Claiming His Wife (8 page)

That was too new of an experience for
even her to be brazen about.

"Belted?"  Irene whispered,
looking horrified.  "He belted you?"

Nodding, Cynthia smiled sweetly.
 "When I snuck into his bedroom and tried to seduce
him."

Grace burst out laughing,
quickly setting her teacup down on the table so that it didn't
spill.  The laughter looked much more natural on her face than
the forlorn expression she'd been wearing for most of the morning,
so Cynthia was glad.  Her own eyes sparkled merrily.  She
might not be an acknowledged beauty like Eleanor or Grace, but both
of them seemed to like her. Irene was too polite to be rude, even
if she was scandalized, but she didn't seem to dislike Cynthia, for
all her disapproval.  

They were a diverse group, not just in
looks, but also in temperament.  Despite Grace's maudlin
demeanor when she'd first been introduced, Cynthia recognized the
spark and fire of a fellow troublemaker in her.  The same
spark that she'd felt from Eleanor.  Irene would be the one to
keep them toeing the line, she was sure.  Shocking her was
quite a bit of fun, and it was becoming increasingly obvious that
Cynthia wasn't the only one who felt so.   The Countess would
probably approve whole-heartedly of Irene as a calming influence on
Cynthia.  For herself, Cynthia wondered if the prim redhead,
with her aura of innocence, might be corruptible. 

"But you aren't married yet!"
 Irene said, sounding exasperated, as if she had no idea what
Cynthia had been thinking.

"But we will be soon," she countered.
 "He'd already touched me anyway, after spanking me in the
carriage.  What difference could it make?"

"Now I know where Alex is
getting his ideas from."  The unexpected statement from Grace
had all three women looking at her curiously.  She hadn't
spoken loudly, but her words had dropped into silence while Irene
had been absorbing Cynthia's logic and Eleanor had been watching
Irene with amusement.  Seeing them all staring at her, Grace
felt a blush rising in her own cheeks.

Listening to the other women talk
about their own experiences had been quite a relief.  She'd
managed not to think about her first spanking for the past few
days, although she'd also avoided earning another one.  Being
put over Alex's knee again, so intimately exposed to him, and so
horribly vulnerable afterwards, was not something she would repeat
by choice. 

Especially right now.
 She knew very well that Hugh was in love with his wife, and
that Edwin was as well - no matter what Nell thought.  It
followed that the third member of their triumvirate would also
marry for something other than convenience.  All of the men
spanked their wives, not maliciously, but because they cared enough
to correct their behavior.  In Eleanor's case, it sounded like
sometimes it happened for other reasons as well.  When she'd
first set out to estrange herself from Alex, she'd felt sure that
she would drive him away; it would be a much easier way to handle a
wife once she was no longer convenient anymore.  

Instead, he had tracked her down,
announced his intention to reconcile, and when she'd insulted and
cursed at him, he hadn't shut her out or hit her... he'd spanked
her.   

Grace felt more brutally confused than
ever to think that her broken marriage had something common with
the loving ones of her friends.

"Alex spanked you?"  Irene asked
looking horrified.  She shook her head, her voice dropping to
a mere murmur as her green eyes unfocused, as if she was looking at
something only she could see.  "I didn't really think he
would... not even after..."

"After what?" Grace asked, both
curious as to what Irene was referring and eager to turn the
conversation away from herself.

Blinking, Irene looked almost
surprised that she'd spoken out loud.  For all the blushing
that the ladies had been doing over tea, none of them rivaled the
bright pink color that Irene's face turned now.  It clashed
horribly with her hair.  Her eyes darted around to the other
two ladies, but both of them were just as curious as Grace was.
 

"Hugh showed Alex how to
spank me," Irene whispered, her face turning nearly scarlet as a
tomato.  Grace's jaw dropped, Eleanor groaned and Cynthia
looked enthralled.  “Several weeks ago.”

“He would,” Eleanor muttered. She
looked at Grace apologetically. “After our father taught him, I can
only imagine that Hugh would take up the mantle of an
instructor.”

