April Kihlstrom by The Dutiful Wife

Author:The Dutiful Wife [Wife, The Dutiful]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

London was just as noisy and smelly and grim as Rothwood had told her it would be. And Beatrix loved it at first sight. There was an energy here she hadn’t felt back home. Buildings in the distance beckoned, promising treats and sights and sounds she had not experienced before. Finally she would get to see museums and go to the theater and dance at Almack’s.

Seated across from her, Rothwood could not seem to decide how he felt about her excitement. One moment she would catch him smiling at her enthusiasm and the next scowling as though it might overset his plans. One moment he would tell her about places he would take her, like the theater or a museum or a park, and the next he would be assuring her she would grow bored with London and wish to be gone from it within the month.

Which, then, was the man she had married? Was it the stern and rigid fellow who wished to whisk her away and exile her to the countryside, or was he the kind man who made love to her so beautifully and smiled at her smiles? Did he even know himself? Would it be his duty or his heart that won out?

Because she wanted to keep seeing him smile, Beatrix began to tease him, hoping to coax him into laughter. “When you were a boy,” she asked, “what did you most want to see when you came to London?”

He did smile, but shook his head. “My father did not allow me near London until I was almost grown.”

“Afraid you would get into trouble?”

Now he did laugh and it transformed him from a handsome man into one achingly dear to her. “Probably,” he allowed. “I was known for slipping out and breaking rules at home on our country estate and at school.”

“What would you have done if your parents had brought you to London and you had slipped out and broken rules here?”

But that was apparently going too far because Edmund stiffened into a stern-looking Lord Rothwood. “I don’t know.”

His voice was curt but Beatrix did not let it deter her. She leaned forward, smiling softly as she persisted in a coaxing voice. “Come. Tell me. Surely you imagined what you would do or can imagine what you would have done? It is just the two of us here. Tell me. What mischief do you think you might have gotten into?”

For a very long moment, matters hung in the balance. Then his lips twitched. Once. Twice. Finally he grinned and he, too, leaned forward. “Very well. I would have headed for Astley’s Amphitheater. I don’t even know if it was there then, but if it was, I’d have headed to see the animals and the circus acts. I’d have bought food from vendors on the street. I’d have thrown snowballs if it was winter or gone through the park if it was summer. I’d have brought pocket money and stuffed myself on sweets and ices at Gunter’s Tea Shop.

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