Claiming His Wife (Domestic Discipline 4)

To Grace's surprise, Peters slipped in the door just after Mrs. Stewart slipped out. For a moment they just stared at each other. The man she'd trusted to keep her safe, whom she'd occasionally confided in, the one and only man that had stood by her through all the years she'd been apart from Alex. The only man she'd allowed herself to rely on in any way.

No wonder it had hurt so much when he'd let Alex in the door.

"Hello Peters," she said, softly, her voice heavy with resignation. The bitterness, the anger was gone, as she understood that she'd been let down by yet another man in her life. But then again, had she really? Peters must have known Alex's plan. Perhaps he even thought he'd been doing the best thing for her.

"My lady," Peters said, just as softly. There was remorse on his usually inexpressive face, which made her feel a bit better. The ton might have referred to Alex as "stone face" because of his usual lack of expression, but her h

usband had nothing on a well-trained butler. "Would it be possible for me to have a moment of your time?"

Such a request was unprecedented. Some bitter, petty part of Grace wanted to deny him, to lash back at him for hurting her, but she pushed it down as unworthy. Just a month ago, she probably would have ignored the small voice inside of her head to let him speak. She hadn't cared much for anyone's pain or feelings but her own, and only her closest friends had escaped that indifference. Although, even there, she'd had a waspish tongue as well. It shamed her to think of how poorly she'd occasionally treated Eleanor, who had stood by her side anyway. She wanted to be a better person now. In fact, she felt as though she already was. Even if it turned out Alex just wanted an heir or needed her for a business deal, Grace didn't want to be that bitterly unhappy person that she'd turned into.

"That's fine, Peters, come on in," she said, doing her best to keep her voice even.

Standing across the table from her, hands at his sides, he looked a bit like he was facing a firing squad. It was almost enough to make her smile, but the very serious expression on his face helped her keep her own in check.

"I just wanted to apologize, my lady," he said, bowing his head slightly. "I didn't get a chance to before you left. Although I had no choice but to follow my lord's orders and keep his involvement in your staff a secret, I want you to know that I never bore you any ill will and I would have never done anything to upset you if it had been in my power."

Studying the earnest expression on his face, Grace felt another little crack in her heart heal. Peters was an amazing butler, and he truly had done everything he could to keep anyone from upsetting her. She never thought that he'd meant to hurt her, it was just an inevitability that the men she trusted hurt her. Although, unlike Alex and her father, Peters had done his best, within his limitations. Unfortunately, Alex just happened to be one of those limitations.

"Lord Brooke is a good man, my family has been with his for years," Peters continued, after pausing for a moment to see if she would respond. "My instructions, when he first asked me to seek a post with you, were to ensure that you never came to any harm and to protect you from the gossipmongers."

"Not to keep out my lovers?" Grace asked, arching one eyebrow. It was a question that had crossed her mind more than once, when she'd allowed her thoughts to dwell on the past and Alex's sudden attitude reversal.

Peters hesitated, and she was fascinated to see a slight blush creep into his cheeks. "Lord Brooke never gave me any instruction about ah... male visitors," he said, his head tipping back slightly and she had the impression that he was putting his nose in the air. "And, if you'll excuse my frankness, I thought that perhaps such visitors might jolt him into admitting to the fraudulent nature of his own affairs. I didn't realize it would cause further pain on both your parts when I first made my decision to tell him that your flirtations were nothing but flirtations."

"Fraudulent nature?" Grace repeated, trying to understand what Peters was saying.

"Why, yes, I assume his lordship..." Peters' voice tapered off as if realizing that perhaps his assumption about his lordship was just as incorrect this time as it had been the last. "I think perhaps I should let you speak to his lordship first."

"Oh no you don't," Grace glared up at him, pointing her finger accusingly, as she fell back into the pattern of speaking easily and frankly with Peters. They had been together long enough that she didn't often stand on ceremony with him when they were alone. "You owe me. Exactly what about Alex's affairs was fraudulent?"

After shifting his weight back and forth, looking increasingly uncomfortable, Peters blew out a long breath of air. Unlike Grace, he seemed to be clinging to the proper respect between servant and mistress, perhaps to create the emotional distance he needed to answer her.

"Although Lord Brooke didn't give me any specific orders regarding male visitors to your household, he did initially ask for reports on your guests. When he became aware that none of your flirtations were... ah... serious, he decided to embark upon his own. Um, I believe with the intention of making you jealous. To my knowledge, he did not obtain a true mistress until after I had to report your first overnight guest."

Grace's jaw dropped for several reasons. The first being that Alex had cared enough to keep such close tabs on her when she'd initially left him, even as he'd given her the space she'd demanded. Although the presence of his servants in her household had intimated as much, she'd still struggled with the idea that he hadn't just left her completely alone. The second was the knowledge that Alex's first mistress hadn't been anything more than a prop.

That bitch!

That bastard!

When Grace had first left him, heart-broken and crushed, she'd found her self-confidence again in the admiration from other men. Perhaps her husband hadn't cared about her, hadn't valued her as anything but part of a business transaction, but other men found her beautiful and appealing. So she'd flirted. Part of her had even hoped that maybe Alex would come to her, maybe he'd realize that she was worth something for herself. She hadn't actively thought about making him jealous, but that was part of it, she was sure... but the main part had been reassuring herself that she was a beautiful and desirable woman, one who was worth more to men than just her father's money.

Then whispers had come to her that Alex had a mistress, Lady Clarissa Heathmore. A beautiful, tall, icy blonde with dark, haunting eyes. Grace's opposite in every way.

Lady Clarissa had cornered Grace in the retiring room at a ball, mocking her for being unable to keep her husband's attentions, inferring that he'd abandoned Grace rather than the other way round. She'd praised Alex's prowess in bed and told Grace not to expect to return to it any time soon.

One woman is as good as another.

With his choice of Lady Clarissa as his mistress, Grace thought that he'd proven those words. Because if he was content with such a harpy gracing his bed, then he must truly not care what woman gave him pleasure. She'd chosen her very first lover that night, and been lucky that the rake was eager to please her and fully lived up to his reputation. The next morning Grace had had a few regrets, but they were all emotional, not physical, and all of them had easily been dismissed when she'd remembered Lady Clarissa's taunts.

They hadn't been true. Grace was fully willing to believe Peters over that lying tart.

But for Alex to choose such a woman... what the hell had he been thinking? Had he taken Clarissa into his confidence? Told him that he wanted Grace jealous? Encouraged her?

"My lady? My lady, please!" The alarm in Peters' voice finally drew Grace's attention, and she realized that she was standing, fists clenched at her side, fairly quivering with rage.

That blasted bastard. She was going to gut him.