Married in Haste (19 page)

“What happened when he refused to give her up?” Tess prompted.

“They showed him the door.”

“How cruel!”

“How like my father’s family is more like it. The truth is,” Brenn said, leaning both elbows on the table,

“Father’s family was more than a bit eccentric. Father claimed he had never fit in with them and said he was happy to leave. He bought his commission and joined the army.”

“But what of your mother?” Tess asked. “How terrible for her to have left behind the life she knew only to be rejected by your father’s family.”

“What an imagination you have,” he said with a laugh. “I don’t think she ever regretted her decision to marry him. She loved him. Wherever he was sent in the army, she traveled by his side.” He added almost as an afterthought, “She was a brave woman.”

“Yes,” Tess agreed thoughtfully. She’d cleaned her plate. She set her knife and fork aside and asked,

“What happened after that?”

“Happened? Not much. I was born three years later.”

Tess glanced down at her wedding ring. “Yes. You said you had been in India.”

Brenn poured them each another glass of wine. “I served in India,” he corrected. “I was sent there right after I purchased my commission, but Mother never let me live there with them.”

“Why not?” she asked, sipping her wine.

“She feared fever. I grew up here, living with relatives or a family my parents hired to take care of me. I rarely lived with my mother and father.”

Tess frowned. “That must have been lonely.”

“It wasn’t. The family had six boys. I didn’t have a moment alone until I went off to school.”

“Yes, but didn’t you want someplace that was your own?”

He sat back. “That is exactly how I felt,” he admitted softly. “Amazing that you who have always had everything could understand that.”

Tess pulled a face. “Since Neil married Stella, I have felt as if my home wasn’t my own anymore. As if I no longer belonged there.”

Brenn nodded. “I felt that way until I saw Erwynn Keep. I promise you, Tess, Erwynn Keep is the most beautiful place on earth. The lake, the sky, the mountains…it’s the first true home I’ve ever had.”

“But what of your family?”

“There is no one of my father’s family left, except for the villagers who live within a mile of the great house.”

“What did they say when your father’s half-English son inherited? What will they say when you bring home a Saxon bride?”

His eyes gleamed with amusement. “This is the best part of the story. My uncle, the earl, who never married one of those half a dozen fine Welsh lasses, was apparently a very strange character given to bad moods and spouting off nonsense. After his parents died, his behavior was so exceedingly odd, the Welsh would have welcomed anyone in his stead, including me. I am now considered their only hope to return Erwynn Keep to its former glory.”

“Returning it to its glory? What is the matter with the estate? It looked perfect lovely in the picture.”

He seemed to falter a bit. “It is,” he quickly said. “Very lovely.” But his reassuring smile didn’t quite go past his cheekbones…and then he admitted, “But it does need work. My uncle was not a good businessman.”

“Oh, I can understand that a bachelor residence would need work. I shall look forward to the challenge.”

“Ummm,” he said, noncommittally. “But what of you? We married so quickly there are many things I don

’t know about you.”

Tess was not accustomed to taking about herself. “There isn’t much to say.”

“Tell me about your parents.” He again filled their wineglasses, finishing the bottle.

Tess crossed her arms. “My mother died when I was five.”

“So you don’t remember much about her.”

Tess nodded, unwilling to talk. Funny that he should hone in on what distressed her most. She couldn’t remember what her mother looked like. She remembered her smile, but not her eyes. She could recall her touch, but not the texture of her hair. “I remember how she smelled. She’d designed her own fragrance and was known for it. It was a combination of lily, rose, and a hint of lemon verbena.”

“Your fragrance.”

Her gaze met his. “Yes,” she confessed with a touch of surprise. “That is my scent. You noticed?”

“I notice everything about you, Tess.”

His words started that dizzy little awareness of him.

“So.” His hand came across the table and rested a mere inch from her own. “Were your parents a love match?”

She almost laughed. “No. Papa always said that heiresses like Mama and myself are too valuable to be turned loose to their own inclinations. Their marriage was arranged.” Heiresses! She’d forgotten.

Tess closed her eyes, wishing her papa was alive. Wishing everything was different. “I miss him.”