“In his defense, I had accused him of
beating me, in front of Alex,” Irene admitted.  She sighed and
looked a bit guiltily at Eleanor.  “That was before I really
knew the difference between a spanking and a beating.  I
thought he was a monster, but as he was instructing Alex, I
realized how careful he was being with me.  He was only
proving to Alex that I wasn’t being abused.”

“Apparently Alex soaked it
up,” Grace said.  Strangely, it hadn’t even occurred to her to
think that he’d actually
beaten
her.  Of course, she’d actually been hit by
her own father before, and not on her bottom.  Her father had
never cuddled her afterwards either.  It was fascinating to
know all the different reactions that the women had to being
disciplined by their husbands.

Eleanor was the only one who had grown
up being spanked, obviously.  She had been resistant at first,
to having such discipline continue in her marriage, but she’d also
found that it was very different being spanked by her
husband.  There were aspects that she certainly enjoyed. 
Sheltered Irene had been horrified and frightened by her first
experience, and it had taken her some time to realize that Hugh had
actually not brutalized her when he’d disciplined her.  Now
she knew, and her and Hugh’s relationship was better than
ever.  She’d never actively court punishment, however, like
Cynthia was.  Cynthia’s enjoyment went far beyond anything
Eleanor expressed.  And then there was Grace herself, who was
confused by her reactions and wondering what it all meant to
Alex.

Should she be worried that
he’d watched Irene being spanked? She considered the brief stab of
jealousy she felt for just a moment before dismissing it. There was
no way Hugh would be willing to share any significant part of his
wife. Grace had known him for too long to think that Alex had seen
anything worth her being jealous over. Cringing, she remembered
that she didn’t
want
to be jealous over anything to do with him anymore, she
shouldn’t care what he had done or seen with anyone. Not when she
still wasn’t sure of his motives.

After behaving the way he
wanted and following his lead for the past few days, which had been
the easiest route when she’d been trapped in a carriage with him,
she was feeling much more rebellious.  So he wanted to
reconcile?  Perhaps he thought she would just fall in line, as
she had so far, but now they were no longer traveling and she had
some allies here.  If they were going to reconcile, they were
going to do so on her terms. 

She refused to have a
marriage that was based on nothing more than his
business agreement with her father and his
need for a legitimate heir.  If he wanted to
reconcile only to show London that he had control over his wife,
then he was going to be sorely disappointed.  Perhaps he
thought disciplining her would keep her in line and that’s when he
decided to reconcile, but a spanking or even a birching wasn’t
going to keep her from behaving exactly as she wanted if he wasn’t
willing to give her what she needed from their marriage as
well.

As if her thoughts had
conjured the devil, the door to Eleanor's drawing room opened, and
he was standing there, next to Lord Hyde.  Even beside Hyde's
dramatic dark looks, her eyes were still immediately drawn to Alex.
 His gaze skipped over the ladies in the room, landing only
briefly on Irene, but without the usual broad smile he reserved for
her.  Something in Grace's chest unclenched and she realized
how tense seeing the two of them looking at each other still made
her.  But for once, Alex was behaving the way she’d always
wanted him to; his attention didn't immediately go to Irene,
instead it passed over her after only a moment to land and fix upon
his wife.  Now she truly did believe Alex's apology, and
Irene's.  She'd appreciated both, but deep down, some part of
her had still doubted. 

"Ladies," Lord Hyde said, with a
charming smile that encompassed the entire room.  A practiced
rake's smile, but the glow in his eyes was for Eleanor alone.
 The look he gave her was the way Grace had always wished Alex
would look at her.  "I just stopped in to inform you that
you're all invited for dinner, along with your husbands - and
future husband," he amended slightly as he glanced at Cynthia.
 She beamed happily at him and he smiled back before returning
his gaze to Eleanor.  "I've already told Cook and Mrs. Hester
to prepare dinner for eight."

