The Earl's Untouched Bride (6 page)

When she continued to look less than convinced by his complete about-face, he decided it was high time he regained control of the conversation.

'Now, getting back to the ring. May I enquire, although I somehow feel I am about to regret doing so, why your' sister left it with you? The normal practice, I should remind you, when an engagement is terminated, is for the lady to return the ring to the man who gave it to her.'

'I had it with me when I came to visit you this morning,' she declared. 'I was going to return it to you for her if you should not agree to my suggestion.'

'Indeed?' His voice was laced with scepticism. 'And yet somehow it remains in your possession. How did that come about, I wonder?'

'Well, because you were so beastly to me, if you must know! I told you the deepest secret of my heart and you laughed at me. For the moment I quite lost my temper, and decided I should do with it exactly as Felice said I ought to do! For you are so wealthy it is not as if you
needed
to have it back, whereas for me...'

She let go of his arm again, folding her own across her chest with a mutinous little pout which, for the first time in their acquaintance, made Charles wonder what it would be like to silence one of her tirades with a kiss. It would probably be the only way to stop her once she had built up a head of steam. Something in the pit of his stomach stirred at the thought of mastering her militant spirit in such a manner. He shook his head. It was not like him to regard sexual encounters as contests of will. But then, he frowned, when had he ever had to do more than crook his finger for a woman to fall obediently in line with his every whim?

'I take it you meant to sell it, then?'

Heloise eyed his lowered brows contritely.

'Yes,' she confessed. 'Because I needed the money to get to Dieppe.'

'Dieppe?' He shook himself out of his reverie. 'What is at Dieppe?'

'Not what, but who. And that is Jeannine!'

'Jeannine?' he echoed, becoming fascinated in spite of himself. 'What part does she play in this farce, I wonder?'

'She was Maman's nurse, until she eloped with Papa.'

'There seems to have been a great deal of eloping going on in your family.'

'But in my parents' case it was a good thing, don't you think? Because even if they were terribly poor for the first few years they were married, since my grandpapa cut her off entirely, she was the only one to survive the Terror because her family were all so abominably cruel to the
menu peuple
—
the common people, that is. Jeannine was cast out, but she married a
fermier
, and I know she would take me in. I would have to learn how to milk a cow, to be sure, and make butter and cheese, but how hard could that be?'

'I thought it was hens,' he reflected.

'Hens?'

'Yes, you said when you married me you would live in a cottage so that you could keep hens. Now I find that in reality you would rather milk cows and make cheese.' He sighed. 'I do wish you would make up your mind.'

Heloise blinked. Though the abstracted frown remained between his brows, she was almost sure he was teasing her. 'I do not wish to milk cows at all,' she finally admitted.

'Good. Because I warn you right now that no wife of mine will ever do anything so plebeian. You must abandon all these fantasies about living on a farm and tending to livestock of any sort. When we return to England you will move in the first circles and behave with the decorum commensurate with your station in life. You are not to go anywhere near any livestock of any description. Is that clear?'

For a moment Heloise regarded the mock sternness of his features with her head tilted to one side. She had never been on the receiving end of one of these teasing scolds before. Whenever he had been playful like this, she had never been able to understand how Felice could remain impervious to his charm.

'Not even a horse?' she asked, taking her courage in both hands and deciding to play along, just once. 'I am quite near a horse already, sitting up here in your carriage.'

'Horses, yes,' he conceded. 'You may ride with me, or a suitable companion in the park. A horse is not a farm animal.'

'Some horses are,' she persisted.

'Not my carriage horses,' he growled, though she could tell he was not really the least bit cross.

The ride in the fresh air seemed to be doing him good. He was far less tense than he had been when they set out. Oh, it was not to be expected that he would get over Felice all at once, but if she could make him laugh now and again, or even put that twinkle in his eye that she could see when he bent his head in her direction to give her this mock scold, she would be happy.

'What about dogs, then? What if I should go into some drawing room and a lady should have a little dog. Must I not go into the room? Or should I just stay away from it? By, say, five feet? Or six?'

'Pets, yes
—
of course you will come across pets from time to time. That is not what I meant at all, you little minx!'

Pretending exasperation he did not feel, to disguise the fact he was on the verge of laughter, he said, 'No wonder your brother said I should end up beating you. You would drive a saint to distraction!'

'I was only,' she declared with an impish grin, 'trying to establish exactly what you expected of me. I promised to behave exactly as you would wish, so I need to know exactly what you want!'

He laughed aloud then. 'You,
mademoiselle
, were doing nothing of the kind.' Why had he never noticed her mischievous sense of humour before now? Why had he never noticed what an entertaining companion she could be when she put her mind to it? The truth was, he decided with a sinking feeling, that whenever Felice had been in the room he'd had eyes for nobody else. With her sultry beauty and her vivacious nature she had utterly bewitched him.

Flicking the reins in renewed irritation, he turned the curricle for home.

His eyes, which a moment ago had been twinkling with amusement, had gone dull and lifeless. It was as though he had retreated into a dark and lonely room, slamming the shutters against her.

She was positively relieved to get home, where her
maman
greeted her with enthusiasm.

'I never thought to have secured such a brilliant match for my plain daughter!' she beamed. 'But we must do something about your attire,' she said as Heloise untied the ribbons of the one bonnet she possessed. 'He cannot want people thinking he is marrying a dowd.'

Hustling her up the newly carpeted stairs to the room she had shared with Felice, her mother grumbled, 'We do not have time to cut down one of Felice's gowns before tonight. If only I had known,' she complained, flinging open the doors to the armoire, 'that you would be the one to marry into the nobility, we could have laid out a little capital on your wardrobe.'

