Deborah Hale - His Compromised Countess

Caroline cast him a look that made it clear she did not believe his excuse any more than he believed she’d been a faithful wife. Did she think he had sent her to such a dirty, deserted old place on purpose? Not that it would harm her to do a bit of honest work and learn how ordinary folk lived. Still, after seven years of marriage, she should know he took his responsibility to provide for her seriously—even when she neglected her duty to be faithful.

‘But why were you scrubbing the floor,’ he persisted, ‘while Albert plays nursemaid?’

‘Because Albert is in no fit condition to do anything else at the moment.’ Caroline told him how the footman had injured his ankle. ‘Parker flatly refused to scrub floors and I didn’t dare press her for fear she might leave on the next boat. She agreed to do the marketing and cooking, both of which take more skill than this.’

By the smells rising from the kitchen, Bennett had grave doubts about Parker’s culinary abilities. ‘Why did you not stay a few more days at the inn and engage some local women to set this place to rights?’

Caroline reached around to rub the small of her back. ‘Most of the money I brought with me was spent on our journey. Since I didn’t know when I might get more, I was obliged to be careful with what I had left. Keeping four people at an inn with meals can add up quickly, you know.’

Under other circumstances, it might have been amusing to hear his wife preach economy. Those inn charges of which she complained would not have equalled the cost of a single gown or an elaborate fan she’d have purchased on a whim last week.

Still, Bennett’s conscience troubled him for ordering Caroline so far away without making certain she had sufficient funds to supply her needs. ‘I am here now and I have brought plenty of money. You can stay at the inn until this place is fit to occupy. Before I leave, I will hire some local folk to serve you.’

If he provided his wife with plenty of servants to cater to her needs, perhaps he might feel less guilty for leaving her here—even if this was by far the best place for her, under the circumstances.

‘How soon do you intend to leave?’ Caroline’s question carried an unspoken plea.

Bennett steeled himself to resist it. ‘Tomorrow. The boat I chartered from Penzance is anchored in the cove. I must get back to Parliament.’

He’d had great hopes for Lord Liverpool after the earl spoke in favour of Abolition at the Congress of Vienna. But lately Liverpool’s ministry seemed more inclined to deprive ordinary citizens of their freedoms than to free the enslaved.

‘I suppose you will be very busy with your work when you return to London?’

‘Of course.’ What in blazes did Caroline care about his work?

‘Then why not let Wyn stay here with me? You will have no time to spend with him, while I will have nothing else to do with mine. Besides, we just arrived last night after a long journey. It cannot be good for the child to make another again so soon.’

She expected him to reward her for going behind his back to spirit his son away? Next the woman would demand a medal for her adulterous affairs! ‘Perhaps you should have thought of that when you dragged the boy away from his nursery under false pretences.’

‘I didn’t think you would come so soon to fetch him back.’ Caroline’s winsome pleading gave way to indignant anger. ‘Why can you not give me a little more time with him if you are determined to part us for ever? Is it because you care more about punishing me and exercising ownership over your heir than you do about a small child’s feelings?’

The charge infuriated Bennett. She made him sound like the most heartless slave master. ‘When did you begin to care about the boy’s feelings or anything else to do with him? I’m certain if this island had a pleasure garden or assembly hall to keep you amused, you’d be only too happy to be rid of him. I will not let you use my son for your plaything, then cast him aside when you grow bored. Motherhood is not a game!’

Carolyn reeled as if he’d boxed her ears. However vigorously she might deny the charge, it was clear his accusation had struck a nerve.

She wasted no time striking back. ‘How dare you question the sincerity of my feelings for Wyn? I have never seen you show him the least sign of affection.’

‘I care for my son!’ Bennett raised his voice to drown out the traitorous whisper of doubt in his thoughts. He knew he loved his son, but did Wyn know it? ‘All his life I have watched over him and made certain he had everything he needed to be safe and well and content. I dropped everything and travelled all this way to fetch him home. Actions like those speak far louder than your lavish, hollow gestures.’

Caroline flinched. ‘If I have been more effusive in showing my affections towards him, it was not for my own amusement, but to make up for your coldness. I know I have not been as constant and attentive a mother as I should. That is why I brought Wyn with me—so I might have an opportunity to make it up to him. Please, let me keep him here a while longer.’

‘Why should I? So you can make him so deeply attached to you that he will be devastated by our divorce?’ Striving to keep the sparks of hostility between them from blazing into something far more dangerous, Bennett encased himself in a crust of frosty disdain that had served him well in the past.

But even that stout armour was not impervious to Caroline’s next strike. ‘Devastated? Was that how you felt when your father divorced your mother?’

How much did she know about his family? Bennett struggled to regain control of his vocal organs. Not all the sordid details, obviously. But her guess about his feelings was far too close to the truth for his liking.

‘Who told you about my parents’ marriage?’ He forced out the words in a headlong rush.

‘What does it matter?’ Caroline countered. ‘Don’t you think I should have heard it from you long before this?’

Talk to her about such an intimate and painful subject? He’d never even considered it, least of all after their marriage had begun to go as disastrously wrong as his parents’. ‘What would have been the point of telling you? It was ancient history and not any business of yours.’

‘I think it is very much my business when you intend to tear Wyn away from me just as you were torn away from your mother when your father divorced her.’

Her words dealt a sharp blow to an old wound that had never healed properly. ‘I was not torn away from my mother! She abandoned me for her paramour, in spite of all her protestations of maternal devotion. So you must excuse me for looking upon yours with a jaundiced eye.’

His revelation clearly struck a blow to Caroline’s hopes. She reeled, as if buffeted by a violent gust of wind that stole her breath away.

Had it been a mistake not to tell her what his mother had done? If nothing else, his shameful family history might have provided a cautionary tale about the consequences of a woman breaking her marriage vows.

Bennett had not intended to utter another word on the subject of his past. But now that the stopper had been pulled from the jug, he found it hard to contain what came pouring out.

Bennett’s mother had deserted her son to run off with another man? A confused cascade of thoughts rushed through Caroline’s mind. Almost as many and conflicting as the emotions that scoured her heart. She found herself torn between sympathy for what her husband must have suffered as a child and indignation that he believed her guilty of repeating his mother’s mistakes.

How could a woman abandon her child and bring such shame upon him? Unhappy as her marriage had been in recent years, she’d never seriously considered taking a lover, let alone running away with one. There was only one man she’d ever loved, one man with whom she’d been happy, however briefly. She had lost his affection, if indeed she’d ever inspired more than physical desire.