Christine Merrill - A Yuletide Invitation - The Mistletoe Wager / The Harlot's Daughter

‘Then tell him you do not wish more presents,’ Rosalind suggested.

‘I have tried, and he ignores me. Any attempt to express displeasure results in more jewellery, and I am sick to death of it.’ She began to crush the ornament she had made, then thought better of it, placing it on the tree and starting another. ‘Do you wish to know of the final argument that made our marriage unbearable?’

‘Very much so. For I am still not sure that I understand what bothers you.’ Rosalind glanced at the tree. Without thinking, Elise had decorated a good portion of the front, and was moving around to the back. Since the Christmas tree situation was well in hand, Rosalind sat down on the couch and took another bite from of the biscuit in her hand.

‘Harry had been in London for several days on business, and I was reading the morning papers. And there, plain as day on the front page, was the news that the investments he had gone to look after were in a bad way. He stood to lose a large sum of money. Apparently the situation had been brewing for some time. But he had told me nothing of the problems, which were quite severe.’

‘Perhaps you were mistaken, Elise. For if he did not speak of them, they could not have been too bad.’

The tall blonde became so agitated that she crumpled the straw in her hand and threw it to the floor. ‘I was in no way confused about the facts of the matter. They referred to him by name, Rosalind, on the front page of The Times.’

That did look bad. ‘Surely you do not hold Harry responsible for a bad decision?’

‘I would never do such. I am his wife, or wish that I could be. Mine is the breast on which he should lay his head when in need of comfort. But when he returned home, do you know what he said to me when I asked him about his trip?’

‘I have not a clue.’

‘He said it was fine, Rosalind. Fine!’ Elise repeated the last word as though it were some unspeakable curse. ‘And then he smiled at me as though nothing unusual had happened.’

She paced the room, as though reliving the moment.

‘So I went to get the paper, and showed him his name. And he said, “Oh, that.” He looked guilty, but still he said, “It is nothing that you need to worry about. It will not affect your comfort in any way.” As if he thought that was the only thing I cared about. And then he patted me on the hand, as though I were a child, and said that to prove all was well he would buy me another necklace.’

She sagged onto the settee beside Rosalind and stared at the straws littering the floor. ‘How difficult would it have been for him to at least admit that there was a problem in his life, so that I did not have to read of it in the papers?’

‘He probably thought that you were not interested,’ Rosalind offered reasonably. ‘Or perhaps there was nothing you could do to help him.’

‘If I thought it would help I would give him the contents of my jewel case. He could sell them to make back his investment. They mean nothing to me if all is not well. And if that did no good, then I would help him by providing my love and support,’ Elise said sadly. ‘But apparently he does not need it. And if he thinks to keep secret from me something so large that half of London knows it, then what else is he hiding from me?’

‘It is quite possible that there is nothing at all,’ Rosalind assured her, knowing that she might be wrong. For she had often found Harry closed-mouthed about things that pained him greatly. It was quite possible that Elise’s suspicions were well grounded. She wished she could slap her foolish brother for causing his wife to worry, when he could have solved so many problems by telling her the whole truth.

‘And when I told him, in pique, that I quite preferred Nicholas to him, for he at least had the sense to know that I was capable of reading a newspaper, Harry smiled and told me that I was probably right. For Nick had finally come into his inheritance. And at that moment, he had the deeper pockets. But Harry said he could still afford to buy me earrings to go with the new necklace if I wished them. So I left him and went to London. And he bought me a whole new wardrobe.’ The last words came out in a sob, and she stared at Rosalind, her eyes red and watery. ‘Is that the behaviour of a sane man?’

Rosalind had to admit it was not. It made no sense to open his purse when a few simple words of apology would have brought his wife running home. ‘He was trying to get on your good side, Elise. He has always been slow to speak of his troubles, and even slower to admit fault. It is just his way.’

‘Then his way has succeeded in driving me away from him. Perhaps that was what he was trying to do all along.

He certainly made no effort to keep me. I said to him that perhaps I was more suited to Nicholas, and that our marriage had been a mistake from the start.’

‘And what did he say to that?’

‘That he had found our marriage most satisfactory, but that there was little he could do to control how I felt in the matter.’

‘There. See? He was happy enough,’ said Rosalind. She picked up the ornament from the floor and offered it back to Elise, thinking that the metaphor of grasping straws was an apt one if this was all the ammunition she could find to defend her idiot brother.

Elise sniffed and tossed the straw into the fire, then took a sheet of paper and absently snipped and folded until it became a star. ‘He said it was satisfactory . That is hardly praise, Rosalind. And the way he smiled as he said it. It was almost as if he was daring me to disagree.’

‘Or he could have been smiling because he was happy.’

‘Or not. He always smiles, Rosalind. It means nothing to me any more.’

‘He does not smile nearly so much as he used to, Elise. Not when you are not here to see. Harry feels your absence, and he is putting on a brave front for you. I am sure of it.’ There was truth in that, at least.

‘Then he has but to ask me to return to him and I shall,’ she said. ‘Or I shall consider it,’ she amended, trying to appear stubborn as she busied herself with the basket of ornaments, putting the little candles into their holders.

But it was obvious that, despite initial appearances, Elise would come running back to Harry in an instant, if given any hope at all. And Harry was longing for a way to get her back.

Rosalind considered. While neither wished to be the first to make an overture, it might take only the slightest push from a third party to make the reconciliation happen.

And so she began to plan.

HARRY watched Tremaine retreating to the library. Merry Christmas, indeed. Apparently the miserable pest had seen through the trap and was trying to wriggle out of it, like the worm he was. But his hasty departure would solve nothing, and his forestalling of the bet would anger Elise to the point that there was no telling what she might do. If she got it into her head that she was being rejected by both the men in her life, she might never recover from the hurt of it.

Thank the Lord for fortuitous weather and stuck wagons. It would buy him enough time to sort things again, before they got too far out of hand. And if it gave him an opportunity to deal out some of the misery that Tremaine deserved? All the better.

‘Harry.’ Rosalind came bustling out of the drawing room and stopped her brother before he could escape. ‘What is really going on here?’

‘Going on?’ He made sure his face showed nothing but innocence, along with a sense of injury that she should accuse him of anything. ‘Nothing at all, Rosalind. I only wished to entertain some members of my set for the holiday, and I thought …’

His little sister set her hands upon her hips and stared at him in disgust. ‘Your wife is here with another man. And you do not seem the least bit surprised. As a matter of fact you welcomed her new lover as though he were an honoured guest.’