The Earl's Untouched Bride by Annie Burrows

Author:Annie Burrows
Language: eng
Format: azw3, mobi
Tags: Historical
ISBN: 9780373295333
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2009-01-01T13:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

'I do not agree!' Heloise returned her soup spoon to the bowl, the consomme untouched.

Robert glowered at her across the table. 'I suppose you think all the other European nations should just let Bonaparte take up where he left off, then?'

'That was not what I said!'

It was at moments like this that she was at her most attractive, Charles reflected, sipping his wine. And he only ever saw her this animated these days when Robert was around.

On the few occasions she could spare time from her increasingly hectic social life to accompany him to a ball, or rout, she behaved with extreme modesty and decorum.

He got the 'public' Heloise.

Not this vibrant, intelligent woman who held such passionate views.

She picked up her spoon again, her mind so fully locked in the tussle with Robert she didn't notice that she spattered droplets of consomme across the snowy damask tablecloth.

'I just meant that there might not need to be another war. There has not been any fighting in France...'

'Only because anyone who might have opposed Bonaparte's return has turned tail and fled.

Why do you

think he's amassing an army, you silly goose? Do you think he means to march them up and down the Champs-Elysees to entertain the tourists?'

'There are no tourists left in Paris,' Charles pointed out pedantically. 'They have all run for their lives.'

Heloise and Robert turned to stare at him, his wife's face creased with frustration, his brother's lip curling in contempt.

Flicking his finger to Giddings, Charles indicated it was time to remove the cooling soup and bring on the next course.

To all intents and purposes things could not be progressing better. He had wanted Heloise to make her own way in society. He had wanted Robert to get well.

He had not imagined the two events, taken in tandem, would make him feel like an intruder in his own home.

'There was no need for the tourists to flee,' Heloise said to him carefully. 'Your Whig politicians are pressing to make the treaty with Bonaparte...'

'While the allies gathered in Vienna have just declared him an outlaw!' scoffed Robert.

Charles frequently heard them bickering like this when they returned home of an evening. He was growing increasingly resentful that it was Robert with whom she felt easy enough to speak her mind. But that was nothing to what he felt when he heard them laughing together.

What kind of fool resented hearing his wife enjoying herself? Or watched his own brother's return to health and vigour with a sense of dread?

His lips twisted in self-mockery as he dug into a dish of lamb fricassee.

Heloise took only a small portion of the stew, which was on tonight's menu so that Robert would have at least one dish from each course that he could manage for himself. She glowered at him as Linney spooned onion sauce onto his plate. She wished Charles would not invite Robert to dine with them quite so often. He ruined all her attempts to impress her husband with her increasing grasp of British politics.

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