"It is because of a lot of things. Thank you for taking such good care of her until I came home. I do wish Mother would control what comes out of her mouth, but I suppose it isn't to be expected."
"No. She will come around eventually. If she becomes too outrageous I will simply threaten to move her to the dower house."
"An excellent threat."
"Exactly."
The brothers grinned at each other. Douglas said, "I was vastly surprised when your wife and her brother arrived on the doorstep. Hollis knew immediately, curse his damned hide, knew the very instant he saw her that she was quality and that she belonged here. There is another thing. At first she avoided me. I couldn't figure out why. I was polite, I was solicitous, I tried to make her welcome. Then I realized she didn't trust me. She didn't trust me as a man. That I found very curious, inexplicable really. Why is she unhappy, Ryder?"
"She's afraid of me. She was probably afraid of you too."
There was utter silence. Douglas said, clearly disbelieving, "That's utterly absurd. Why would your wife be afraid of me? I did nothing untoward. Nor have I ever known a woman to be remotely afraid of you. Why, they pursue you, they won't let you alone. All of them want to get you out of your britches."
"Things change."
"Would you like to tell me what happened in Jamaica? No, no, not about Uncle Brandon leaving you Kimberly Hall and the fiasco surrounding all that, but why exactly Sophie Stanton-Greville doesn't want to be here with you as your wife, why she ran out of your bedchamber, seemingly terrified."
"It isn't a very uplifting story, Douglas. There have been many men in her life and none of them were nice." God, he thought, what an asinine thing to say. "That is," he amended carefully, "the circumstances of Sophie and all these men weren't very nice."
"I understand perfectly. No, no, you don't have to strain yourself to be more equivocal. If you need me, Ryder, I'm here."
"Thank you, Douglas."
"The boy is delightful. Was he born with the clubfoot?"
"Yes, he was. He rides very well. Do you think he would survive at Eton?"
"Let's give him a while longer to adjust, I think."
"She hates sex. She hates me touching her."
Douglas simply looked at his brother.
"Damnation, but it's very complicated," Ryder said, and plowed his fingers through his hair, making it stand on end. "I shouldn't speak so personally about my wife. The thing is she doesn't want me, never did want me. I manipulated her into marrying me. Can you imagine that? Me being the one to want to marry? Me, forcing a woman to marry me? But I did it and I'm not sorry for it. She didn't want to marry any man."
Douglas waited, saying nothing, until finally, "This is passing strange. If you wish to speak more about it, I'm always here. Now, I must tell you—Emily had twins. Unfortunately neither of them survived. She is looking forward to seeing you. She said something Hollis didn't completely understand, something about it being better this way because it wasn't fair, that she hadn't wanted to do this to you."
"I will see her as soon as I can."
"Do you understand what she meant?"
Ryder simply shrugged and looked out the window.
Douglas picked up a singularly beautiful black onyx paperweight and tossed it from one hand to the other. "I suppose you've decided what to do about all your women and your children."
"Yes, I've given it a lot of thought. There wasn't much else to do coming home."
"What, no available ladies on board ship?"
Ryder gave him an austere look.
"Just remember, Ryder, your life before you married Sophie was yours and you were free to do whatever pleased you. As was mine."
Ryder gave his brother a crooked smile. "I doubt she'd even care if I paraded a hundred women in front of her nose. She'd probably beg them to keep me away from her."
"One never knows about a wife, even one who appears to want to slit one's throat. Sophie just might surprise you, that is, if she does find out about all the other women."
"Ha."