"Thank you," Eleanor murmured,
smoothing her hands over her skirt in an almost nervous gesture.
 She nodded her head at Alex.  "Lord Brooke.  Have
you met Miss Bryant?"  Gracefully she gestured at Cynthia, who
was staring at Alex with fascination.  Most likely because of
the information Grace had just revealed about his spanking
tendencies.  If Irene had been gazing at him in such a manner,
Grace would have bristled, but from Cynthia it didn't feel
threatening at all.  

"Lord Brooke," she said, very
prettily, standing and dropping into a brief curtsy, proving that
she could behave when she wanted to.  

Alex studied her in that somber,
serious way of his, before giving her a slight bow in return, from
the doorway.  "Miss Bryant, a pleasure."  His eyes
returned to Grace before he backed slightly out of the room, giving
Edwin space to reach for the door again. 

"We'll be in the library
till dinner,” Edwin said to his wife, giving her a last, soft smile
before closing the door behind him.

With the door safely shut between
herself and her husband, Grace began to breathe again.
 

"Wonderful!" trilled Cynthia as she
returned to her seat.  "A whole meal without having to talk
about the wedding!"  She rolled her eyes.  "The Countess
is relentless."

******

Gathered in the billiards room, Wesley
quickly claimed Alex as a partner, while Hugh and Edwin paired up.
Neither of them had played with Alex back in London, so they didn’t
realize what a smashing player he was. Wesley and Alex trounced
them for the first game, as Wesley had always been a keen billiards
player as well, and Hugh and Edwin had demanded a change of
partners for the second game. Both of them were reasonably good
players, but Wesley and Alex excelled at the trickiest shots and
angles.

Conversation, which had been mostly
about the game itself, began to turn round to the ladies down the
hall. Alex had enjoyed seeing Grace with the other women, smiling
and laughing as if she was one of them in more ways than just
friendship. The others were all happy wives and he wanted her to be
one too. Perhaps their influence was just what she
needed.

“I’m glad you and Grace could make it
in for the wedding,” said Wesley, coming to stand beside him while
Edwin took a shot. His slightly raised brows also indicated his
surprise that he’d gotten Grace to accompany him at all. “I was
surprised you came together.”

“It took some convincing on my part,”
he said. Hugh tilted his head, watching them from across the table
and obviously listening in. Only Edwin seemed to be focusing on the
billiards table, finding the perfect angle for his shot. “But she
seems to be coming round.” He hesitated for only a moment before
continuing. Part of him didn’t want to share too much of his
marital life with Grace, but another part recognized that these men
all had much more experience in administering discipline to their
wives and so far that was where he felt he’d made the most progress
in regards to Grace. “I ah… disciplined her on the
trip.”

The balls on the billiards table
clicked, one of them sinking into the far pocket as Edwin
straightened, raising his dark brows at Alex. “Not to force her
compliance I hope?”

Although the question was mild, there
was an undercurrent of danger there if Alex answered incorrectly.
None of these men would take it kindly if Alex was spanking Grace
for anything other than deserved punishments. From someone else he
might have taken offense, but he knew that Edwin and the others
only had Grace’s best interests at heart and he couldn’t be upset
about that.

“For cursing at me and insulting me,”
he answered. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Hugh nod his
approval. “I won’t tolerate that, even if she’s still angry at me.
Which she is, but I would never punish her for her feelings, only
for the way she expresses them if she becomes disrespectful or
rude.” He felt the need to explain that. Even though Edwin, Hugh
and Wesley were all his friends, they hadn’t known him as long as
they’d known each other, and he wanted them to completely
understand where he was coming from.

“That’s good,” said Hugh, giving him a
sympathetic smile. “She’s probably going to be holding a grudge
against you for a while. You could wear your hand out and still not
make a dent in her emotions.”

“Plus, all you’d be teaching her is to
keep quiet about what she’s feeling, and it’s hard enough to tell
what a woman wants even when she’s talking to you.” Edwin said as
he walked around the table, looking for his next shot.