Beyond Rubies by Beverley Oakley

Author:Beverley Oakley
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Beverley Oakley
Published: 2016-08-15T18:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

Debenham glanced up from his newspaper and raked his enquiring gaze over Araminta’s traveling attire. “And where do you suppose you’re going?” The breakfast sideboard had been reset since Araminta had broken her fast three hours earlier.

“Home.” Araminta raised her chin and prepared to do battle. This was one fight she could not afford to lose. With chilly recrimination, she added, “You’ve been nowhere to be found for two days and two nights, Debenham. I thought you’d had your throat sliced by footpads.”

“Would you have shed tears, my dear?”

Araminta did not smile. “Of course. And will you shed tears if I am gone for but a week to see my mama, who can counsel me on how to be as good a mother as she is? Surely you’d not deny me a mother’s care in my advanced state? After all, you cannot bear the sight of me, much less to touch me.”

Debenham’s lip curled, but he did not deny it. “And how do you propose getting there?”

“Why, I’ll take the carriage and send it back. That was my intention since the carriage was to be at my disposal under the terms of our arrangement. You can come and fetch me. You know how Mama adores you.”

Debenham laughed. “Oh, my dear. I did not think you possessed wit and irony as well as beauty.”

“There’s a lot more to me you’ve yet to find out, but the truth is, I’m weary of lumbering about London like this. I want some country air. The physician who attended Mama when she gave birth is highly recommended, and he can be with me in a trice, if necessary. However, Mama preferred the offices of the midwife who lives not far. I shall be in good hands.” She was prepared for a fight over the location of where the baby should be born, but fortunately, Debenham merely shrugged and toyed with his coffee cup. His eyes looked more shadowed than usual, giving him a particularly piratical appearance. A pirate who’d been partaking of a ruinous amount of rum, and was all but dead on his feet. Araminta wondered hopefully when he might drink himself into an early grave.

“You’d better be. You might no longer be the beauty I married, but it’s my heir you’re carrying.” He drained his coffee and reached for a fig. “How many more weeks before your ripe and luscious body will again be mine for the taking?” He answered his own question. “Four weeks before the baby is due, and then another two to wait after that. I am all impatience, my dear.”

“You are not the only one of us anxious for an end to this torture, Debenham,” Araminta said over her shoulder as she turned into the passage, and she wasn’t only referring to the baby. “Hurry along, Jane! At last, we can leave London.”

To Araminta’s relief, she didn’t encounter further resistance. Debenham clearly found her repugnant when she was breeding, while her absence would give him greater rein to indulge in his other proclivities.

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