To Marry an Heiress by Lorraine Heath

Author:Lorraine Heath [Lorraine Heath]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9780061754203
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2006-11-25T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

“You’re determined to make this entire situation as difficult as possible, aren’t you?”

Sitting behind the desk in his study, Devon studied his wife as she stood in front of the window. Sunlight glimmered in a halo around her, but she did not appear angelic. With her hands on her hips, she more closely resembled a warrior goddess. She almost looked magnificent.

“I allowed you your freedom to establish rules of behavior for the day nursery—”

“Freedom?” she said. “You allowed me my freedom?”

She moved forward, planted her palms on his desk, and leaned toward him. “My freedom is not yours to give. I own it—lock, stock, and barrel.”

No woman had ever dared to speak to him so defiantly or look at him with fire shooting from her eyes. Certainly Margaret never had. For a time she had worshipped the ground upon which Devon had stood. Then she’d simply whined and sulked.

“Madam, you are my wife—”

“But not your slave.”

He felt a muscle in his jaw jump. He was in danger of grinding his teeth down to nothing.

Sadness touched her eyes as she straightened. “You didn’t even hug them,” she said resignedly, as though all her anger had eased away. “You’re their father, you’ve been gone at least six weeks, and you never once touched them.”

“It’s simply not done.”

“They’re your children.”

“There are expectations that must be met by the children of an aristocrat—”

“Damn the aristocracy, its expectations, and its rules. Noel and Millicent are your children!”

He didn’t know what shocked him more, her immense anger or her use of profanity. “Madam, there are also expectations of the wife—”

Shaking her head, she returned to the window.

“Never turn your back on me,” he warned her through clenched teeth.

“We’ve been intimate,” she said quietly. “We’ve caressed each other. You’ve heard me cry out during the height of passion.” She glanced over her shoulder at him. “Yet you speak to me as though I’m someone you’ve just met on the street.”

“What passed between us beneath the blankets was the result of my fulfilling an obligation. Make no more of it than that.”

“What in God’s name possessed my father when he decided you were the best catch in London?”

What indeed? He held her gaze and decided it was time to change the subject and get down to the reason he’d wanted to have this meeting to begin with.

“Regarding your duties. The staff here is small, but you will oversee their efforts with decorum and dignity. They will not address you as Gina. You shall not become their friend or their confidant. They are our employees. We cannot afford to hire any more. We must make do with what we have and hold no grudges when they leave.”

“You expect them to leave?”

He leaned back in his chair. “In time. It is only their loyalty that has kept them here this long. They have gone without wages for some time. It’s unfair to make them feel that they are obligated to stay.”

“I assume, with the exception of your bedchamber, that I can have full run of the house.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.