Page 7 of The Pleasures of Passion
He thrust those words from his mind. “She’s not like that. She only cares about being with me.”
“Are you sure? She’s lived her entire life with dwindling expectations, thanks to her idiot father. Suddenly, you come along and the world opens up for her. Until you fight a duel, and everything changes. So now she says she can’t go with you because of her sickly mother. Has she said anything to that effect before?”
Fighting to ignore his father’s logic, he gazed out at the river. “We’ve barely talked of marriage before. And yes, she has spoken of her mother’s illness in the past.” But she’d never hinted that she couldn’t marry because of it.
Worry crossed Father’s face. “Don’t be a fool, son. The last thing you need as you head off to an uncertain future is to be saddled with a wife who’s unhappy about your exile. She did you a favor, don’t you see? Now you can start life over abroad without such a burden. You might do very well for yourself, if you just keep your wits about you.”
His temper flared. “And if I have Miss Payne at my side. I need her.”
“Pretty girls are thick upon the ground, in Spain as well as here. No reason you have to marrythisone.”
“I love her. That’s reason enough. And I’m sure that she will come to meet me once her mother is . . . gone.”
“I hope you’re right. I hate to see—” He steadied his shoulders. “If it’s her you want for a wife, then it’s her you shall have. Just don’t be disappointed if she proves to be . . . not what you think, all right?”
“That won’t happen.” Niall seized his father’s arm. “So you will help her if she asks for it? You owe me that much.”
A pained smile crossed his father’s face. “Yes, I suppose I do.”
“Do you swear it?” Niall persisted. His father put great store in vows.
Father sighed. “I do. But only if you swear tomethat you will stop worrying about it and concentrate on your escape. You’re not free yet, you know.”
That reminder of his tricky situation sobered him. It would do none of them any good if he were captured and taken to court. “I swear,” Niall said.
Though he wasn’t sure that particular vow was one he could keep. Father could caution him all he liked, but Bree had imprinted herself upon his heart. Niall could no more stop worrying about her than he could stop breathing.
So it was going to be a long, hard trip to Spain.
One
London
September 1830
Impatiently, Niall paced the drawing room of the Margrave town house, waiting for his mother to be ready so they could go to dinner at Clarissa’s. This was his first time in town since his pardon and subsequent return to England a month ago, but some things never changed.
Mother still didn’t know the meaning of being on time. And she was worse than ever now that Father was dead and Clarissa had married one of his childhood friends—Edwin Barlow, the Earl of Blakeborough. There was no one around any longer to reel Mother in.
His newly hired valet entered the room. “Begging your pardon, my lord, but when I was unpacking the trunk you shipped from Portugal, I found this envelope at the bottom.” He held it out. “I wasn’t sure if it was important.”
As Niall took it and saw the script written in his father’s hand, he wondered why he would have kept an old letter with his other correspondence. Only after he opened it and a newspaper cutting fell into his hand did he remember.
A few months after his arrival in Spain, Father had sent him the article fromLa Belle Assemblée, a ladies’ magazine. It was the Provincial News section—a list of births, deaths, and marriages outside London.
And Niall remembered its contents word for word:
Cheshire
Married. At Chester, Mr. Reynold Trevor, son of Captain Mace Trevor, to Miss Brilliana Payne, of London, only daughter of Sir Oswald and Mariah Payne.
Father’s accompanying letter had only said,I thought you would wish to know.
Bree had married within scant months after Niall’s departure.
Niall felt the pain of the loss of her anew, the years having barely dulled it. Clearly Father had been right—Bree had merely been waiting for a better offer. Mr. Trevor might not have been heir to an earl, but he’d been wealthy enough to own an estate in good condition, and his father had some standing in society. Apparently those two things had sufficed to prompt Bree to throw Niall over.
If she’d ever even loved him at all.
