Page 83 of Passions of a Wicked Earl
Her husband was furious. Thank the Lord he’d not gotten into fisticuffs with Stephen although she was fairly certain that he desperately wanted to. But Stephen, perhaps knowing his brother’s temper, had managed this time to quickly sidestep.
“Morgan, I can explain this,” Stephen said.
“Of course you can.”
“It wasn’t supposed to be her.”
Westcliffe merely laughed and grabbed her arm in a punishing hold. “Let’s go.”
He began dragging her—
“Do not handle her roughly,” Stephen ordered, emerging from the darkest shadows.
“She is my wife, and I’ll do with her what I bloody well want to!”
“Westcliffe—” she began.
“Don’t talk, for God’s sake, don’t talk.”
“Morgan—”
“No, Stephen,” she commanded, holding up her free hand. “It’ll be all right. He won’t hurt me.”
But neither would he release his hold as he pulled her from the conservatory. She nearly tripped, but his grip was so strong that he held her up.
“I don’t blame you for being angry,” she said.
“I wouldn’t care if you did. We’re going home.”
“You’re not going through the ballroom in this fit of temper, are you?”
“No, we’ll go around to the front.”
“What about Beth?”
“Damnation!” He staggered to a stop, waited a heartbeat, then continued on. “I’ll deliver you to the carriage and go retrieve her.”
“You must let me explain.”
“Later.”
She knew he was too lost in fury to truly hear what she had to say, so she merely allowed him to escort her to the carriage.
Claire watched as he strode back and forth in her bedchamber, grabbing armfuls of her clothes and stuffing them in the trunk, a duty normally reserved for a servant, but she assumed he thought a servant would take too long and too much care with her things.
“I want you out of this house and on your way back to Lyons Place tonight,” he said.
“What about my Season?” Beth asked, standing horrified in the doorway, at the sight of Westcliffe.
“It’s over,” he declared.
“But a month still remains.”
Westcliffe slammed a drawer.
“You are a tyrant!” Beth yelled.
He swung around and faced her. “And you are a spoiled miss who, like your sister, is not content with one man’s devotion but must have more!”
