He opened his mouth and then shut it. Clearly he expected something different when he came in here—perhaps for me to be rumpled and freshly fucked or perhaps for me to be absent altogether. But, as always, he’d underestimated my intelligence.
To be fair, I’d underestimated his capacity for ruthless cunning. It shamed me to think of all those years I’d justified Hugh’s inclusion into our circle, despite Silas and Julian’s obvious distrust of him. I’d found Hugh to be charming and handsome and exactly the kind of lover I felt the most comfortable with—passive and easygoing, with lots of grace in the ballroom and lots of stamina in the bedroom. But since our engagement had become official a few weeks ago, Hugh had become possessive, punitive, avaricious—at least, I assumed it was avarice that drove his latest series of actions, which consisted of contracts and enforced morality clauses that would strip me of my company the moment I was anything less than the perfectly loyal wife.
Many women wouldn’t have thought twice about that. Of course, wives were expected to be faithful models of decorum, of course, no respectable English wife would ever dabble in infidelity. But my friends and I lived by different standards, and a part of me had always assumed that Hugh would accept that the business-like nature of our marriage necessitated leeway along the traditional boundaries. I never considered that someone I counted a friend would reveal himself to be so conservative, so frankly misanthropic about what I’d thought were shared understandings about sensuality and desire.
I’d been mistaken. And now I was about to enter into a loveless marriage without even the personal freedoms I thought every enlightened woman was entitled to. I suppressed the flash of anger I had at this thought; I’d made my decision and I’d also made my goodbye to the one man I’d regret leaving behind. I had no choice in this matter if I wanted to see O’Flaherty Shipping remain alive.
I set down my newspaper, but I didn’t rise to my feet to go to him, nor did I invite him to sit. The contract outlined the mechanics of my duties—it said nothing about the attitude with which I carried them out. I could be polite, I could even endure our marriage bed when the time came, but he would get no more from me than that.
Hugh finally spoke, his voice strained when he did, as if he was still trying to accept that his energy and anger had been for nothing. “I heard at the club this morning that someone saw your carriage going back to the Baron’s. And I thought…”
I wasn’t going to lie. Hugh had tainted my behaviors enough. “I went back to the Baron’s last night, but only for a couple hours. And if it’s my chastity you’re concerned with, don’t be. I didn’t have intercourse with a man.” I hoped the bitterness in my tone covered over the specificity of my words. Because I indeed had refrained from intercourse with a man, but Viola had fucked me with her fingers, right before Silas had come all over my face. Again, I’d been faithful to the letter of my marriage contract, if not to the spirit of it.
As I predicted, Hugh only focused on the bitterness, dropping into the chair across from me, his face pained. And for a moment, I saw the young man I’d befriended several years ago, affable and out of his depth with any matter more serious than a fox hunt.
“I just want our marriage to be a success, Molly.” He reached for my hand, and I reluctantly let him take it. “For both our sakes. I want you to be happy, to have everything you want.”
That was demonstrably not true, but a small part of me wanted to believe it was. To believe that maybe I still had a chance for happiness—or at the least, the independence to run my company—despite everything that had happened.
“My lawyers and I will be finalizing the contract to
day,” I said, pulling my hand away and changing the subject. “And the preparations for our engagement party this week are nearly complete.”
“And our wedding?” he asked eagerly. “The sooner we set a date, darling, the sooner we can move on with our lives.”
And the sooner my life will end.
“As we discussed, the end of this month.”
“And a honeymoon?” He gave me a look that was unmistakably tender. “I’m ready for us to start a family, Molly. Our family.”
I stared at him. As astute as I could be at reading people, Hugh still remained a murky figure in my mind. He seemed genuinely earnest to marry me, to possess my body and heart as his and his alone, at the same time that he seemed eager to lay legal claim to my money and my business. I could only conclude that it was a mixture of both things—that he was doing this because he carried some sort of misguided affection for me and a very real desire for my holdings.
And then I remembered Silas last night, his impassioned speech on the ballroom floor, the incandescent passion that burned between us in bed, with Viola as our tinder. Heat flared deep in my stomach at the same time pain squeezed my heart.
“Whatever you wish, Hugh,” I said, suddenly ready to be by myself. “And if you’ll excuse me, I need to prepare for my lawyers. You can expect the contract very soon.”
He felt his dismissal and, thankfully, accepted it without argument. He stood and kissed my hand. “I want to see you soon, Molly,” he said in a low voice. “Please don’t avoid me now—I don’t want you to interpret our contract to mean that I want to conduct our engagement entirely within the bounds of propriety…”
He clearly thought he was being charming here, and I felt the kindling of a white-hot anger behind my eyes. He thinks I’ll still fuck him of my own free will? After trapping me with my own company? No, I wouldn’t submit to that humiliation until it was absolutely unavoidable.
Dangerously close to saying something I’d regret, I stood as well, taking my hand back and moving toward the door with him trailing behind me. I resisted the urge to ball my fists or stomp my feet, despite the sudden rage, and instead I cleared my throat and spoke calmly, “Perhaps it’s easier if we do things the traditional way. After all, I now need to legally protect myself against aspersions against my character, and I’m worried that premarital liaisons between us may complicate that.”
His mouth pressed together in a thin line, the effect of which made him look ten years older and strangely familiar…
“You can’t argue with this,” I continued. “This is your own contract, your demands, that you’ve brought to me. I’m only trying to abide by them.”
I saw him struggle with this information, searching for counter-arguments and finding none. After all, he could hardly threaten me for daring to be chaste. At least before our marriage. Afterwards, I would have no choice but to submit, but until then, my body would remain my own.
Hugh gave me a curt bow and donned his hat. “In that case, I will wish you a good day and the best of luck with your lawyers.”
I shut the door behind him with a sigh of relief. And then I calmly walked back to the table, where I just as calmly took my teacup off the table and hurled it against the wall.
“Everything is more or less in order, Miss O’Flaherty,” my attorney said. “We only wanted to clarify a few more things before we arranged for your signatures.”
We sat in my office, myself and three of my lawyers, piles of onionskin paper stacked between us. I set down the pen I’d just taken up with a sigh. “What is it?” I asked.
They glanced at each other. Aaron Caldwell, my lead attorney, seemed to be the one silently nominated to explain. He looked down at the papers as we spoke, shuffling through a few of them. “We took the liberty of investigating Mr. Calvert’s holdings. Which is very standard, of course, in such a union as yours, where both parties are bringing considerable wealth to the marriage.”
