a whole web of white lies to prevent them disliking him any more than they already did. She wanted her parents to think she was happy. If they were angry with Andrew, it would only make everything worse.
‘What is his preferred entertainment?’ her father asked.
He had not told her.
Kate’s fingers touched her hand. ‘It was good of him to walk you out. I am sure in future he may be persuaded to join us.’
‘I hope not. I do not want him anywhere near you, Katherine,’ John said.
‘He is Mary’s husband,’ Kate answered.
‘Kate is right, John,’ Mary’s mother agreed. ‘We must make the best of this now for Mary’s sake.’
‘But I cannot stand him either,’ her father responded.
Mary looked at them all. ‘Please, do not argue… and must you keep glaring so horribly at him? I was silly to let him persuade me, but I am married to him now and?—’
‘And you love him,’ Kate finished for her, squeezing her hand. ‘Otherwise, you would not have chosen to elope with him. You should remember that, John.’
‘I do not blame you, Mary,’ John leaned forward and touched her hand.
Her father sat in the far corner. ‘You love him… even knowing he lied to you.’
‘I cannot choose to love or not, Papa. I cannot simply stop the emotions, and he is not all bad. He still says he loves me too.’
John made a disparaging sound.
‘You may tell him, I will give him a chance to prove himself worthy of you,’ her father said. ‘But as I told him yesterday, if hedoes one thing to harm you…’ He left the threat hanging in the air.
What else had her father said to Andrew yesterday? Had he been making threats and accusations when the two of them went to buy the special licence for their marriage? Was that why Andrew stormed off when she took her father’s side? Was that the reason he had been so angry with her?
When he had apologised this morning, Andrew said he was angry with John and her father and taken it out on her.
2
At half past the hour of ten in the evening, Drew sauntered into the Everetts’ drawing room. Conveniently it was the supper hour.
Mary’s absence had tugged at him all evening, like the pull of a magnet. He wanted to be near her, no matter that he would have to endure the presence of her brother and father. He had decided to brave it for the benefit of his beautiful wife’s company. Of course, London’s high society, the ton, would observe the bruise on his chin and his flourishing black eye; but it would be Pembroke and Marlow who bore the embarrassment of that. A quarter of the room had seen it yesterday anyway, when he drove Mary from Pembroke’s town mansion to his bachelor apartment in The Albany. So, everyone in the room probably already knew about their marriage and his bruises and had probably assumed her family were unhappy with the match.
He had brought his friends with him, to shield him somewhat from society’s attention. They were easily persuaded when he advised them that Mary’s friend, Miss Smithfield, would be present. The lady that Drew’s best friend, Lord Peter Brooke, had in mind for a wife. They walked into the house in their usualpack, like wolves. But once inside he separated from them. They headed towards the buffet. He searched for Mary.
‘Drew.’ A hand touched his arm.
He turned. ‘Caro. How are you?’ He always had time for his younger sister. ‘Is something wrong?’
Her lips lifted into a warm smile as he studied her face, checking. There were no bruises beneath her powder today. Her palm rested against the bruised side of his face. ‘What have you been up to? I hear you married Miss Marlow.’
