Desire (Notorious 3)

“You should see yourself, Brynn,” her friend observed quietly. “You are positively glowing.”

Pressing a tender kiss on Rupert’s silken forehead, Brynn smiled. “I have always wanted a child of my own.”

“But not a husband?”

“No, not a husband.”

“Well, marriage obviously agrees with you.”

Brynn didn’t reply.

“So do you ever mean to satisfy my curiosity? I was never so shocked in my life as when I received your letter informing me you had wed Wycliff. I gather he proposed because of the curse, but I thought you meant never to marry. I am simply dying to know how it came about. Especially since he was considered such a profoundly elusive prize.”

Brynn bit back a sigh, knowing she couldn’t avoid her dearest friend’s pointed questions, no matter how intimate. “I did not have much choice. My family’s financial circumstances had grown dire. And Lord Wycliff offered to fund Theo’s education.”

“Are you happy, then? I couldn’t deduce a thing from your letters.”

“Happy?” Brynn went still, dismayed to realize her feelings of late had indeed bordered on happiness. Dangerously so.

“I am happy enough,” she murmured. “At least now. The initial weeks were… exceedingly disagreeable. We fought all the time. Lucian purchased me for a broodmare, and I resented his high-handedness-so much that I fear I became a shrew. We were both miserable.”

“But it is better now?”

She looked away. “We no longer quarrel, thankfully. We came to a truce of sorts.”

“Well, you could not expect two strangers to get along perfectly. And I should think you wouldn’t find the marriage bed in the least unpleasant. Wycliff is rumored to be quite a passionate man, for all his elegance and sophistication. You don’t mean to tell me the rumors lie?”

Brynn felt herself flush. “No, they don’t lie.”

“And that is what worries you?” Meredith asked. “It’s only natural that you would be swayed by his legendary charm. Wycliff has never had the least trouble winning female hearts. But there is real danger if you come to fall in love with him.”

“Yes,” Brynn agreed. She was finding it more and more difficult to battle the unexpected threat to her heart. She was becoming ensnared in Lucian’s potent spell, just as she’d feared she would be. “I admit,” she said in a low voice, “that terrifies me.”

Meredith gazed at her in sympathy. “So what do you mean to do?”

“I don’t know,” Brynn murmured. “I don’t dare let myself become too enamored of him. That is why I… We made a pact. Lucian agreed that after I bear him an heir, we can go our separate ways.”

Meredith’s expression showed dismay. “Separate ways? Does that mean you would have to give up your child to him?”

Brynn felt her heart lurch. Absurdly, she hadn’t considered that far into the future, although she certainly should have. Lucian wanted a son so badly, he would never allow her to keep their child if she left him.

“Could you endure that?” her friend asked quietly.

Brynn’s throat tightened. “I’m not certain I could.”

“Well,” Meredith said with sudden cheerful briskness, “there is no use stewing over that bridge until you must cross it. And perhaps by then you will have found a way to break the curse.”

Brynn stared, struck by her friend’s casual remark. Was it possible the curse could be broken?

“Perhaps so,” she murmured slowly, not daring to let herself hope.

Her defenses, however, suffered yet another blow the following week. Brynn was about to descend to breakfast when she heard a commotion issuing from the floor above. Curiously mounting the service stairs, she followed the din to the serving maids’ dormer. To her dismay, she found her maid, Meg, on her knees, sobbing, while the housekeeper stood over her, railing at the frightened girl.

Both women ceased their clamor when they caught sight of Brynn, but almost instantly Meg burst into renewed weeping.

“Oh, milady,” she pleaded, “don’t let her turn me out!”

“Be quiet, you disgraceful girl!” Mrs. Poole snapped.