A Vow of Obligation (Marriage by Command 3)

Ironically, in spite of all that had happened, Tia seemed aghast at that assurance. She backed off a step from Navarre, her full attention locking to him. ‘Are you going to allow her to speak to me like that?’

‘Tawny is my wife and this is her home. If she doesn’t want you staying here in the wake of that scandal in London, which affects me as much as you, I’m afraid you will have to listen to her,’ he spelt out.

A little of Tawny’s rigid tension eased.

‘You should be putting me first—what’s the matter with you?’ Tia yelled at him accusingly, golden hair bouncing on her shoulders, slender arms spread in dramatic emphasis.

‘I’m putting my marriage first but I should have done that sooner,’ Navarre murmured levelly and, although he spoke quietly, his deep dark drawl carried. ‘Allow me to tell Tawny the truth about our relationship, Tia—’

Tia stalked back towards him, her beautiful face flushed with furious disbelief. ‘Absolutely not … you can’t tell her … not under any circumstances!’

‘We don’t have a choice,’ Navarre declared, his impatience patent while strain and something else Tawny couldn’t distinguish warred in his set features as he looked expectantly at the older woman.

Tia shot Tawny a fulminating appraisal. ‘Don’t tell her. I don’t trust her—’

‘But I do …’ Navarre reached out to Tawny and after a moment of surprise and hesitation she moved closer to accept his hand and let him draw her beneath one arm. ‘Tawny is part of my life now. You can’t ignore her, you can’t treat her as if she is of no account.’

‘If you tell her, if you risk my marriage and my career just to please her, I’ll never forgive you for it!’ Tia sobbed in a growing rage.

‘Your marriage is already at risk but that’s not an excuse to put mine in jeopardy as well.’ Navarre’s arm tightened round Tawny’s taut shoulders. ‘Tawny … Tia is my mother, but that is a very big secret which you can’t share with anyone at all outside this room—’

‘Your m-mother?’ Tawny stammered, completely disconcerted by that shattering claim and twisting her head to stare at him. ‘For goodness’ sake, she’s not old enough to be your mother!’

Navarre was wryly amused. ‘Tia is a good deal older than she looks.’

Tia went rigid with resentment at that statement. ‘I was only a child when I gave birth to you—’

‘She was twenty-one but pr

etending to be a teenager at the time,’ Navarre extended wearily. ‘I’ll tell you the rest of the story some other time but right now the fact that she is my mother and that we like to stay in regular contact is really all that’s relevant.’

‘His … mother,’ Tawny framed weakly, still studying the glamorous older woman in disbelief, for, according to what Navarre had just told her, Tia had to be into her fifties yet she could still comfortably pass for being a woman in her late thirties. Shock was still gripping Tawny so hard that she could hardly think straight.

‘But that can never come out in public,’ Tia proclaimed, angrily defensive. ‘I’ve told lies. I’ve kept secrets. It would destroy my reputation and I don’t want Luke to know that his own mother is younger than I am—’

‘I bet she’s not a beauty like you, though,’ Tawny commented thoughtfully and earned an almost appreciative glance from the woman whom she had just discovered to be her mother-in-law.

‘I think Luke could adapt,’ Navarre interposed soothingly. ‘You’re still the same woman he loved and married.’

Tia shuddered. ‘He would never forgive me for lying to him.’

‘Why were you crying on our wedding day?’ Tawny enquired to combat the simple fact that she was still dizzily thinking, She can’t be his mother, she can’t be!

‘Do I look like I want to be a grandmother?’ Tia demanded in a tone of horror. ‘Do I look that old?’

‘I don’t think you’ll ever be asked to carry out that role,’ Tawny responded drily, weary of the woman’s enormous vanity and concern about her age while she instinctively continued to study those famous features in search of a likeness between mother and son. And she realised that when she removed their very different colouring from the comparison there was quite a definite similarity in bone structure. He was so good-looking because his mother was gorgeous, she registered numbly.

‘Right now I only want to lie down and rest. I’m exhausted,’ Tia complained petulantly, treating both her son and his wife to an accusing look as though that were their fault. ‘I assume I can stay now that I’ve shown my credentials.’

‘Yes, of course,’ Tawny confirmed, marvelling that such a selfish personality had ever contrived to win Navarre’s loyalty and tenderness. And yet, without a shadow of a doubt, Tia had. Tawny had not been mistaken over what she had thought she had seen in Navarre when he was with his mother on their wedding day. He cared for the volatile woman.

‘If you want to sort this out with Luke you will have to let him into the secret,’ Navarre warned his mother levelly.

Tia told him to mind his own business with a tartness that was very maternal, but which would have been more suited to a little boy than an adult male. Gaspard was summoned to show Tia to her room. Tawny had offered but was imperiously waved away, Tia clearly not yet prepared to accept a friendly gesture from her corner. Tawny grasped that she had a possessive mother-in-law to deal with, for Tia undoubtedly resented Navarre’s loyalty to his wife.

Tia swept out and the door closed. Navarre looked at Tawny.

Tawny winced and said limply, ‘Wow, your mother’s quite a character.’