Jane Feather - [V Series] (24 page)

“Yes, before we were married. But he didn’t say who the fortune hunter was, and I didn’t ask. Sweet heaven, why would it concern me?”

“Of all the damnable coincidences,” Sebastian muttered.
“It seems as if Gracemere is entwined in every strand of our lives.”

“I would like to drive a knife between his ribs,” Judith said in a savage undertone, forgetfully dropping her hands so that her horses, momentarily unchecked, plunged forward.

Sebastian watched critically while she brought them under control again. “Do try to restrain yourself,” he said. “I’m sure we can bring this off without resorting to murder. Gracemere deserves a lot worse.”

Judith smiled grimly. “Anyway, I’ve decided on my strategy. I’m going to draw him into a plot to defy Marcus. He thinks I’m a silly widgeon who doesn’t like being dictated to by her husband, and I’m sure he relishes the idea of conducting a flirtation with the wife of the man he’s bested over a woman once before.”

“You’re playing with fire, my girl,” Sebastian observed.

“I’ll be careful,” she stated with quiet confidence, acknowledging the salute of a group of army officers standing beside the driveway. Her daring equipage and its driver were drawing a fair degree of notice, she thought with satisfaction.

Sebastian also noticed the attention. “I’ll lay odds that within a week your phaeton will be all the rage,” he said, amused. “Every woman who fancies herself a competent whip will have to have one.”

“Marcus, of course, won’t give a damn about that,” she meditated.

“Well, I believe your moment for convincing him otherwise has arrived.” Sebastian gestured toward the pathway, where Marcus stood talking with two friends.

“Ah,” Judith said.

P
eter Wellby saw them first. “Damme, Carrington, isn’t that Lady Carrington?”

“She certainly can handle the ribbons,” Francis Tallent observed admiringly. “I don’t believe I’ve seen a lady driving such a carriage. Driving ’em tandem, too.”

Marcus watched as the vehicle approached at a fast trot, Judith very much at home on her precarious perch, her whip at an impeccable angle. Her brother seemed perfectly at his ease beside her, but what the hell did he think he was doing, permitting his sister to behave in such fashion in public? It was the height of vulgarity for a woman to drive a sporting vehicle. But then perhaps the Davenports didn’t realize that, given their unschooled and unlicensed upbringing. Marcus struggled to give them the benefit of the doubt.

“She’s driving Grantham’s bays,” Wellby said. “I had no idea he was selling up.”

“Davenport obviously has an ear to the ground,” Marcus replied casually.

He moved to the edge of the pathway as Judith drew rein. “You move quickly, Sebastian. Half London was waiting to hear Grantham was selling up.”

Sebastian laughed. “Handsome, aren’t they?”

“Very.” He moved to the side of the phaeton and spoke quietly. “I don’t know what you think you’re doing, Judith. Give your brother back his reins and get down from there.”

Brother and sister were smiling at him with a wicked glimmer in their matching eyes.

“They’re not Sebastian’s reins, Marcus; they’re mine. He procured the carriage and horses for me,” Judith said. “I’m taking him for a turn around the park.”

For a moment Marcus was speechless. “Yield your place, Davenport,” he demanded grimly, laying a hand on the step.

“By all means,” Sebastian replied with an obliging smile. He jumped to the ground, laying a hand on his brother-in-law’s arm in passing. Marcus turned to meet his eye. That mischievous glint was still there.

“Best not to go head to head with her,” Sebastian murmured.

“When I want your advice, I’ll ask for it,” his brother-in-law declared in a savage undertone.

Sebastian, not in the least offended, merely inclined his head in acknowledgment.

Marcus swung himself up beside his wife. “Give me the reins.”

“But I’m perfectly able to handle them myself, as you must have seen,” Judith responded with an innocent smile.

“Give them to me.”

Judith shrugged and passed them over, together with the whip. “If you wish to try their paces, be my guest.”

