The Husband List by Victoria Alexander

Author:Victoria Alexander
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
ISBN: 9780061796821
Publisher: HarperCollins

Chapter 11

The jar shattered against the far wall.

“Bloody hell.”

Richard impatiently pushed his hair away from his face and glared at the fingers of cobalt blue reaching toward the floor. In the early morning light the stain resembled a huge, vividly hued spider smashed against the wall by a giant hand. Even if it was fairly inexpensive, he could scarcely afford to squander premixed pigment this way. Especially since it gave him no satisfaction whatsoever.

For the first time, his work failed to absorb him completely. Failed to occupy his mind, his soul. No doubt because the subject of his work was the one thing already occupying his mind. Perhaps even his soul.

Gillian.

He kicked the stool out of his way and paced the room, refusing to so much as glance at the portrait. At the eyes that followed him: one minute reproaching, the next inviting. In the back of his mind, he acknowledged the skill needed to achieve such an illusion, but at the moment he would have preferred to be a talentless dabbler. It would have been much easier.

How could he have been such a coward? Certainly he had apologized for what he’d said, but he hadn’t had the courage to acknowledge the truth. At least not aloud. If there was a whore in their relationship, it was not Gillian. She was only trying to get what she should have had from the start without ridiculous conditions attached. No, he was the one who was willing to sell himself for profit. Willing to wed in exchange for half her fortune and far more than she’d ever intended.

And what did he offer her in return? His name? He snorted in disdain, strode to a table, and pawed through the assorted debris of his daily life. Hadn’t there been a bottle of brandy here somewhere? His name was scarcely worth more than the effort it took to scrawl it on a slip of paper. Oh, certainly he was doing all he could to restore the honor of the ancient and noble Shelton name. To return it to a position of respect held by the Earls of Shelbrooke before his father had ground it into the mud.

Still, hadn’t the fortune his father had squandered been in truth brought to the family in the first place by his mother? Hadn’t it been his mother’s dowry and inheritance that had shored up the already sagging Shelton finances? Hadn’t his father married his mother for only one reason?

He found the bottle, pulled out the stopper, and drank greedily. Even the burn of the inferior liquor didn’t wash away the bad taste in his mouth.

The blood of the father …

He wiped his mouth with the back of his free hand and stared unseeing at the paint stain on the wall. His father had wed for no better reason than to improve his lot in life.

… the veins of the son.

He gripped the bottle until his knuckles whitened. Was there any difference between his father’s actions and his own?

The blue spider throbbed accusingly.

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