Page 40 of Madcap with a Marquess
She lifted the letters of declines, shaking them as she opened her eyes wide, blinking so dramatically it made her dizzy. “Busy with all of the events you turned down?” She tossed them down on the desk’s surface and picked up Lord Dunmore’s letter. “With your refusal to help the plight of orphaned children?”
He stood stock still in the doorway, his only movement the flare of his nostrils.
“Explain it to me, Rupert. Lord Dunmore’s proposal seems an admirable—anincredible—cause. And his letter…it led me to believe a sense of familiarity. Possibly a friend?”
He stepped into the room and shut the door behind him.
Click.
“It is above your understanding.”
Her mouth dropped open.Pardon me?Something sharp and hot flashed through her. She snapped her mouth shut and smiled sweetly at him. As sweet as the poison coating her tongue.
She lifted her fingers to her mouth, fluttered her eyelashes, and tittered. “Please explain it to me then, all-knowing husband. Please enlighten my poor, incapable brain.”
A light flush spread across his cheekbones, and he looked away. “It is complicated. I do not disagree that it is a worthy cause, but circumstances do not allow for my support. There are many charities and foundations in need of support. Long-established, well-known institutions. There is better visibility there, more opportunity, and less risk.”
Her mouth went slack again. “Are you telling me, Rupert, that you are not joining Lord Dunmore because of your image?” she asked incredulously.
He dragged a hand over his face, stretching his eyelids down. He looked a bit deranged. Which he clearly must be if this was the way he thought. If these were the beliefs he held.
“I have discussed at length with Mother. We have determined it best for me to throw my support elsewhere.”
Ah. And now it all made sense.
She took a deep breath and spoke softly, staring hard into his warm brown eyes. “Let me ask you, Rupert. Doyouever determine what is best for you?”
A hollowness gnawed at Franny’s chest. He did whatever dear Mama said. Except when it came to Franny. Neither of them had wanted her, but the contract was inescapable. They were stuck with her and she them.
“Do you even believe any of what you wrote in that speech, Rupert?” she asked in a whisper. “Or are you just being a good boy and doing as Mummy says?”
Anger flashed in his eyes, and he advanced on her. He stopped on the other side of the desk, planting his hand on top, papers crinkling under his palms.
He leaned toward her. “I am my own man,” he growled. “That ismyspeech.Ibelieve those things.”
There was too much vehemence in his tone.Who are you trying to convince, Rupert? Me? Or yourself?
He gritted his teeth. “It is like you deliberately refuse to understand, Franny. While you run around like a reckless child, heedless of propriety, blind to consequence, the rest of us were forced to grow-up—and grow-up young. Some of us don’t have the luxury of your selfish indulgence. I have responsibilities, a duty, one I was bred to fulfill. Not all of us can behave as if the world exists solely for our amusement.”
She nearly laughed, even as each word added to the leaden weight in her stomach. If only he knew.Amusement?That had never been in the vocabulary of her childhood. She shook her head and stood.
“Parliamentary Perty doth protest too much, methinks.”
His fist slammed on the desk, and she jumped. Her gaze clashed with his, his pupils swallowing his irises. “This would all be so much simpler if you could just be an obedient wife. Understand your place. Instead, you wreak havoc at every turn. Running naked on the estate. Rifling through my desk. I don’t know if I can even take you out in public without risking embarrassment.”
The breath solidified in her lungs. Choking. His words fisted inside her and tore her lungs right out. Her mind flew back to a different study. A different black gaze.
This would all have been so much simpler if you had just died along with your whore of a mother.
She stiffened, steel-coated armor falling into place as she stepped around the desk, hardening and wrapping around her as she walked up to him. He turned to face her, and she stopped mere inches from him.
“The only embarrassment in this room,” she said, her voice a whisper of disgust, “is you.”
She spun on her heel and strode from the study, slamming the door behind her.
21
Rupert