Brenn’s hand covered hers. Where his fingers touched, her skin tingled. She opened her eyes, staring at where their hands rested together. What would happen if she confessed the truth? Right now, this minute?

“Tess?”

She started. “Yes?”

“You seemed miles away. Is something the matter?”

She pulled her hand out from underneath his. “I was just remembering.”

He nodded as if she had confirmed his suspicions and then pushed his chair back from the table. “Are you ready to turn in for the night or would you enjoy a walk around the stables?”

“A walk, please,” Tess answered. Fresh air would help clear her mind of this terrible guilt that weighed heavy with her. She wasn’t anxious for the day that would inevitably come when he’d learn the truth.

Nor was she anxious to “turn in for the night.”

Outside, mists of fog rose from the ground. There was rain in the air. Inside the stables the smell of it mingled with that of hay and horses, a not unpleasant smell. Brenn’s horse, Ace, nickered a greeting.

Tess stepped over the fresh straw and ran her hand along his coat. She’d not worn her gloves and the animal’s skin felt warm against her palm.

“He’s not a beautiful beast,” Brenn observed. “But he’s rugged and he has great heart. Don’t you, boy.”

Ace bumped Tess’s hand with his nose, begging for another pet. “I think he is very handsome.”

“I value him more for the fact that he succeeds at whatever he sets his mind to—much like his owner.”

Tess didn’t think those words were mere lighthearted banter. She glanced around them. The stable lads and posting boys were busy swapping tales at the other end of the barn. “What are you trying to tell me?” she asked Brenn carefully.

His hand came down to her waist. He turned her to face him, her back to the horse. “Last night was awkward for you. But tonight will be different.”

It was what she’d feared. “Are you offering to forgo your husbandly rights?” she queried tartly, attempting to take a step away from him.

His arm came out to block her escape. He leaned forward. His lips brushed her ear. “I want you, Tess, but I’ll not take you against your will.”

I want you, Tess. Those words stirred already unsettled emotions within her.

Lustful…needy…apprehensive emotions.

He kissed her, right on the lobe of her ear, and then placed another kiss an inch down on the ticklish spot where her neck and jawline met.

Tess tilted her head. He stood so close, her breasts brushed his chest as she arched her back.

“Don’t harden your heart to me.” His low voice hummed through her. “Let me have a chance. Let us have a chance.”

His lips moved to meet hers.

Brenn was going to kiss her. He was going to kiss her like he’d never kissed a woman before and then he was going to take her to bed and make love to her all night.

Closing his eyes, he brought his lips down and placed a big wet smack on Ace’s side.

He opened his eyes. Tess was gone. She’d ducked and slipped out from under his arm. That was the second time she’d done that to him. She now stood several feet away from him, her hands behind her back.

What was bloody wrong with her!

“What?” he demanded irritably. “All I was going to do was kiss you.”

She sent a meaningful glance toward the stable lads, a silent instruction to keep his voice down. Well, he didn’t feel like keeping his voice down!

He wanted a kiss. A plain, simple kiss. He’d set up for it, he was hungry for it, and he wanted it! “Come here, Tess.”

She shook her head no.

It was a game then. All right, he would play. He took a step toward her.

She stepped back.

His sense of humor slowly started to return. He took three quick little steps.

She blinked, staring at him as if he’d gone mad. Her aristocratic nose lifted up in the air. “I’m going to bed.”

“Excellent idea. I’ll go with you.”

She didn’t like that at all. She stopped, her skirts swirling around her ankles. “On second thought, I’ll wait. The luggage coach hasn’t arrived and I need Willa to undress me.”

Brenn fell into step alongside her. “There’s no need to wait for Willa. I can play lady’s maid.”

“It wouldn’t be proper.”

“I don’t care about what is proper.”

“Will you keep your voice down?” she said between clenched teeth. “There are people watching.”

Brenn made a big show of exaggeratedly noticing the stable lads had stopped talking and were listening to their argument with avid curiosity. He shrugged them off. “I don’t care if the king is watching, Tess. I want a kiss.”

A loud guffaw escaped from the cluster of stable hands. Even in the dark Brenn could see Tess coloring a pretty shade of berry-red. “Why are you doing this?” she whispered.