Marcus ground his teeth, but was forced to mask his fury as best he could under the eyes of his friends, who still stood on the path beside the carriageway. He cracked the thong of the whip, and the leader sprang forward.

“It’s unwise to drive a high-couraged pair when one’s in a miff,” Judith remarked in tones of earnest solicitude as Marcus took the phaeton through the park gates. “Don’t you think you shaved the gate a trifle close?”

“Hold your tongue!”

Judith shrugged and sat back, surveying her husband’s handling of the reins with a critical eye. Despite his fury, he was perfectly in control of the bays and she decided her jibe had been unnecessary.

The phaeton turned into Berkeley Square and drew up outside the house. “You’ll have to alight unassisted,” Marcus snapped.

Judith put her head on one side, narrowing her eyes. “If you mean to drive my horses in my absence, it would be only courteous to ask my permission.”

Marcus inhaled sharply, his jaw clenched. He kept his eyes straight ahead and spoke almost without expression. “You will go into the house, go to my book room, and wait for me. I will join you there shortly.”

Judith alighted from the awkward vehicle with creditable grace and mounted the steps to the house.

Marcus waited until she’d been admitted, then drove around to the mews at the back of the house to leave the carriage and horses. He understood that Judith was once again demonstrating to him that she lived by her own rules. But she was his wife, and if she didn’t understand that her disreputable past and unknown lineage made it all the more imperative for her to behave impeccably,
then he was going to have to demonstrate that fact once and for all.

In the hall, Judith paused. She had no intention of obediently going to Marcus’s book room like a naughty schoolgirl.

“Gregson, I have a headache. I’m going to rest in my bedchamber. Would you send Millie to me … and I’d like a glass of Madeira.”

“Yes, my lady.” The butler bowed. “I’ll have it sent up immediately.”

“Thank you.” Judith ran upstairs to her own apartment, where the morning sun poured brilliantly through the long windows, dimming the fire’s glow. She went to the window and stared down at the square, tapping her teeth with a fingernail. She was rather looking forward to the next few minutes. It was high time Marcus learned a few things about the wife he had taken on.

Millie helped her out of her clothes and into a particularly fetching peignoir of jonquil silk, lavishly trimmed with lace. She poured Judith a glass of Madeira and hovered solicitously with a vinegar-soaked cloth and smelling salts for the supposed headache.

“No, I need nothing further, Millie. I’ll rest quietly by the fire; it’ll pass soon.”

After Millie curtsied and left, Judith sat in a low chair in front of the chess board by the fire. Sipping her wine, she began to reconstruct a game she had played with Sebastian several days earlier. The concentration required in remembering the moves cleared her head of emotional turmoil, and kept her from watching the clock as she waited for her husband.

She knew the exact moment when he entered the house. Despite her conviction that he had neither right nor cause for complaint, her heart speeded and she tried to cool her palms, clutching the smooth marble of a pair
of pawns. She heard his step in the passage outside and swiftly bent her head to the board, feigning complete absorption as the door opened behind her.

Marcus was inconveniently struck by how deliciously desirable she looked. The copper ringlets tumbled around her bent head, exposing the slender column of her neck. His eye traveled over her body, clad in the filmy peignoir that gave her an almost insubstantial air. One narrow, bare, white foot peeped from beneath the hem, and he knew with a jolt to his belly that she was naked beneath the delicate garment.

He stood for a second in the open door, waiting for her to acknowledge him. When she didn’t, he closed the door with a snap.

Judith looked up. “Ah, there you are, my lord. How did you find my horses?” She returned her attention to the chess board.

Marcus, having been informed by Gregson that her ladyship had retired to her bedroom with a headache, had decided to ignore her disobedience over the book room rather than be sidetracked from the main issue. He had also intended to keep his temper, but at this blatant provocation all good resolutions flew out of the window. He strode to the fireplace. “I will not have my wife behaving like a vulgar hoyden!”

She looked up again, brushing a wisp of hair from her brow, where a slight, puzzled frown marred the smooth expanse. “There’s nothing vulgar about driving oneself in the park, Marcus.”

