The Viscount Needs a Wife (CR 16) by Beverley Jo

Author:Beverley, Jo [Beverley, Jo]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Signet
Published: 2016-04-04T23:00:00+00:00

* * *

Kitty paced her boudoir, tense with the residue of anger and with anxious unhappiness. She’d let out another side of herself—her ability to rage.

But then he’d guessed.

She hated that. Hated it! The violence in her marriage was her secret, hers and Marcus’s, and he’d taken it to the grave. It shamed her that she hadn’t been able to avoid it, to be kinder and gentler. In that, she’d failed as a wife.

Sillikin whined, nudging at her leg.

Kitty picked her up and hugged her. “At least he never hurt you, little one. Even when you told him off.”

Kitty sat to comb Sillikin’s long coat, easing tangles and removing leaves and twigs. Sometimes it was a tedious task, but often it was soothing.

“You cared for him, too, didn’t you? And he for you on his better days. You knew when he was most in pain.”

Marcus had tried to hide his pain, largely, she thought, because it was proof of his damaged state. In some ways he’d been like his mother in trying to pretend that the damage was less serious than it was, and that some of it might heal. Sometimes Kitty had thought he’d married her in expectation of a miracle cure, and that his bursts of anger grew out of disappointment.

“Braydon isn’t Marcus,” she said, working on a little tangle. “I must remember that.”

The task did ease her mind, but that allowed in other concerns.

“I’m woefully unprepared for this. I knew that, but I didn’t expect to trip over little things. Like the Town house. It is foolish to leave it empty for such a long time. If the viscountcy doesn’t need the money, it could have been given to the poor.” She paused, and examined her dog’s solemn expression. “The supportive silence, I see.”

Sillikin’s silence was bliss, not philosophical.

“He’s going to be jealous. Already is, because of Kit Kat. Why does that upset him? I never did anything wrong. A good thing that he’ll be away most of the time. Though I might be tempted to go up to London and catch him with his mistress. Sauce for the goose . . . You don’t approve?” she asked the dog with a smile. “You’re right, of course. It would achieve nothing but to make me a figure of fun. Women, especially ladies, are supposed to never talk of their husband’s unkindnesses, and to pretend ignorance of his infidelities. At least Marcus never strained my discretion in that department.”

She cleaned the comb of hair for the last time and put it aside. “Perhaps I’ll take a lover,” she said, but Sillikin was asleep.

Kitty didn’t need a reaction from her dog to know she’d never do that. It would be dishonorable, and a husband being equally dishonorable wouldn’t absolve her. But that meant that when Braydon left for London, she’d be returned to celibacy. For the past few years, she’d felt the lack of a man, but dully amid the darkening days of her marriage and then the enclosing atmosphere of Cateril Manor.

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