Because I can, he wanted to flash back. Because I’m your husband and will not be treated like a lackey.

He would not be one of those men whose wives controlled them.

Theirs was a battle of wills, one Brenn was determined to win, although he was genuinely puzzled. He’d never had difficulty with women before. They loved to kiss him. They hoped to jump in his bed—every woman, that is, but his wife.

“You found some pleasure in last night. You can’t deny it.”

Still he was put off balance when she suddenly agreed, “All right. One kiss.”

Brenn closed his mouth which had dropped open. Now that he’d won, he didn’t want to kiss her in front of stable lads and in the middle of the bustle of a busy inn yard any more than she did…but he couldn’t say that now. The lads were cheering for him!

He bent to receive his bounty. She came up on her toes. Her hands rested lightly on his shoulders. Sweet Tess.

Their lips met even as he felt her weight shift and her knee lift. Warning signals flashed in his brain. He leaned back. But her knee wasn’t the weapon. He leaned back. But her knee wasn’t the weapon. He should have known that Tess was still too naïve about men to know how to vitally hurt them. No, his bride put her weight and energy into stomping the heel of her shoe on his foot.

He thought she had crushed his big toe! With a grunt of pain, he lifted the foot and almost toppled to the ground. She used those moments to daintily lift her skirts and sail away toward the inn.

The stable lads hooted. Even the horses seemed to laugh. His wife had bested him and they all knew it.

With an élan he was far from feeling, Brenn made a rackety bow in their direction before hobbling off after his wife.

Tess’s heart pounded in her ears so loudly she barely heard the door open. She was in bed, the covers pulled up over her ears, pretending to be asleep. Of course, she would be more convincing if she could stop shaking.

His heavy footsteps crossed the wooden floor. His limp was more pronounced.

She squeezed her eyes shut, knowing there was no way she was going to fall asleep.

A sound. Holding her breath, she listened. It was the soft whisk of material against material. She could hear him remove his jacket and toss it over a chair.

Why didn’t he say something? Why didn’t he rant or rave? Even she was startled by her boldness—but his insistence that she kiss him in front of stable lads had angered her. She wasn’t a common trollop or the sort of woman who jumped at any man’s bidding!

He sat on the edge of the bed. Without cere mony, he removed first one boot and then the other.

Tess tensed, not knowing what to expect next. Silence.

What was he going to do?

The ropes of the bed sprang back into shape as he stood. She strained her ears.

Nothing! No sound at all.

Where was he? She couldn’t handle the suspense any longer. A peek wouldn’t hurt. She pretended to sleepily turn toward his side of the bed. Ever so carefully, she pulled down an edge of the covers, just enough for her to see out of one eye. It took a moment for her eye to adjust to the light—when it did, when she saw what he’d done, she screeched, “You’re naked!”

He stood by the bed, as bare-bottomed as the day he was born. Throwing his folded breeches onto the same chair holding his shirt and jacket, he answered, “Yes.”

Tess yanked the covers up before she had a full frontal view of her husband. “Why are you naked?”

“I always sleep this way.” He snuffed out the candle and, to her horror, lifted the covers and climbed into the bed beside her.

“Why, Tess,” he said pleasantly, “You are still fully dressed.”

She rolled out of the other side of the bed. “You can’t sleep like that. It’s indecent.”

In answer, he feigned a snore.

She placed her hands on her hips. “I won’t sleep in the same bed with you!”

He snuggled deeper under the covers. “Enjoy the chair then.” Before her eyes, he fell well and truly asleep.

Tess felt strangely deflated. “What is the matter with you?” she said in frustration. “Less than fifteen minutes ago, you’d been willing to make love to me in front of strangers, and now you completely ignore me.”

She expected him to answer. To laugh and tease her. But he slept on.

And it hurt her vanity. Men had done many things around her, but they’d never ignored her.

She threw herself down into a chair, crossing her arms, watching him…but it didn’t take her long to tire of such a boring vigil. Or for her eyelids to grow heavy.

The hard wooden chair with its straight back was far from comfortable, especially after riding in the coach all afternoon. The bed beckoned.