Page 84 of To Pleasure a Prince
“Don’t play dumb, Regina, it doesn’t suit you.” He whirled away from her with a curse. “That’s what this is really about, isn’t it? The gown, your anxiousness, your desire to have your cousin live with us…Clearly, the thought of being alone with me, being intimate with me, appalls you.”
“I didn’t say that!” she cried, alarmed by the bitterness pouring out of him.
“You didn’t have to.”
Lord, she’d really stumbled into it now. “Please, what does the inscription say?” she ventured, hoping he’d just tell her. “I couldn’t make out the words.”
He snorted.
“Just tell me what it says,” she whispered.
A muscle worked in his jaw. “You’d like hearing me say the words, wouldn’t you? You could gloat over me, then.” He scrubbed at his chin with his hand, then groaned as if missing his beard. “How do you always manage to make me forget? You lull me into letting my guard down with your sweetness, then your true nature rears its ugly head—”
“Whattrue nature?” Sweet heaven, what did he mean?
“That you’re La Belle Dame Sans Merci, that you live to humiliate men for desiring you. Well, don’t worry, madam, I won’t inflict myself on you tonight.”
He turned toward the door, but she grabbed his arm to stay him.
“Tell me what it says, drat you!” Tears welled in her eyes. “Please tell me.”
Her panic seemed to reach him, because he pinned her with an exasperated look. “Stop this pretense. I know you read it. I made sure they didn’t use one of those silly furbelow fonts that—”
“I didn’t read it,” she interrupted. “I didn’t.”
“Then read it now.”
“I can’t.” The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them.
“Of course you can.” He took her by the arm as if to lead her back to the harp. “Here, just look at it again.”
“I can’t read it!” She wrenched her arm free. “Drat it, Marcus, I can’t read anything!” She collapsed on the bed in a fit of sobs. “I can’tread…I can’t read.”
Marcus just stood there, unable to assimilate her words. What did she mean, she couldn’t read? Of course she could read. She was a duke’s daughter, for God’s sake, not some poor scullery maid. He’d seen her read things.
Hadn’t he?
Come to think of it, she’d refused to read that note from Louisa. And she’d always seemed to hate his obsession with books. What had Foxmoor said?I’ve never even seen her crack a book open.
But she’d signed her name to the marriage license this very day.
His throat tightened. Yes, she’d signed it with an illegible scrawl. Not at all the ladylike penmanship he would have expected. And when he’d teased her about it, she had swiftly changed the subject.
“I meant…to tell you before…” she choked out between heart-wrenching sobs. “I should have…I’msosorry—”
“Nothing to be sorry about,” he said, belatedly hurrying to reassure her, though his mind still reeled. Taking a seat next to her, he gathered her in his arms. “Hush, dearling,” he murmured, clasping her head to his chest. “Don’t go on so.”
Her tears tore at him. He’d never seen her cry, and to think he’d brought her to this with his stupid fit of temper—
“You’re such a great reader,” she whispered, lifting her tear-stained face. “I’ve been living in mortal terror of when you found out. Cicely usually reads for me, but with her in London—”
“Oh, God,” he groaned, clutching her tightly as so many things fell into place. Why she wanted Cicely to live with them. Why she liked parties better than books. Why she’d refused to sing with him at the soiree. Because she reallyhadn’tknown the song. And she couldn’t read it.
Guilt cut through him at the thought of how he’d humiliated her publicly for not singing with him.
“I wanted to tell you before,” she whispered into his waistcoat, “but I was too mortified. Then after I was compromised, I was afraid you would refuse to marry me. And now—” Her sobs subsided, but the gaze she lifted to his face was still achingly teary. “Please don’t annul the marriage. I couldn’t bear the shame. I’ll do whatever you wish…I’ll stay in the country always…I’ll…I’ll—”
“Shh, dearling.” He brushed a kiss to her lips to stay her begging. It drove a stake through his heart. Every nasty comment and unthinking accusation he’d ever made about her came back to torment him. “I’m not annulling our marriage, for this or anything else.”
