Page 54 of A Lady Igniting Wicked Passions
“You missed your calling,” Aaron replied.
Aaron lost a hand and threw down his cards. Ethan lost too, with a shrug and a rueful grin. The winner collected his coins with a smile which he seemed to be fighting.
“Dreadful luck, Your Grace,” he murmured. “Beastly cards.”
“Deal,” Aaron snarled.
Ethan laughed.
“Listen. Before you lose everything in gambling here let me tell you of a far better way of winning the money you need. I have invested in a horse, and he is a racing certainty. There is a meeting this evening at Ascot and he’s in it. He’s a newcomer so the odds are very favourable. I assure you, he cannot lose. Put in with me and I guarantee to at least double your money.”
Aaron looked at his cards and the wagers on the table. The hand was poor, and his mind was not on the game. The man who had won the previous hand was betting high and looked uncomfortable, as though knowing he was about to win again and not liking the dark look on the duke’s face.
Moments later and more of Aaron’s coin was on its way to the man’s purse. Aaron made a disgusted noise in his throat.
“To hell with it! You’re on Bredwardine.”
Ethan clapped his hands together, rubbing them with glee. “Capital, capital! You won’t regret it, Ashenwood.”
“Gentlemen, I would like to say it has been a pleasure, but I would be lying,” Aaron said to the table as he stood, draining a full goblet of wine.
He made his way through the room, with Ethan clapping him on the shoulder and singing the praises of his sure-fire champion. Aaron’s thoughts went to his new wife. They rarely strayed far from her. In particular, her soft, supple skin. Her bold, blue eyes and her perfect body. Ethan was an intrusion into those thoughts.
The entire world was an intrusion into those thoughts. As they left Irons, Aaron was thinking of another intrusion. That of the Eel’s men into his home. The London house was not safe for Arabella. Ethan hailed a cab and Aaron brooded. He should not have left her but the burden of the task before him had been overwhelming.
“I will bring Arabella with us to Ascot. Ashenwood is not far.”
“As you like, old chap,” Ethan said as a cab drew up. “The more the merrier!”
Chapter 32
The journey to Ashenwood was one of mixed feelings for Arabella. She was happy to be seeing Aaron’s ancestral home and to be away from the gossip of London. They had attended no social events since the wedding, but she knew the gossip would be there.
It might be that in Hertfordshire they would outrun that gossip, be able to attend balls and luncheons with neighbours the county set without dark looks or whispers. Not that socializing was all that important to Arabella.
But she felt that as a duchess, she had a reputation to maintain for the sake of her new family and its name. Particularly, in Hertfordshire, the family name would be prominent and with many families relying upon the prosperity of the Blackwoods for their livelihood.
So, the journey was welcome. Aunt Victoria had declared an interest in seeing Ashenwood and Aaron, rather distractedly, had extended an invitation to her and her husband.
“My husband is not with me at the moment, Your Grace,” Victoria had replied. “He is beavering away on the south coast at a series of paintings which are to be exhibited in Bath. There is a dealer who has been most excited about Julian’s work and is even talking of American buyers, if you can credit that.”
Aaron’s replies had been distant but polite, further worrying Arabella, who was becoming consumed by her doubts over Aaron’s commitment to her. Aaron had left the two ladies alone in order to make preparations for the journey, and Victoria took Arabella’s hand and looked into her eyes.
“Fear not, child. I sense he is a good man, and he has a good, strong aura about him. I can sense it. There is something on his mind, but I find that men are broody creatures at the best of times. Prone to making too much of too little. He will be more himself when he is in his element, atop his cattle battlements.”
Arabella had clung to that thought and, sitting in the carriage with Aaron had tried to make conversation. But Aaron, remained brooding, staring out of the window. Arabella followed suit, looking out of her own side of the carriage, her hand on the seat beside her. She bit her lower lip and fought back tears.
It was not like her. She prided herself on her resilience. But, since her marriage it was as though a wall within her had come tumbling down, leaving her exposed and vulnerable.
She wished that if Aaron were unhappy with her, regretting his decision, he would just come out and say it. Even a divorce, scandalous as that would be, could not be worse than this. Her name was already ruined. It could not possibly be damaged any more.
She felt his hand take hers and looked around in surprise. Aaron was looking at her.
“Have I been frightful?” he asked.
“Yes,” Arabella replied, simply.
He nodded sombrely. “I had thought as much. I do not think you and I have ever been so silent in all the time we have known each other.”
