With His Ring (Brides of Bath Book 2) (35 page)

Talk of her stomach made Glee wonder if she
would ever have experienced morning sickness were she to have
conceived a child. Poor Diana had suffered terribly from the
complaint. Felicity, being of the same blood as Glee, was never
sick a day. Such thoughts had the effect of causing Glee to grow
even more morose. If only she had been able to conceive Blanks's
babe. 'Twould be something of Blanks to fill the aching void of his
absence.

For she knew her departure from Bath would
cement the irrevocable break with Blanks. She had served her
purpose. Now Blanks would be free from the unwanted ties of
matrimony.

* * *

Having purchased the latest edition of the
Edinburgh Review, Blanks returned to the townhouse. "Have my wife
and brother returned from Miss Arbuckle's?" Gregory asked the
butler.

Hampton avoided eye contact with his master.
"It appears Mrs. Blankenship had a change of heart. Not long after
she left, she returned and ordered the coach-and-four be brought
around while she and her maid rather hurriedly packed for their
return to the country.”

When he had heard coach-and-four mentioned,
Gregory's heart tripped. Had Glee gone to Hornsby Manor? Or Sutton
Hall? Had some emergency arisen that called for her attention? He'd
miss her like the devil. "Did Mrs. Blankenship, perchance, leave me
a letter?"

"I couldn't say, sir. I did see her leave
your chamber shortly before she left. It may be that she left some
type of communication in your room."

Nodding, Gregory hastened up the stairs to
his chambers. His stomach oddly disturbed and his pulse erratic, he
walked up to his desk and read Glee's letter.

Then he angrily wadded it up, cursed a blue
streak and threw the ball of velum at the nearest wall. Did the
minx have the effrontery to think he did not want her? Fury rocked
him. Even if he weren't to ever bed her again, he had no desire to
deny himself the pleasure of her company, as painful as it was to
behold her without carrying his passion to its natural
conclusion.

Good Lord, he thought, could Glee be angry
because he refused to indulge in the pleasures of her body? His
mind flashed back to her reaction when he'd told her there was to
be no more lovemaking. She had expressed her unhappiness at her
inability to satisfy him! He laughed loudly and bitterly now.
Nothing in his wretched life had ever satisfied him so
thoroughly.

And he had allowed the poor girl to think
herself undesirable! That had to explain why she had left him. His
first inclination was to hurry after her, to make her listen to him
when he told her how highly he had valued their lovemaking.

But, after more careful consideration, he
realized her departure, though painful now, in the years to come
would be for the best. Being with her day after agonizing day would
only inflict nearly unbearable suffering upon him.

With a bittersweet ache in the vicinity of
his heart, he went down to his library where Jonathan found him a
half hour later.

Gregory's head jerked up from the quarterly
review when he heard angry footsteps outside his door. Then the
door flew open, slamming into the wall behind it and rattling the
paintings on the library wall.

Gregory's brows lowered as he watched his
brother storm into the room and stride up to the desk where Gregory
sat. Jonathan stood there, his eyes flashing angrily, his voice
trembling with rage. "Of all the careless, conscienceless things
you've done in your miserable life, you've now sunk as low as you
can go."

A puzzled look crossed Gregory's pained
face. "Pray, enlighten me. What conscienceless thing have I now
done?"

"You haven't been married a month, and you
flaunt your purple-hued mistress right in your wife's face!"

Gregory pounced to his feet, his hands
fisted, fury in his voice. "I've done no such thing!"

Jonathan watched his brother through
flashing narrowed eyes. "I saw you and the tart. So did Glee. What
was your poor wife to think when she saw you go after the woman and
grab her arm?"

"Dear God!" Gregory groaned, shaking his
head. "It wasn't at all what you think." He looked directly into
his brother's angry eyes. "I give you my word, I severed the . .
.alliance with Carlotta as soon as I offered for Glee. That's the
truth."

"Then explain to me why you two were
together today."

Gregory shrugged. "I know what it must have
looked like, but it was an honest case of two people passing in the
street."

