It took her a moment to realize what he was saying. She just shook her head at him. “I tore the flounce on my gown and had to pin it up. If you’d only asked me to dance when I got back to the ballroom, I would have told you that.”
“Did you come up with that or did Richard?”
She became very still.
“I don’t blame you for keeping quiet. I wouldn’t tell me either. Unfortunately for you, Sabrina, I saw you go to that very private little room of yours with Richard Clarendon.”
“What are you saying, my lord?”
“How formal you’ve become, but perhaps the situation warrants it. What I’m saying, Sabrina, is that I gave you the opportunity to prove your indifference to Clarendon but you did just the opposite. You waltzed with him, then immediately left with him.”
She slowly rose from the stool, her face flooding with angry color. “You’re saying that Richard was here so you could conduct some sort of test?”
“Yes. You didn’t pass.”
“I don’t believe this, Phillip, I truly don’t. You have the gall to tell me that you didn’t ever believe me when I told you I had no interest in Richard? You have the further gall to tell me that’s the only reason he was here? To tempt your wife?”
“No, of course not.” He rose, staring at her, his hands at his sides. “I can well control my own wife without recourse to subterfuge.”
“If this wasn’t subterfuge, then what was it?”
“It was nothing more than an opportunity for you to prove yourself to me. As I said, you failed. Now I must question your feelings toward Clarendon.”
“If I had a knife, I’d stab you in your faithless hypocritical heart! You bastard, I’m not the faithless one here, it’s you. You throw Richard up at me with no evidence of anything at all, yet you even call me by your own damned mistress’s name. It’s Martine, damn you!”
She picked up a scent bottle and hurled it at him. Then she wanted to kill him because he laughed and ducked it, then laughed harder. Then he stopped laughing. He said, “I am a man. You are my wife. You will obey me and you will not even consider being unfaithful.”
She was shuddering with rage. No, she didn’t want to throw anything else at him. It was childish. She had to use her wits, but it was difficult, for he made her so angry her brain dissolved into red mist. She drew several deep breaths. “I want you to leave, Phillip. I can’t deal with any more of this now.”
He walked to her and took her arms in his hands. He shook her slightly until she looked up at him. “You will deal with anything I tell you to. You are my wife, this is my house.”
“You are my husband.”
“Certainly. You will always have the protection of my name. I simply shan’t allow you to tarnish it. Listen carefully to me, Sabrina. I will not tolerate Richard Clarendon as your lover, or any other man for that matter.”
“I told Richard that I was no longer a virgin. Naturally he believed that you’d taken my virginity when I was vilely ill at the hunting box. I set him straight. I told him that you’d taken me three times and that I found it ridiculous for anyone to believe that a woman could ever be willingly seduced. It is humiliating and wretched what men do to women, what you did to me. I don’t want a lover, Phillip. It’s laughable even to think about it.”
He looked utterly appalled. “You told Richard that I didn’t give you pleasure?”
She could only stare up at him. She would never understand a man’s mind. Her chin went up as high as she could get it. “I told him you were a clod.”
“No,” he said slowly, studying her pale face, “no, you love me. You would never tell another man something that would lessen my worth.”
“None of this makes any sense. I either love you, in which case, how could I ever think to take a lover?”
“I don’t know if you really love me. I think it’s just infatuation, which might lead you astray, as in leading you directly to Richard. He has a way with women, I know that, only I do wish that you hadn’t told him I’d been a clod. I wasn’t, really, it’s just that because of what Trevor did to you, you’re still frozen and—” His eyes were on her face now. He didn’t say anything more, just stared down at her. He lightly touched his fingertips to her cheek.
“So soft,” he said, then leaned down to kiss her. She leapt back.
“How can you want to do that to me when you think I’m a horrible woman?”
“No, it’s just possible that perhaps you could be led down a path that would end in a place that wouldn’t be good for you, a place I wouldn’t like you to be.”
She said flatly, “You sound like a jealous husband, Phillip. Where there is no love—and surely you have none for me—then the ground must be too arid to cultivate such a feeling.”
“I will never be jealous of a woman, particularly if the woman is my damned wife. I won’t be cuckolded, Sabrina. You had your flirtation with Clarendon this evening, but there it will end. I would that you contrive to show some gratitude after all I have done for you.”
She’d sworn never to throw anything again, but she just had no control over the hand that reached down and grabbed her hairbrush. She watched that hand rise, then hurl the hairbrush at him. It hit him on the jaw, a clean hit, that caused him pain. The hairbrush bounced off and hit the carpet at his feet. He didn’t say anything, just rubbed his jaw.