Make Me Love You

by Johanna Lindsey

  She took a deep calming breath. “Obviously you are never going to like this marriage. And you’re going to make sure that I don’t like it either. But I’m not leaving. I would prefer to be here with an ogre than back with my family. But tell me, has it even occurred to you that we actually have common ground?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “We aren’t even married yet and you and I still have many things in common, a remarkable number considering we are enemies.”

  “Such as?”

  She had to grit her teeth for a moment. A perfect opportunity for him to claim they weren’t really enemies and he didn’t take it.

  “Such as, we both hate my brother. We both love horses and we even both want to breed more of them. And we both hate our futures being dictated by others. Oh, and we both love dogs. We have even both befriended servants, quite uncommon for the nobility to do. So we marry to force the Regent to look elsewhere for a way to pay off his debts, but that doesn’t mean we need to see it as a real marriage if you don’t want to. We could probably become friends instead. So let me propose a bargain. We could—”

  “Are you trying to make me laugh?”

  Her brows snapped together. “No, not a’tall.”

  “We’ll never be friends.”

  It did sound preposterous from where they stood now, but she still insisted, “Stranger things have happened, and you haven’t heard my bargain yet.”

  “By all means.”

  “We can marry in name only, you won’t even need to see me. I’m used to avoiding ‘family,’ and I will encourage you to take mistresses. You can even bring them home.” She said it all fast, before she lost her nerve, but she hadn’t yet added the seal for this bargain. “If you will buy me a thoroughbred for each one, I will be quite pleased. So do have lots of mistresses. I want my own horse farm when your curse catches up with you.”

  “So now you believe in curses?”

  The curve of his lower lip was telling. She had not meant to amuse him, but obviously she had. “No, what I think is, you are entirely too reckless with your life, duels, sailing right through blockades that are shooting at every boat they see, and who knows what other risks you are used to taking. It’s no wonder they say your family is cursed if the men in it were so cavalier about danger as you are. Besides, if you somehow manage to survive your twenty-fifth year, I would merely add my horses to your stock, as long as I have a say in their breeding program.”

  “What about our breeding program for my heirs? D’you think you’ll get a say in that, too?”

  Her cheeks lit up hotly. “Is that your way of saying you don’t want a marriage in name only?”

  “I believe I’ve made it quite clear that the one thing I won’t mind about this marriage is you in my bed. And based on past experience, I got the impression you won’t mind lying with me in that bed.”

  Brooke blushed. “You’re assuming too much!”

  Dominic smiled sensually. “Am I?”

  Her blush got deeper. “In any case, it doesn’t mean you won’t still take mistresses. I’m encouraging you to do so.”

  “You’re making a bargain for me to do so.”

  “Yes, exactly. I will even make suggestions if you like, help you pick them out, as it were—one reason why I thought we might reach a sort of friendship eventually.”

  “And what is my incentive to agree?”

  “To protect them,” she said without inflection.

  He raised a brow. “Was that actually a threat?”

  She shrugged. “I have sharp nails.”

  “You’ve given this a lot of thought?”

  No, damnit, she hadn’t. The idea had just come to her an hour ago. And spur-of-the-moment proposals rarely went well, at least, not without regrets. Had she just backed herself into an unpleasant corner?

  But he didn’t wait for an answer. “If I’m going to die young, by your logic, why not just wait until all my horses are yours.”

  “I don’t expect you to leave me anything. I expect your estate to go to your mother.”

  “Your family would make sure that doesn’t happen.”

  “So stop being so careless with your life and don’t die. Because I do not want them to benefit from this, when it’s my brother’s fault that I’m here. In fact, if you don’t have a will, you should make one and be specific in excluding Whitworths from benefiting. And if I’m not of age yet, name your mother as my guardian so they have no further control over me.”

  “Thank you, you’ve given me back my appetite.”

  She frowned as he started eating the food that had been set before him. “You don’t think I’m serious?”

  “We shall see.”

  Chapter Forty-Three

  DESPITE SWEARING SHE WOULDN’T step foot in Lady Anna’s room again, the next morning Brooke took the lady’s breakfast upstairs herself. She told herself it was just to see how much her teas had helped yesterday, but she really wanted to witness firsthand the supposed change in the woman’s attitude. Dominic might think his mother had seen the light, but Brooke highly doubted it.

  But the lady was sleeping and had apparently only just nodded off, according to the maid at her bedside, so Brooke didn’t wake her and had the servant return the tray to the kitchen to keep it warm. Sleep was more important than food for Anna’s recovery, as long as she was eating when she was awake.

  She didn’t know where Dominic was in the big house and would just as soon not find out. She decided to go shopping, which she hoped would take her mind off her having only two days left until her wedding. Not that they needed to wait until the banns were read for the third time when they had the order and the marriage license from the Prince; she merely assumed they would be waiting until the last minute of the grace period that Dominic had been given.