Nearly all the dresses hanging there belonged to Felice. From the day the allies had marched into Paris the previous summer, what money her parents had been able to spare had been spent on dressing her sister. She had, after all, been the Bergeron family's secret weapon. She had flirted and charmed her way through the ranks of the occupying forces, playing the coquette to the hilt, whilst adroitly managing to hang onto her virtue, catapulting the family to the very heart of the new society which had rapidly formed to replace Napoleon's court.

'Nobody could have foreseen such an unlikely event,' Heloise replied rather dispiritedly, hitching her hip onto her bed.

She worried at her lower lip. What was her sister going to do now? She had left carrying only a modest bundle of possessions, and her young husband would not have the means to provide either the kind of dress allowance she had enjoyed for so long, nor the stimulating company of the upper echelons of society.

Heloise sighed. 'What about the lilac muslin?' she suggested. It was quite her favourite dress. She always felt that it made her look almost girlishly attractive, though the underskirt, which went with the full, shorter overdress, was embroidered about the hem with violets. Surely she could not be taken for a supporter of Bonaparte if she appeared in public on the arm of an Englishman?

'Where is His Lordship taking you tonight?' her
maman
enquired sharply.

'To the theatre first, and then on to Tortoni's for ices.'

Her mother clicked her tongue. 'Muslin to the theatre? I should think not!' she snapped, entirely overlooking the political symbolism of the violets, Bonaparte's emblem. 'When Felice went to the theatre with him she wore the gold satin!'

'I cannot compete with Felice, Maman,' Heloise remonstrated. 'Nor do I think it would be wise to try to be like her. Do you not think he might find it in poor taste if I did?'

'I had no idea,' her mother remarked sarcastically, 'that you had such a grasp of what is in men's hearts.' Flinging a bundle of Felice's discarded gowns to the bare boards, she gripped the iron foot-rail of the wide bed the girls had shared. 'Don't, I beg of you, do anything to make him change his mind about marrying you.'

'He has only taken me to save face,' Heloise pointed out. 'I know he still loves Felice. Nothing I do will matter to him.'

Her mother regarded the bleak look that washed over her daughter's features with concern.

'But you are going to be his wife, you foolish creature!' Coming round the side of the bed, her mother took her hand, chafing it to emphasise her point. 'Listen to me! And listen well! You will be going away to live in a foreign country, amongst strangers. You will be utterly dependent on your husband's goodwill. So you must make an effort to please him. Of course he will never fall in love with you
—
' she made a dismissive gesture with her hand '
—
the sister of the woman who betrayed him. Not even if you were half so beautiful or clever as she. But at least you can try not to antagonise him. You must learn to behave in a manner worthy of the title he is going to bestow on you. He will expect you to dress well and behave well, as a reflection of his taste. You must never embarrass him by displaying any emotion in public'

He had only just informed her that displaying emotion in public was vulgar. So her mother's next words took on a greater power.

'Above all, you must never clamour for his attention if he does not wish to give it. You must let him go to his mistresses when he is bored with you, and pretend not to notice or to mind.'

A great lump formed in her throat. He would, of course, be unfaithful. She was the one who had instigated this marriage, and though he was disposed to go through with it, she knew only too well that it was not because he found her attractive.

How could he? Even her mother, who loved her as well as she was able, referred to her as her plain daughter.

'Mistresses?' she whispered, a sickening vision of a lifetime of humiliation unfolding before her.

'Of course,' her mother replied, stroking her hand soothingly. 'You are not blind. You know that is what men do. All men,' she said grimly, her thin lips compressing until they were almost white. 'Just as soon as they can afford it.'

Heloise's stomach turned over at the implication of her mother's words. Even her papa, who behaved as though he was deeply in love with her mother, must have strayed.

'If he is very considerate of your feelings he will conduct his affairs discreetly. But I warn you, if you make any protest, or even show that you care, he will be most annoyed! If you wish him to treat you well, you must not place any restrictions on his little
divertissements'

'I have already informed him that I will not interfere with his pleasures,' Heloise replied dully. And when she had told him that she had meant it. But now the idea that he could hasten to the arms of some other woman, when he could barely bring himself to allow her to lay her hand upon his sleeve, was unbelievably painful. Rising to her feet swiftly, she went to the open armoire. 'What about the grey shot silk?' she said, keeping her face carefully averted from her mother. 'I have not worn that for some time. I don't think His Lordship has ever seen me in it.'

Heloise did not particularly like the dress, for it had bad associations. The first time Du Mauriac had asked her father if he might pay his addresses to his oldest daughter, he had been so proud that she had captured the interest of a hero of France that he had sent her to the dressmaker with the instruction to buy something pretty to wear when her suitor came calling. She had been torn. Oh, how pleasant it had been, to be able to go and choose a gown with no expense spared! And yet the reason for the treat had almost robbed her of all joy in the purchase. In the end she had not been able to resist the lure of silk, but had chosen a sombre shade of grey, in a very demure style, hoping that Du Mauriac would not think she was trying to dress for his pleasure.

'It is not at all the sort of thing Felice would have worn,' her mother remarked, shaking her head. 'But it will do for you. I shall get it sponged down and pressed.' She bustled away with Heloise's best gown over her arm, leaving her to her solitary and rather depressing reflections.

He had never seen her dressed so well, Charles thought with approval, when he came to collect her that evening. The exquisitely cut silk put him in mind of moonbeams playing over water. If only her eyes did not look so haunted. He frowned, pulling up short on the verge of paying her a compliment.