The Devil's Web by Mary Balogh

Author:Mary Balogh [Balogh, Mary]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Historical Romance
ISBN: 9780440243076
Google: -TC27amHoSoC
Amazon: 0440243076
Barnesnoble: 0440243076
Goodreads: 1271864
Publisher: Dell
Published: 1990-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

MADELINE WAS WALKING back and forth in the rather magnificent bedchamber of the inn where they had stopped for the night. She was wearing a white silk and lace nightgown. Her hair had been freshly brushed by her maid and lay in soft curls about her face and along her neck. She was waiting for her husband to come to her. Waiting in anger. She would not deny him, of course. They were at a public inn, and he could scarcely take himself off to another room. Besides, she had a feeling that he would insist on taking his conjugal rights and he would doubtless be able to force himself upon her. Not that that would daunt her if she really wished to deny him. She would be quite unabashed by the necessity to yell and scream and punch, kick, and claw. She would enjoy doing so even knowing that he would be able to subdue her with ease. If they were not at the inn, she might try it. Though she would certainly not enjoy being taken against her will. Better to give herself with at least a semblance of willingness. But she was angry. At herself. She had come out of her daze—with a crash. And what in the name of all that was wonderful had she done? She had married a man without humor or feelings, a tyrant who had married her for some mysterious reason of his own. Perhaps to degrade her. He seemed to quite hate her. And she had married him. No one had held a pistol to her back or her temple and forced her forward to the altar. No one had bullied her except him. Mama, Edmund, Dominic: all three of them would have supported her and defended her if she had said but one word. All three would have continued to love her even if it did turn out that she was increasing. Besides, she did not need to hide behind the strength of her family. She could have said no herself. There was no way on earth he could have forced her to marry him if she had just said no. But she had married him. Because she loved him, she had persuaded herself and told everyone else during the week he was away. Love? Could she call her feelings for him love? They were more a strange and frightening need to be dominated and degraded and hated. She had walked the length of the chapel that morning on Edmund's arm, knowing quite well what she did and what sort of man he was she was marrying. She deserved her fate. She deserved it if he turned out to be far worse than the morose tyrant she already knew him to be. It would serve her right if he turned out to be a wife-beater. She almost wished he would. He would present her with the perfect excuse to deal him a few punches of her own. The door opened behind her and she turned to face her husband, her chin raised in defiance, her eyes steady on his.

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