  She fetched her pelisse, then went to find the butler to request the Wolfe coach. “I’ve a bit of shopping to do, but mainly I’d like to tour the city to see some of the places I read about yesterday.”

  “Be sure to visit Vauxhall Gardens, m’lady. It’s especially colorful at this time of the year, though it warrants a full-day excursion, with so many different entertainments to view.”

  She smiled. “Just a peek then for today.”

  “Certainly. I’m sure his lordship will want to take you for a longer visit to the gardens some other day.”

  Would he? She’d been in three of his houses now and he hadn’t given her a tour of one of them. And he knew this was her first visit to London. He should have made the offer to show her more of the city he was familiar with.

  The Wolfes’ town driver wasn’t happy about the tour she wanted, to go by his sour expression, or maybe that was his usual demeanor. The two accompanying footmen were reserved, and neither looked her in the eye. She didn’t know these town servants and might not get a chance to, if they weren’t going to stay in London.

  She didn’t know what Dominic planned to do when, or if, his mother recovered, either. He had mentioned that he usually spent at least half of the year in town with Anna, but would he still want to do that when he had a wife? These were things she ought to be able to discuss with him, but when did they ever talk about mundane matters?

  She hadn’t seen much of London yesterday on the way to the apothecary, not with Dominic in the hack with her and the seat being so narrow their shoulders touched. She hadn’t thought of anything but him during that brief ride.

  For her first trip to this old town she ought to be more excited. She would have been—if she had come with her mother for the promised Season. Such an odd thought, considering her feelings for Harriet, or the lack of them. Was Alfreda right? Had Brooke repressed those feelings for so long they had really gone, or were they just buried too deep to affect her anymore? She didn’t exactly like crying and had done far too much of it when she was younger.

  The driver wouldn’t go any farther south, but he took her close enough to the London docks to see the Thames and all the ships sit
ting out in the river. There were so many of them, which made her think again that maybe she should book passage on one and just disappear somewhere in the world.

  But Alfreda wasn’t there to advise her or agree to go along, so it was just a brief thought. Her friend would probably attribute her revisiting an option they’d already dismissed to wedding nerves. But Brooke wanted the wedding, had wanted it from the moment she’d clapped eyes on the wolf. However, she was nervous now about their wedding night.

  After what Dominic had said last night at dinner, she definitely expected to be in his bed for it. In a nice room this time, with wine and maybe some sweets and . . . would it be as amazing as the first time, or horrible? With his feeling trapped by her, listening to his mother disparage her character, and having just been reminded by her brother that he ought not to trust her, it could be the latter.

  She did get to see Vauxhall, but declined to leave the carriage to enter it. Willis was right, there would be too much to see in there and she’d rather not go in alone. She did get to drive through Hyde Park though, down the lane that would be filled on the weekend with the carriages of the upper crust of society, since it was a noted place to meet or just be seen. Adjacent to it was Rotten Row, where she hoped to ride Rebel someday. She also saw St. George’s church in Hanover Square, where all the high-society weddings took place, and wondered if that’s where she was going to be married.

  It occurred to her that her parents might often come to these places, but neither of them would ever take her along. She had a brother in London, but she’d never go anywhere with him. She even had a fiancé, but the only place he’d taken her was to an apothecary shop—for his mother. She felt so alone in this town. She didn’t even have Alfreda. And the maid wouldn’t arrive for another day or two.

  She ended the tour on Bond Street and left the coach to find some shoes and maybe another apothecary so she could make a salve for the blister on her foot. Traveling boots weren’t meant to be worn daily. The two footmen followed her at a discreet distance; they just didn’t enter the shops with her. She entered many of them, even after she found a new pair of shoes, which she changed into immediately, and a few shops farther down the street she even found some calendula for a salve.

  She didn’t find spending money in the great London shops as much fun as she’d thought it would be, but she continued shopping, or mostly peering in shop windows, because she was in no hurry to return to the Wolfe house. Maybe Dominic would think she’d fled and worry—or rejoice.

  She gritted her teeth and entered another shop before she noticed what it was. Fabrics. London fabrics. She didn’t need any, had a brand-new wardrobe, yet she couldn’t resist seeing the selections to be had here in the biggest port town in the country.

  “What the devil, Brooke. I was beginning to think you’d never slow down.”

  She closed her eyes with a cringe. Had Robert been following her?

  “Put this away quickly.”

  Whatever he just put in her hand, she closed a fist around it instinctively and dropped it in the pocket of her pelisse. That he glanced back toward the front of the shop to see if one of her footmen was looking inside to notice made her even more nervous.

  “What are you up to now, Robert?” she demanded.

  “Don’t take that tone with me when I’m just helping you out.”

  “Like you did when you told Dominic that I promised to poison him? That kind of help could have gotten me killed, or was that the plan?”

  He shrugged. “It would have solved our problem.”

  She wasn’t hearing anything she didn’t expect to hear from him. He wouldn’t care.

