That brought his head up. He’d been carving himself a slice of rare beef when she’d said that, and he very nearly cut his finger. “A redheaded angel, huh? I’ll ask Rohan what he thinks.”
“He’s very nice.”
“Yes. We’ve known each other since we were boys. He and Susannah are very close.”
“I know. He really missed her. All he could do was talk about her, about Marianne, his daughter, Toby, his brother-in-law, and Jamie, who seems to be a stable lad and sings limericks to his horses.”
“Yes, he’s still besotted with his wife. She’s pregnant and that’s why she didn’t come. He said every time someone said something funny within her hearing, she vomited. He said it’s difficult to be melancholy all the time around her but that’s what everyone has to do.”
“Yes, I know. Will I ever meet her?”
“Certainly. Indeed, we can visit them at Mountvale Manor and go to a cat race.”
“I’ve heard that cat races are very popular in the south of England. Grandfather told me all about them. I think he’s always wanted to attend one.”
“Perhaps all of us can. The most famous is the McCaulty Racetrack near Eastbourne. They’ve met for years every Saturday from April to October.” He paused a moment, playing with his fork. “I always wanted a racing cat, but the Harker brothers—they’re the big trainers down there—they didn’t think I had enough commitment. Oh, well, we’ll see how you like the competition. They won’t begin until the fourth of April. As for right now, I just thought we would remain in London for a while.”
She kept chewing on that piece of toast. She heard the rustling of the newspaper and said to the painting of very large painted fruits on the opposite wall, “I don’t really feel married at all. I don’t feel at all different than I did last night, except that Aunt Barresford isn’t here, and that, I can tell you, is very nice.”
She was still afraid her world was caved in, he thought. She needed assurance from him and he freely gave it. “Just look at the Mercerault emerald on your finger, Sabrina. That ring has adorned many a Mercerault lady’s finger. I hope you like it since you will wear it until you decide to give it to our son’s bride someday. You’re good and married. There’s nothing for you to fear now, I swear it to you. Folk will come about, they always do. There’ll be a new scandal that will titillate them and they’ll forget all about you. By the time you have our first child, they will remember only that you’re an earl’s granddaughter and that you married a very handsome man who dotes on you. What do you think?”
She supposed that he could be said to dote, at least in the way he treated her, as if she were a shepherdess figurine atop the mantel. No one had ever treated her like that before. It was very depressing. She looked at him as he forked down a thick bite of sirloin. She smiled. “I think you’ve very nice, Phillip. But perhaps there is more than just simple doting?”
“Yes, there is. Now is as good a time to tell you as any. You met Peter Straddling, my solicitor. He will be drawing up the necessary papers so that your funds will return to your name.”
He gave her a fat smile. He knew he was a prince among men. She was just staring at him as if she couldn’t believe she’d heard him aright. Her mouth was actually open. He continued, his voice soft and rich and utterly serious, “I don’t want you to feel that I ever married you for the wealth you bring me. I am keeping your dowry, that’s as it should be, but your inheritance of ten thousand pounds will be yours again to do with as you please. Also, you’ll have a quarterly allowance.”
She was still as a stone and wore a particularly vacant look on her face.
“What don’t you understand?”
“I just don’t understand you, my lord.”
“The bloody ten thousand pounds is yours again, that’s all. What’s to understand? What’s right is right. There’s nothing more to it than that.”
Sabrina carefully lowered her fork to her plate. “But there was no reason for you to do that. Why did you do it?”
“I told you. I don’t need your money. I don’t want anyone saying that’s why I married you. For heaven’s sake, Sabrina, you might at least thank me. You’re quite independent now.”
She felt the anger bubbling up in her, but it was a helpless anger, an impotent anger, one that was going to choke her if she didn’t do something, say something, ah, but to say anything would make her look like an ungrateful idiot. Still, she just couldn’t help herself. She slowly rose from her chair, splaying her hands on the table. “Is it, my lord, that you believe that since I’m only a simple female, such concepts involving bargains and honor are beyond my ability to comprehend? It isn’t my money, Phillip. We made a bargain, a business agreement, don’t you remember? The moment you accepted my offer, it was your money.”
“Our bargain,” he said mildly, “was at your insistence.” He shrugged. “Listen, Sabrina, that offer of yours allowed you to save face and the both of us to do what had to be done, namely marry before you were buried under the fast-accumulating piles of nastiness.”
She leaned toward him now. He saw the furious pulse in her neck. She was clearly enraged. But what had he done? “You make me ill. You are so smug, so certain you are the titan of generosity.” She was shaking now. “How dare you treat me like some brainless little female whose only motive was to lure your high and mighty lordship into marriage? Save face, ha! What I offered you in return for your precious Mercerault name was all that I could, my lord. It isn’t a piddling amount of money. It’s a great deal. It was an honorable offer and I had thought that your acceptance was to be taken in the same light.”
He said slowly, not understanding her fury but certainly feeling it, “Why are you twisting what happened? I have never even hinted that anything you’ve done was to lure me into marrying you. I saved your hide, and that’s the long and short of it.
“I saved you, Sabrina
. It’s the truth. Get used to it. Also, get used to having your money back. What the devil is wrong with you? Didn’t you hear what I just said? Good Lord, I must be losing what little bit of brain I still possess.”
“Your brain is your own problem, my lord. You refuse to see the point. Why do you want to destroy my honor and treat me like some idiot? Surely you can understand that.”
He rose slowly now, their faces not a foot apart. “Very well, madam, it will be as you wish. I shall keep your bloody money, all ten thousand pounds of it. Maybe I’ll even gamble it away, though I’ve never enjoyed gambling that much. Further, madam, if you wish it, we can hold a reckoning at the end of each quarter. I will expect you not to exceed your allowance. Is that what you want, Sabrina, to dance to my tune?”
She was shaking. It wasn’t his tune she was dancing to, it was society’s tune. But he represented society. He represented all the ridiculous strictures that had brought her low. She said, “Anything, Phillip, anything is preferable to being in your debt. Even the humiliation of a quarterly accounting. As for your noble male honor, I hope that you choke on it.”
“I wanted you to get your spirit back after you were safely wedded to me, madam. However, if that means that you’re going to be an irrational, stubborn mule, a girl who is so trapped in her petty little concerns that—”