"I did not come here to discuss my marriage with you."
"Then why did you come here?"
"To warn you and that extremely annoying brother of yours to stay away from my wife. I will not allow either of you to play your cat-and-mouse games with her. Is that very clear?"
"What makes you think we were playing a game with her? Perhaps we were merely curious to see what sort of female had met your requirements?"
"You must be very bored, indeed, these days to bother with Olympia."
"Is she so very dull, then?" Demetria gave him a look of mocking innocence. "What a pity. How long will she retain your interest, do you think? Or do you find a boring little bluestocking perfectly suited to your taste?"
"Enough, Demetria."
"Have you gotten what you wanted, Chillhurst?" Demetria's eyes glinted with cold anger. "A woman who will conform to your bloody schedule? A woman who knows nothing of passion, herself, and therefore will not notice that you are sorely lacking in such matters?"
"You need not concern yourself with my private affairs." Jared turned to leave and then paused. "You got what you wanted, Demetria. Be content."
"Is that a threat, Jared?"
"I believe it is."
"You cold-blooded, arrogant bastard." Demetria's hand curved into a small fist on the back of the sofa. "It is so easy for you to make threats. Just because you were born with everything, a fortune and a title to go with it, you believe yourself to be far above the rest of us. But do you know something, Jared? I do not envy you."
Jared smiled. "I am relieved to hear that."
"No, I do not envy you in the least, my lord." Demetria's eyes blazed. "You are doomed to live your whole life never knowing the kind of passion that sets fire to your blood. You will never know what it is to surrender to a river of violent emotions capable of sweeping you away."
"Demetria—"
"You will never learn the sweet joy of being with another whose soul touches your own. You, with your merchant's heart, will never know what it is to have the power to make a lover respond, will you, Jared?"
Jared met her eyes and knew that she was recalling the same afternoon that he was. It was the day he had kissed her in the stables at the Isle of Flame.
That kiss had not been a polite, chaste caress as the others had been. It had been a desperate effort on his part to incite a response in her. He had surprised them both with that kiss, but not with the answer it had given him.
He knew that both of them had realized the truth that day. There could be no passion between them. It was the first time Jared had even acknowledged that he had wanted passion in his marriage. He supposed he owed Demetria for having opened his eyes to his weakness.
"I shall just have to manage as best I can," Jared said. "Good day to you, Demetria. Do not let me find you pestering my wife again. And I advise you to keep your damned brother out of my sight."
"Why?" Alarm flared in Demetria's eyes. "You cannot hurt him. My husband is a rich and powerful man. He will protect Gifford from you if necessary."
Jared's brows rose. "Your husband is far more concerned with finding a cure for his unfortunate affliction than he is with protecting that fool brother of yours. Furthermore, if you want to do Seaton a favor, you will cease trying to protect him. He is three-and-twenty years old. 'Tis past time he became a man."
"He is a man, damn you."
"He is a boy, with a boy's wild, uncontrolled emotions. He is spoiled, sullen, and temperamental. You have kept him confined to leading strings by shielding him at every turn. If you would have him grow up, you must let him learn to accept responsibility for his own actions."
"I have taken care of my brother all of my life," Demetria said fiercely, "I do not want or need your advice."
Jared shrugged. "As you wish. But if either you or Seaton crosses my path, you had best not depend upon me to play the gentleman a second time. I did that once, if you will recall. Once was enough."
"You do not understand," Demetria hissed. "But, then, you never understood. Get out of here, Chillhurst, or I vow I will have you thrown out."
"Do not trouble yourself. I am only too happy to take my leave."
Jared strode out into the hall without a backward glance. The butler had disappeared but Gifford was standing just outside the drawing-room door. He was pale with fury.
"What are you doing here, Chillhurst?"
"Visiting your charming sister, not that it is any concern of yours." Jared stepped around Gifford and went toward the front door.
"What did you say to her, damn you?"
Jared hesitated, his hand on the doorknob. "I will tell you precisely what I told her. Do not come near my wife again, Seaton."
Gifford's handsome face twisted into an angry sneer. "We both know your threat is an empty one. You cannot harm me. Beaumont is too powerful, even for you."
"I would not count on Beaumont's protection, if I were you." Jared opened the door. "Or your sister's."
Gifford took a step forward. "Devil take you, Chillhurst, what are you saying?"
"I am saying that if you offend me by coming near my wife, I will see to it that you pay for it."
"I say, Chillhurst," Gifford taunted softly, "surely you are not threatening to call me out? We both know you are far too reasonable, far too sensible, far too much of a coward to risk meeting me on the field of honor."
"I can see that there is no point discussing the matter with you. You have been warned." Jared went out onto the front steps and closed the door very quietly behind himself.
The hackney was still waiting in the street.
"The Musgrave Institution library," Jared called to the coachman. "And be quick about it. I have an appointment." He opened the door and got into the cab.
"Aye, sir." The coachman gave a long-suffering sigh and loosened the reins.
Jared sat back against the cushions as the hackney pulled away from the Beaumont townhouse. Demetria was wrong about him being consigned to an emotionless existence, he reflected. At the moment he was wracked with an inner turmoil that exceeded anything he had ever experienced.
This was his wedding day, he should have felt calm and controlled now that his plans had come to fruition. Olympia would soon be his by all the laws of God and man. Yet he had awakened that morning with a disturbing sense of unease that was still with him.
He did not understand the feeling that gripped his insides like a vise. After all, he was on the verge of claiming the woman he wanted.
But he could not be entirely certain of precisely why she was accepting his claim.
Olympia had initially refused to marry him, yet after that scene with Demetria yesterday, she had announced that she had changed her mind.
Jared gazed out at the busy streets. Surely Olympia had not agreed to wed him simply because he could keep her household in order. He knew there was more to it than that. There had to be more to it.
She wanted him, he reminded himself. The memory of her passionate response should have reassured him, but for some reason it did not. Olympia had made it clear she would not marry him for the sake of desire alone or to salvage her reputation. She was a woman of the world, he thought wryly, such things were not reasons for marriage in her view.
So why had she finally agreed to wed him, he wondered for the thousandth time. The question had plagued him since yesterday. He was convinced that something Demetria had said or done during the visit yesterday afternoon had pushed Olympia into accepting his proposal. But that made no sense.
Unless the confrontation in the parlor had finally made Olympia realize that she was obliged to marry for the sake of propriety.
After all, Jared thought, it was one thing to talk of deceiving the world by claiming to be married; quite another to actually carry out such a breathtaking deception. In spite of her talk of worldliness, Olympia was an innocent from a tiny village in the country. She'd had no notion of what she had been about when she had blithely assumed she could falsely claim marriage and get away with it.