“Damn you, Judith! Don’t play the innocent with me. You know quite well that driving a high-perch phaeton is as shameless and fast as Letty Lade. You’re the Marchioness of Carrington, and it’s time you learned to behave properly.”

Judith shook her head, and her mouth took a distinctly
stubborn turn. “You’re so stuffy, Marcus. I know it’s an unusual carriage for a woman, but unusual doesn’t necessarily mean bad … vulgar … shameless … fast.”

“Where you’re concerned, it does,” he snapped.

“Oh? Why so?”

“Because, my obtuse wife, someone of your dubious origins cannot get away with things that someone of impeccable family and background might. And as my wife you have a duty to uphold the honor of my family.”

Judith paled. How had she thought this would be a simple confrontation, about a simple matter? “My family and my ‘dubious’ background have nothing to do with this. No one here knows anything about me, good or bad, and I’m perfectly capable of setting my own style without damaging your family’s honor. I tell you straight, Carrington, that I will drive what I choose to drive.” Breathless, she subsided to rearm.

“Madam, you’ve forgotten one essential fact.” His voice was dangerously quiet. “You are my wife, and you owe me your obedience. You took a most solemn vow to that intent, as I recall.”

And it wasn’t worth a groat in a court of law.
“I have a greater right to my own freedom. I can’t be expected to obey unreasonable commands that trespass upon my right to make my own choices.”

“You have no such right. Obviously you don’t understand the nature of marriage,” he said, white-faced, his voice cold and level. “You should have thought of its uncomfortable aspects before you decided to become my wife.”

“But I didn’t
decide
to become your wife,” Judith objected.

“Didn’t you?” Marcus’s eyes drilled into her.

Judith’s lips were dry and she wished with all her
heart that she’d never started this. “This isn’t about our marriage,” she said desperately. “Or not really. It’s about something much more simple. I want you to trust me. My judgment has served me well all these years, and what I choose to drive is no concern of yours. I employed my brother as my agent—”

“I must remember to express my gratitude to him.” The caustic interruption was delivered in the same cold, level tones. “As for you, ma’am. If your brother doesn’t want those horses, then I’ll send them to the block at Tattersalls first thing tomorrow.” He turned away, as if the subject were closed.

“No!
I won’t tolerate such a thing.”

“My dear wife, you have no choice.”

“Oh, but I most certainly do. I shall simply keep the horses in my brother’s stable and drive them whenever I please.”

The gloves were well and truly off. Marcus, a white shade around his thinned mouth, advanced on her. “By God, ma’am, I am going to have to teach you that I mean what I say.”

“You lay hands on me, Carrington, and so help me I’ll shoot you!”

Judith sprang to her feet. Her knees caught the edge of the low table, sending it flying. Chess pieces tumbled and the massive marble board fell heavily across Marcus’s feet. He yelled in pain, hopping from foot to foot.

“Oh, now look what you made me do,” Judith said, anger forgotten in her consternation. “I didn’t mean to hurt you!”

“No, you only meant to shoot me,” Marcus muttered, standing on one leg as he bent to rub his left foot. “Make up your mind, woman.”

“You know I wouldn’t do such a thing,” she said, wringing her hands. “Oh, dear, are you very hurt?”

“Abominably.” He lowered his foot gingerly to the carpet and ministered to the right one.

“I am very sorry,” Judith said wretchedly. “But you made me so very cross. I didn’t do it deliberately.”

“God only knows what pain you’d cause if you were trying.” He lowered the right foot and straightened. His eyes narrowed abruptly. In her agitation, the silk wrapper had loosened at the neck, exposing the soft, creamy swell of her breast, lifting rapidly with the raging emotions of the last half hour. The golden eyes contained anxiety and the residue of her anger; her lips were parted in dismay.

“I think,” Marcus stated deliberately, “that you will conduct the remainder of this heated discussion on your back. I’ll feel safer that way.” Reaching across the fallen table, he caught her under the arms and lifted her clear across the debris.