A Proper Lord's Wife (Properly Spanked Legacy 2)

“Jane, enough.”

“They thought it hilarious that your attempt at revenge ended so badly.”

He pulled her into the parlor at the end of the hall, checked it was empty of errant couples, and slammed the door.

“How dare you?” he said, dragging her to the sofa. He didn’t think, only reacted as he threw her over his lap. “How dare you cause such a scene in front of everyone?” He flipped up her skirts and petticoats, baring her bottom. “In front of Ophelia, my friends, my parents, Felicity and Carlo, and the entire ton?” As he scolded her, he spanked her with hard, steady smacks, though she kicked and fought him. “Is that any way for a proper lord’s wife to behave?”

“You’ve behaved worse,” she said. “How dare you punish me?”

“Because you’re my wife, and you’re in dire need of a lesson in ballroom etiquette.”

“You loved her, not me,” she wailed.

The piteousness of her cry snapped him out of his disciplinary fervor. He was too angry to mete out a punishment, and she too frenzied to benefit from it. He pulled her skirts down to cover the scarlet handprints on her backside and let her up.

“So what if I loved her?” he asked. “You little fool, that was months ago, and now she’s married to someone else.”

“To Lord Wescott, and how did you exact your revenge?” Her chest heaved, as if her heart wished to escape her bodice. “Tell me! Never mind, you needn’t tell me, because I just heard the whole story from a group of giggling women.”

“They exaggerated it, I’m sure.”

“Your sister told me the truth afterward, she and Elizabeth, and I’m grateful someone finally did. You should have told me, Edward.”

“Stop shouting at me.” He put his hands on his hips, not sure what to do with them. He wanted to embrace her, to apologize, at the same time he wanted to spank her some more. She’d embarrassed him badly, behaving like a jealous madwoman in front of their entire social circle.

But she was also very upset.

“I’m sorry you had to learn it that way,” he said, tempering his tone. “I’m sorry you had to learn it at all. I didn’t want you to know the truth, Jane, because it wouldn’t have changed anything. It would only have turned you against me, and against our marriage, and while I proposed to you in error, I have been determined from the start to make the most of things.”

“The most of things?” She was already tearful, but now she burst into bitter weeping. “I was a mistake. All of this was a mistake. I came to this marriage in love with you, honored to marry you, like the stupidest of idiots.”

“Don’t say that.”

She paused in her tirade to rub her bottom. He should not have spanked her, not at this time, no matter how angry he’d been.

“Whether I say it or not, it’s the truth, isn’t it?” she cried. “When I think of those early days, how hard I tried to please you, and you were in love with her. You were angry about her. Do you still love her?”

“No, of course not. Jane, I’m married to you now. Ophelia was a silly infatuation. Now she is only a friend.”

“A friend who is so much more beautiful than me. So much more talented and…and refined.”

He feared for her, she was so upset. He offered a handkerchief, but she wouldn’t take it from him, choosing to wipe her tears aside with her own trembling hands. She kept ten feet of space between them, no matter how he tried to approach her. When he opened his arms to offer her solace, she warded him off with upraised hands.

“I don’t trust you anymore,” she said. “You might as well be a stranger to me. Our whole marriage was built on a mistake, on vengefulness, dishonesty.”

“That doesn’t matter now.” He tried to sound calm. “Jane, none of it matters now. Wescott and I made our peace at the park the other day. You were there, you saw us settle our differences.”

“I didn’t realize what those differences were. You said he lost your regard because of how he treated my sister. I thought you were on my side, on our side. I thought you were so proper and honorable.”

She spit out the words as if he disgusted her. He wanted to protest, to say that he was proper and honorable. “I didn’t tell you the whole story, that’s true. I wanted to protect you. I wanted to forget the things I couldn’t change. I’ve tried to make the most of our marriage, to be a caring husband to you. It hasn’t been bad, has it?”

“I don’t know anymore.” She was looking at him as if he were some strange man she’d just met. “I don’t know anything. I don’t know you, Edward.”