Page 73 of The Pleasures of Passion
He strode alongside her. “Because he didn’t want you to know. A man has his pride, after all.”
“But it was another month before he went off to London. By then I’d thought the matter settled, since he never mentioned it again.”
“I assure you, it was festering all that time.” When she stared at him, her eyes stark, Niall gentled his voice. “I’m judging from howIwould have reacted.”
They walked to the edge of the orchard in silence. He wanted to take her in his arms, kiss and touch her, and remind her how much he cared about her. But this probably wasn’t the time.
“So,” Niall ventured, “what explanation did he give for his trip to London?”
“He said he needed to take care of estate business and would be back in a couple of days. Instead, he was gone a fortnight.” She fiddled with her pelerine. “When he returned, he was despondent over his loss of three thousand pounds. To pay the debt, he’d had to mortgage the estate to the hilt.”
“He didn’t tell you why he’d lost the money?”
“He only said a man had cheated him at cards.” She let out a shaky breath.
“Hart cheated? That doesn’t sound like . . . Well, I mean hecould, but I wouldn’t expect—”
“You’ll have to ask Warren why. But I think Lord Hartley believed, because of the questions Reynold asked about you, that he was looking for you because he wanted vengeance for Joseph Whiting. There’d already been another of Mr. Whiting’s relatives looking for you, after all.”
“True. And that makes sense. Hart would have protected me at all costs.” He shoved his hands in his pockets. “No doubt your husband was too embarrassed to admit he was seeking the rival for his wife’s affections.”
“Too proud, more like.”
“That, too.” Niall glanced at her. “But what did he hope to accomplish by learning my location?”
“I’m not sure.” She sighed. “All I can think is that he wanted to . . . find you and discover why you’d had my heart and he hadn’t? Or perhaps he meant to call you out. I doubt we’ll ever know. He must have hadsomeplan, but he never revealed it. Not until after Delia and Warren’s wedding, when Lord Hartley admitted what had happened, did I even learn that Reynold had gone there for the express purpose of finding out where you were.”
A pang of guilt seized Niall. Because ofhim, she’d lost her husband and been saddled with a debt-ridden estate. Because ofhim, Silas had lost a father. According to Fulkham, rumor had it that the man had committed suicide.
He wondered if she knew, but he didn’t dare ask—not when she was this upset over what Trevor had done by arranging their marriage without her knowledge. If it were true, then Niall hadthaton his conscience, too. And yet . . .
If not for what her husband had done, she wouldn’t be free again. And it might be selfish of him, but that was all that mattered to him.
Although one thing still disturbed him about her tale. “So, your husband loved you so much that he wagered everything he had to find his rival.”
“If you can call it ‘love.’ ” She wandered into the orchard, walking aimlessly among the apple trees that hung heavy with fruit. “That’s whathecalled it. But . . .” She shook her head. “Do you remember saying, ‘A man pursuing beauty will pay anything to gain it’? That’s how it was with him.”
He followed her into the trees. “He saw you as his Botticelli.” Who wouldn’t? Here in this verdant green, she was a succulent fruit any man would want to devour.
“A Botticelli that he’d realized he didn’t own. All that mattered was that no one else have his Botticelli.”
“I can’t say I blame him. When I heard you’d married him, I wanted to march back here and steal you away.” He gave a shuddering breath. “But then I let myself be swayed by my father’s words about your being interested in me only for my title, and I realized—or thought I realized—that you didn’twantme.”
Her eyes luminous in the shaded orchard, she halted to face him. “Your father said that about me?”
“Why do you think I called you an adventuress? Father was the first to use the term.”
She planted her hands on her hips. “Why, that . . . that . . .liar. He sounded so sympathetic to my concerns. So sincere! Ibelievedhim when he said you truly wouldn’t want me to follow you to Spain. And all the while, he was playing with us both! Toying with us! Lying to us!”
“It appears so, yes.” Niall could no longer cling to the image of his father as a man of honor who would never betray him. To do so would mean that everything she’d said was a lie, which he simply couldn’t accept.
Clearly Father had been so obsessed with protecting Clarissa that he hadn’t cared who else he hurt. Which in itself felt like a betrayal.
Niall lifted his hand to cup her cheek. “We were just too young and foolish to see past my father’s machinations to the truth.”
As he smoothed his fingers over her flawless skin, her breathing grew ragged. “I wouldn’t have listened to him at all . . . if I’d known the truth about why you dueled. He was able to persuade me precisely becauseyoukept that secret.”
Uh-oh.He wasn’t ready to discuss that further, not until he met with Edwin.
