He did not want her love. He did not expect her obedience - he doubted she would be able to give it anyway. That left honor.
Privately she had promised him more - comfort, pleasure, and happiness.
And somehow she had given all three during the three days following their nuptials. And he, like a fool, had taken without question.
She had merely been fulfilling a promise.
And though he did not doubt that she had taken sexual pleasure from him, he understood now that she had merely been feasting upon the sensual delights of which her first husband's illness had deprived her.
It had all been about sex.
Nothing else.
As it had for him. As he had intended and wanted. He had not wanted more than that.
Why the devil, then, even though his anger had largely dissipated, was there a heavy ball of depression weighting down his stomach?
She would keep at least some of their marriage vows.
So too, heaven help him, would he.
Hedley Dew, he did not doubt, would never be mentioned between them again. She would love him in the secrecy of her heart and give her dutiful loyalty to her second husband.
He bowed again. "I will take my leave of you, ma'am," he said. "I have some business to attend to. May I suggest that you bathe your face before showing it to any of the servants? I shall see you at dinner. And later tonight I shall visit your room briefly before returning to my own to sleep." "Oh, Elliott," she said, "I have made a wretched mess of trying to explain to you, have I not? Perhaps because I cannot adequately explain even to myself. All I do know is that it is not quite what you think or quite what I have been able to put into words." "Perhaps at some time in the future," he said, "you will find yourself able to write a book. A lurid novel would suit you - something filled with baseless passion and emotion and bombast." He was striding across the room as he spoke. He let himself in to her dressing room and shut the door firmly behind him before crossing into his own dressing room and shutting that door too.
He was angry again. He had the feeling that somehow she had made a fool of him. She had not allowed him to vent his displeasure at finding her thus or to lay down the law to her about what he expected of her and their marriage. Instead she had led him into numerous verbal labyrinths and made him feel like a pompous ass.
Was that what he was?
He frowned ferociously.
Was one supposed to take one's wife into one's arms and murmur sweet, soothing nothings into her ear while she wept her heart out over the man she loved - who just happened not to be him?
And dead.
Good Lord!
Devil take it, what was marriage leading him into?
He glanced through the window of his bedchamber and noticed that the rain, if anything, was coming down harder than it had been half an hour before. And the wind was swaying the treetops.
It looked like just the weather he needed.
Ten minutes later, he was riding away from the stables again on a fresh and eager mount.
His destination?
He had no idea. Just somewhere far away from Vanessa and his marriage.
And from that wretched portrait of a delicate and pretty boy, against whom he would not wish to compete even if he could.
She might love him with his blessing.
To hell with her.
And Hedley Dew too.
When he recognized the essentially childish bent of his thoughts, he urged his mount into a gallop and decided not to go around the hedgerow that was in front of him but to go straight over it.
If one was going to be childish, one might as well be reckless too.
It was all absolutely awful.
For one thing her face would not seem to return to its normal self. The more she dabbed at it with cold water and smoothed it with cream, the more puffy her eyes seemed to look and the more ruddy her cheeks.
Finally she gave up and sallied forth into the rest of the house with a springy step and a bright smile though there were only the walls and the pictures and marble busts to see her.
He returned home and arrived in the drawing room with only moments to spare before he had to lead her into the dining room for dinner. They made stilted conversation for a whole hour for the benefit of the butler and attendant footman. During all of which time Vanessa did not believe she once let her smile slip.
They sat in the drawing room afterward, one on each side of the fire, reading. She counted the number of times he turned a page during the next hour and a half - four times. Each time she remembered to turn a page of her own book too and change position and smile appreciatively at the page in front of her.
It was only after the first half hour that she realized she had picked up a book of sermons.
She converted her smile into something more thoughtful.
It was at about the same moment that she suddenly wondered exactly why he had walked into her bedchamber without knocking this afternoon - and why he had returned home early. Had he come to -
But when she glanced at him, he was frowning at his book and looking anything but loverlike.
When bedtime finally came, he escorted her to the door of her dressing room, bowed over her hand, and asked - oh, yes, he really did! - if he might be permitted to wait upon her in a short while.
When he came, she was lying in bed, wondering what she could say or do to improve the situation. But all she did was smile at him until he blew out the candle - the first time he had done that.
He proceeded to make love to her without kisses or caresses, swiftly and lustily. It was all over long before she could even think of preparing herself for the pleasure that had always come during their thirteen previous encounters.
All she was left with was the ache of an unfulfilled longing.
He got up from the bed immediately afterward, pulled on his dressing gown, and left via her dressing room.
And before he closed the door he thanked her.
He /thanked /her.
It felt like the final insult.
And it /was /insulting. All of it. It was intended to be, she suspected.
If she wanted to be his wife merely for convenience and the procreation of children, his behavior this evening and tonight had told her, then he was quite happy to give her what she wanted.
Men were /so /foolish.
Or, if that was too much of a generalization and un-just to countless thousands of innocent male persons, then she would amend her thought.
Elliott Wallace, Viscount Lyngate, was foolish!
Except that it was all her fault.
Though he did not know it and would never ever admit to it, he was hurt.
But she did not know quite what to do about it. Do something she must, though. She owed him better than to be crying over another man a mere four days after marrying him.
She owed him what she had promised him. She would owe it even if she had /not /promised.
Besides, she was not content to let the memory of her honeymoon fade into the past, something sweet that could never be repeated. She had been happy for those three days, and she was as certain as she could be that he had been happy too - though doubtless he would never admit to that particular sentiment even under torture.
They had been happy.
Past tense.
It was up to her to make it present tense with bright prospects for the future too.
For both their sakes.
16
IT WOULD have been quite easy to settle into what was really only half a marriage. Vanessa soon came to suspect that most marriages, at least those of the /ton, /were little more than that.
It was what one might expect, of course, in a segment of society in which most marriages were arranged.
But she had known a different type of marriage, however briefly, and could not be content now with only half a one.
After they moved to London she saw very little of Elliott. He went out after breakfast and did not return until late afternoon. And even when he was at home, so were his mother and youngest sister.
The only time Vanessa was really alone with him was at night, when they went through the brief ritual of lovemaking - if it could be called that.