"And you just happened to snatch her arm,
with a worried look on your face?"

"I told you, it's not what you think,"
Gregory mumbled, collapsing back into his chair. "Are you sure Glee
saw this?"

There was a curious mixture of anger and
sorrow on Jonathan's face. "God, man, she wept."

The words struck a blow to Gregory's
windpipe. Finally, he murmured, "So that's why she's left me."

"Can you blame her?"

Gregory shook his head somberly. "Perhaps
it's best this way. I've been an abominable husband."

"Admit it, Gregory. You married her merely
to claim your inheritance. There was never a real marriage."

"Without Glee, I don't care about anything.
Take the money," Gregory said.

"I can't! It's obvious Glee's madly in love
with you."

Gregory looked up hopefully. "Do you really
think so?" He had guessed she might be in love with him, but this
was verification of his most ardent hopes.

"You're a bloody moron if you can't see how
truly she does love you."

"But it was to be a marriage in name only.
She said---"

"She talked you into the marriage, did she
not?"

"How did you know?"

Jonathan laughed. "Because the girl has
always been in love with you, you idiot!"

It was rather like brilliant blue skies
ripping through black clouds. Dare he hope Glee really loved him?
His hopeful heart began to drum with anticipation. "I'd like to
believe it," Gregory said throatily.

"Are you in love with her?" Jonathan asked,
disbelief in his voice.

Gregory solemnly met his brother's gaze. "So
keenly it hurts."

Jonathan edged back onto the arm of an
upholstered chair and lowered his weight onto it. "I believe you
really do. Why else would you risk your fortune by confiding in me
your deceit?"

Gregory shook his head bitterly. "Nothing
matters anymore," he said in a low voice not devoid of pain. "Glee
was—is—my life."

"Then go tell her, man!"

"But. . ." He couldn't tell his brother of
the unnatural dread which filled him when he thought of burying
himself into his beloved wife. "Perhaps it's better this way."

Chapter 31

The first week of her return to Hornsby,
Glee sulked in anger toward Blanks. On her eighth day she allowed
herself to think less bitterly toward him. During one of her
solitary rides through the estate she came upon the dome-topped
folly which was reflected in the shimmering water of the pond
beside it. This was the place where she had forced Blanks to marry
her.

As with any memory connected to Blanks, she
was free of shame no matter how brazen had been her pursuit of him.
From the first, her battle strategy had been to spare no
humiliation in her quest to eventually snare his heart. She laughed
bitterly, with the trees and the now-thick carpet of ruffled green
grass her only audience. True to her pledge, she had drawn the line
at nothing in her fervent drive to earn his love.

And it had all been for naught.

During the succession of empty days of
hollowed existence at Hornsby, Glee had relived every moment, every
loving word or gesture that Blanks had bestowed on her. She came to
realize had she the opportunity to do it all over again, she would
not have hesitated to marry him again.

As she perceived it, there were two reasons
for her failure. The first, of course, was Blanks's affection for
Carlotta Ennis. The other was Glee's own failure to sexually
satisfy him. What a fool she had been to imagine she could compete
with so experienced a lover as Carlotta must be.

As Glee dismounted and led her horse around
the columned perimeter of the folly, her memory of that rainy day
she entrapped Blanks shot through her like a bullet. That was when
her anger began to abate. Blanks could have revealed her wickedness
to George that day, but he sacrificed his own happiness to shield
her. 'Twas such an honorable act.

A man with that kind of nobility was deeply
at odds with one who could lie so convincingly about Carlotta. With
the ice around her heart melting, Glee told herself Blanks lied
merely to spare her own feelings.

He was so gentle and loving. She thought of
his efforts to help Archie and of his gallantry in declaring
himself to her brother. So many acts of his kindnesses—and his
protectiveness toward her—crowded into her mind, imbuing her with
the love she had never been able to deny. Now she came to
appreciate that despite her anger she had used an affectionate
closing in her farewell letter him.

