Spanish Marriage by Robins Madeleine

Author:Robins, Madeleine [Robins, Madeleine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, regency romance, Madeleine Robins, Book View Cafe
ISBN: 9781611381726
Publisher: Book View Cafe
Published: 2012-05-23T03:49:26+00:00

Chapter Nine

Neither Thea nor her husband slept soundly that night; both discovered singly the striking loneliness of being wide awake in a house full of sleeping people.

After Thea ran from the library it took Matlin a quarter hour to follow her up the stairs. In that time he had dispatched the better part of a decanter of brandy and had ordered another bottle brought to his dressing room. He slept, after unsuccessfully striving to drown his horror, guilt, and confusion, only to wake reluctantly after noon; his head was pounding and his stomach was in rebellion, with the guilt unabated. Lord Ocott, come to fetch him for a drive, shook his head disgustedly.

“If you insist upon rumfuddling yourself as a regular thing, boy, I don’t doubt you have problems with that pretty wife of yours.” Ocott had no idea how heavily his words weighed on Matlin or why his nephew only shook his head miserably and turned to the wall.

Dorothea, without Matlin’s recourse to brandy, lay awake in her bed for most of the night, and, when wakened with the chocolate tray, she sat up heavy-eyed and exhausted. It was easy, as she dressed, to ask herself over and over how she could have done it, what in God’s name had possessed her to blurt out such a thing. She had destroyed, in that moment, any chance she and Matlin could have had together. Where had it come from; how could she have allowed herself to be goaded into telling that abysmal lie? What in God’s name was she to do, she wondered miserably, as the months went by and it became obvious that there was no child.

Lewis entered the room just as Thea finished clasping a bracelet on her wrist. It was a slender gold and pearl bangle, one of the few jewels which had come to her from her mother; it was old fashioned but oddly comforting, a little piece of her own past. She looked up and smiled wearily at Lewis.

“My lady asks would you come to her when you’re ready, ma’am. In her dressing room.” Lewis examined Thea with a critical eye. “If I may be so bold, ma’am, might I suggest a touch of rouge? My lady had eyes that sharp for picking up when a body’s feeling peaked-like.”

Thea thanked Lewis and, after a grim glance in the mirror, did apply a dot of rouge to each cheek. The ruse did not fool Lady Ocott.

“Good God, lamb, it that’s how a night of theatre and admiration affects you, I shan’t so much as let you see the pantomime at Christmas-time. You look as if you hadn’t a moment’s sleep, and here I was, all set to take you to Bond Street with me.”

Thea began to apologize. “I won’t embarrass you by going along with you....”

“Fiddlesticks. A cool cloth across your eyes for half an hour, and wipe that paint off your face—how I could have chosen such a grossly inappropriate color for you is beyond me!—and you’ll be perfectly viewable.

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