Sylvia Andrew - The Bridegroom's Bargain

She made a move to get up, but he pushed her back against the pillows and held her there, firmly. His face just inches away from hers, he said softly, ‘You might as well listen, my dear. I’ve waited long enough. You’re not leaving this room before we’ve had our talk, even if I have to use force to keep you here.’

‘You can’t do that!’

‘Oh, yes, I can. We are man and wife, Alexandra. Had you forgotten? Short of murder, I can do anything with you. Anything at all. Do you understand? No one would dream of interfering with what I do here in your bedroom.’

Lexi slid down in the bed, her eyes dark with fear. ‘Lady Honoria—’ she began, with a quaver in her voice.

‘Aunt Honoria won’t help you. She’s more likely to recommend a whipping if you’re strong enough.’

Lexi’s eyes grew larger and darker.

‘But you needn’t worry,’ Richard said. ‘I won’t listen to her.’

She swallowed and drew the sheet up higher. ‘Then…then what are you going to do?’

He pushed himself up and away, and stood regarding her for a moment. He said with a touch of bitterness, ‘You surely don’t really believe I’m about to join you in that bed and make love to you, do you?’

‘You…you said we were man and w…wife,’ she said nervously.

‘My dear girl, I don’t regard myself as particularly squeamish, but it would take a stronger stomach than mine to make love to a wife who has just threatened to kill me. What do you think I’m made of?’

Lexi gazed at him sombrely. ‘I don’t know,’ she said eventually. ‘I thought I did, but I was mistaken. For a while I longed for you to make love to me, I couldn’t imagine anything I wanted more, but now I think I would kill myself if you even tried.’

Richard moved away abruptly and went to the window, where he stood, staring out. There was a short silence.

Then Lexi said, ‘If it’s not that, what do you want, Deverell?’

He turned round. ‘We have an agreement. Are you prepared to discuss it with me?’

‘It appears I have no choice.’

He nodded, then turned to the chest of drawers next to him. After a moment’s search he came back with a fresh linen nightgown in his hands, which he put on the bed in front of her. ‘Put this on before we start,’ he said. ‘You must be uncomfortable in that wet nightgown.’

‘No!’

‘Are you not yet strong enough to change your own nightgown?’

‘Of course I’m strong enough! But I’m not going to undress while you’re here!’

‘Shall I remind you? I’m your husband. I have every right to be here. I could take every stitch off you if I chose, and no one could object. Do you wish me to do it?’ His voice was perfectly even. ‘No!’

‘Then do as I say. Oh, if it makes you easier I’ll look out of the window. But I’m not leaving this room, Alexandra.’

She sat up and hastily changed her gown, then lay down again, pulling the sheets up almost over her face. He turned and gave a grim nod when he saw her. ‘I think you’re quite strong enough to sit up. In fact, tomorrow you will get up and start your new life.’

Lexi stiffened. ‘And what is that to be, pray?’

‘That is what I want to discuss, my dear. Sit up like a good girl. If I give you another glass of water, will you throw it at me?’

‘No, I’d like one, please,’ she said sullenly, sitting up. ‘I’m thirsty.’

When she had drunk he took the glass again and sat down in the wing chair. ‘So far, so good,’ he said. ‘Now! We have to decide how we are to manage for the next six months, but I should like to sort one or two things out first.’ He paused and eyed her curiously. ‘Tell me when you first decided that you wanted to kill me. I don’t think you had it in mind when you accepted my offer of marriage.’

‘No,’ she said in a low voice. They were both silent for a moment as they remembered her relief and happiness when he had asked her to marry him. There had been no doubts then. When he had insisted that the wedding should take place as soon as possible she had made no objection. Marriage to Richard had seemed then to be a safe haven in a time of distress.

‘So…when did you…change your mind about me?’

‘Very soon after. I heard two of the servants gossiping, and, though I know I shouldn’t have, I listened.’ She stopped. ‘I almost wish now that I hadn’t… They had seen you and Papa playing cards the evening before he died. Papa had been very angry, they said. He had accused you of ruining him and all his family.’ She turned and looked straight into his eyes. ‘And you haven’t tried to deny it, have you, Deverell?’ she said bitterly. ‘You killed Johnny, and I suppose you might say that you killed my father, too. You took Rawdon from him, and he died the next day.’

‘If you knew how much I regretted that whole business!’ Richard’s voice was constricted. ‘I don’t often make such disastrous mistakes. I wanted to help, I assure you.’

‘Help? How “help”? By taking away everything my father lived for? By leaving him with nothing? You knew how much he loved Rawdon, how proud he was of his name, his inheritance! You knew how much he suffered when Johnny died. You even helped him to trace Mark Rawdon, so that he could invite his heir to live with us, to get to know and love Rawdon as much as he did! And what was left of Rawdon after you had done your worst? What was there to leave to Mark? The house, and a small farm, that was all! How could Rawdon possibly survive on that? My father died of a broken heart! And you are to blame!’

By this time tears were running down Lexi’s cheeks as she stammered out her accusations at him. Richard got out of the chair and held up his hand.

‘Don’t! Don’t, please! You’ll make yourself ill again, and I—’ He stopped for a moment. ‘I don’t like to see you in such a state. We’ll continue this talk another time.’

‘No! We’ll finish it now! I accepted your offer in good faith, Deverell. I wanted to marry you because I thought I loved you. But after I heard about that game I wanted never to see you again.’

‘Why didn’t you ask me about it? I thought you trusted me.’

‘I wanted to. I tried to. But after that day you were never there! You were always closeted with the agents, the lawyers and all the others. I could never get near you!’

‘That’s not good enough, Alexandra. I had a lot of business to get through, which had to be finished before our marriage. But I would have made time for you if you had asked me. Why didn’t you try harder to see me?’

‘Because I thought of something better.’

‘I can guess what it was. You decided not to break our engagement but to marry me after all, and ask for Rawdon as a wedding present. Was that it?’

‘Yes. It was the only way to save Rawdon. I would get you to give the lands back to Mark, and…and my father’s ghost would be happy.’

‘And what about you in all this? Did you see yourself as a martyr to the cause?’ he asked with a touch of bitterness. ‘Was a lifetime in my contaminating presence a price you were prepared to pay?’

‘I…I…Yes! Yes, I was.’

‘And at what point did you decide that you couldn’t face it after all? That killing me was a better solution?’

‘No, no, you’re wrong! It wasn’t my plan to kill you at all at first. I would have lived with you and been as good a wife as I could—’

He got up again. ‘How very noble of you!’ he said sardonically. ‘Did it never occur to you that I might not want such a wife? Did it never cross your mind that I might, just might, have given what I had won back to you, out of friendship, without any strings at all? Did you never ask yourself why I had done such a terrible thing to your father, a man I had looked up to all my life? A friend of mine! Of course not! You never were strong on logic, were you?’