She almost came to regret that she had left,
but she had finally accepted that she could never force Blanks to
love her. And with no hope for his love, all she could want was for
him to be happy. Liberated and happy.

Her eyes moist, she sighed. At least she
would always have her precious memories of the three glorious weeks
she had been Mrs. Gregory Blankenship.

* * *

Not a day, not a minute had agonizingly
dragged by that Gregory's thoughts had not been invaded with
memories of the angel who had been his wife. He took solitary rides
through the countryside in a vain effort to purge Glee from his
thoughts. He avoided the Pump Room and the Assembly Room and
anywhere where someone might inquire about his wife. The wound was
still far too raw for him to deepen.

His brother, who continued to stay at
Gregory's town house in order to further his friendship with Miss
Arbuckle, did not let a minute go by that he did not needle Gregory
about going after Glee. All of which made Gregory realize how much
his brother meant to him.

One afternoon when his memories of Glee
nearly overpowered him, Gregory felt compelled to return to her
chambers. He had been picturing her in the emerald dress he loved
her to wear, and he wondered if she had taken it to wear at
Hornsby. He rifled through her dressing room but saw no sign of the
emerald dress. Instead, she had left behind the dresses he disliked
so excessively. The scant red, the near backless black, the copper
metallic. Upon looking at them, he smiled to himself. That she'd
left them behind curiously pleased him. It was as if her simple
action was a silent concession to him.

As he fingered the soft silk of the red
dress, George's words came back to him. Her brother had said he
believed Glee desired to appear
fast
in order to attract
him. Would that he could believe that.

But, of course, had she truly loved him, she
would not have been able to flee.

That same afternoon he answered
correspondence, he read over his brother's draft of the franchise
article, and he perused and signed a sheaf of papers for Willowby.
All the while George's words kept ringing in his ears. Could Glee
really have meant to appear fast because his preference for fast
women was well known?

Could she, he asked himself, have really
loved him? Jonathan was convinced she did. Gregory even remembered
his own assurances that she must care for him when she offered him
her body.

If he could be convinced of her love, his
own happiness would be as infinite as the air they breathed.

He thought of Glee's closeness to her
sister, and was overcome with a need to ride over to Winston Hall
and speak to Felicity about Glee.

* * *

When Gregory arrived at Winston Hall, he was
pleased to learn George and Thomas had gone shooting. What he had
come to learn concerned only Felicity. Or Felicity and Diana, who
was like a true sister to Glee.

When Felicity entered the drawing room where
he awaited, her brow was creased with worry. That her lovely face
so closely resembled Glee's made him physically ache to see
Glee.

"Tell me those nasty rumors I hear about my
sister returning to Hornsby are not true," Felicity said.

Having risen to greet her and kiss her
proffered hand, Gregory's lips thinned into a grim line. "I'm
afraid they are."

"Oh dear," she said, collapsing into a
chair.

He could not help but notice her tiny waist
finally had thickened to reveal evidence of the babe which grew in
her womb. The thought caused him to stiffen. "Pray, how is Lady
Sedgewick? I trust she has returned to good health?"

Felicity laughed. "Quite good, actually,
though George coddles her unbearably. He still hasn't allowed her
from her chamber. You know how he is where Diana's concerned."

Gregory nodded solemnly. "I used to think it
foolish. Now I understand."

Her face solemn, Felicity studied him.

"I've been wondering," Gregory began. "Since
you're so devilishly close to your sister, I thought perhaps she
may have confided in you. For example, George once suggested that
Glee's endeavors to appear fast might be prompted by her desire to
appear more attractive to me." He frowned. "Unfortunately, in the
past I've been known to associate with loose women. Before Glee,
you understand."

An amused smile crossed Felicity's face.
"George told me the very same thing about Glee's outrageous dress,
and I told him he was likely right. Diana—this was before she
became sick—said she was sure of it. In fact, Diana said Glee
admitted to her quite some time before your betrothal that she had
always been in love with you." Felicity gave him a long,
sympathetic look. "Is this, perhaps, what you came here to
hear?"