  “Whatever you just gave me is going to be thrown away. I’m not going to poison him for any reason, certainly not for you.”

  “It’s not poison,” he insisted. “Just something to make him sick and disoriented enough to send you packing. I’ll settle for him losing everything when he does that.”

  She didn’t believe him. He was too much of a coward to want Dominic to remain alive, destitute or not, not after what Robert had done to warrant those duels.

  “D’you really think he’s still going to try to kill you after I marry him? He won’t, you know. He has more honor than that, to kill family—unlike you. Beating you senseless though, now that’s allowed.”

  She probably shouldn’t have ended that with a half smirk. Robert flushed with livid color, but when he raised a fist to her, she thrust her chin out and snarled, “Go ahead, I dare you. I’d love to see you in jail for it. If you think I won’t scream murder to see that happen, think again.”

  “Bitch,” he snarled as he walked away.

  “Defiler of innocents,” she said just loudly enough that only he would hear it.

  He didn’t stop. She did see both his hands form fists. And he almost broke the door to the shop he slammed it so hard on his way out. But then she’d never spoken to him like that before. Maybe she should have made clear a long time ago just how much she hated him, instead of going out of her way to avoid him. Did he think she had forgiven or forgotten the pain he’d caused her when she was too young to know how to prevent it?

  She didn’t need to sniff what was in the vial he’d given her before she threw it in a rubbish bin. She didn’t doubt it was poison of one kind or another, despite Robert’s denial. He wasn’t going to stop trying to get rid of Dominic for one simple reason—because he wouldn’t feel safe until he did.

  Chapter Forty-Four

  WHEN BROOKE RETURNED TO the town house that afternoon, she soon heard about the extra horse his lordship had come home with. But it didn’t occur to her until she was resting in her room that Dominic’s coming home with a new horse could mean only one thing. He either already had a mistress, or he’d found one that quickly today, or maybe even last night after dinner. Either way, she guessed the horse was for her to seal their bargain. She ought to go have a look at it. If she could stop crying, maybe she would.

  “It’s that bad, is it?”

  “Freda!” Brooke leaped off the bed with a laugh. “You’re early.”

  “I made sure of that. Gabriel didn’t like taking turns driving that big coach, but I was persuasive.”

  “With a clobbering or . . . ?”

  “ ‘Or’ worked.” The maid grinned.

  They had a lot to catch up on . . . well, Brooke did. Alfreda’s trip to London was apparently quite uneventful and summed up in just a few words about the unpleasantness of trying to sleep in a moving coach. Brooke’s trip was too eventful, but she glossed over most of it and couldn’t manage to mention the early wedding night she’d had before arriving in London. She would, just maybe after the wedding, when it wouldn’t be so embarrassing and earn her a scolding.

  But she did mention her run-in with Robert and Dominic’s exasperating behavior, ending with “He spent last night with some other woman.”

  “Did he? But he’s not married yet and you haven’t made him love you yet.”

  “Are you really trying to tell me what happens before the wedding doesn’t count?”

  “When the wedding wasn’t his idea, when he never proposed? Yes, I am indeed. Now if it happens after the wedding, there’s an herb I’ve never stocked that is reputed to render a man incapable of performing in bed. I’ll see if I can find some here in London. I’ve always wanted to test it on someone to see if it’s true. I’ve just never met a man I dislike enough to try it on.”

  “Permanently incapable?”

  “No, of course not.” Alfreda winked. “I wouldn’t do that to you.”

  It took a moment for Brooke to realize that Alfreda was just trying to lighten her mood with nonsense. That statement that Dominic’s unfaithfulness shouldn’t count before the wedding was reasonable, though, particularly since the bargain was her idea.

  She helped Alfreda to unpack the trunks when they were brought in. But another soft knock came at her door almost as soon as the footmen filed out. She certainly wasn’t expecting to
see Dominic standing in the corridor. He was dressed to go out, or maybe he was just returning? She immediately thought of the woman her suspicions imagined he’d been with last night—and again today? Maybe she should have asked for a horse per copulation, she thought with a mental growl.

  He handed her a folded card. “I’ve accepted one of my mother’s invitations that included me. Most of her friends expect me to be in town at this time of year. Be ready by eight tonight. Oh, and dress accordingly. It’s a ball we’ll be attending.”

  Brooke immediately stopped thinking about him and other women. “A party when your mother is so sick?”

  “She’s improving. Go see for yourself. And it was her suggestion.”

  “Do you even dance?”

  “With four legs I might be a bit clumsy, but”—he glanced down at his legs—“ah, just two today.”

  She grinned at his teasing. “I didn’t mean to imply that.”

  “Just that I’m a Yorkshire clod who was never taught?”

  She rolled her eyes and teased back, “Yes, that.”

  “Well, in any case, we have a purpose in going, to show the Prince how famously we’re getting along.”

  “He’s going to be there?”

  “He might. He’s been known to favor Lady Hewitt’s parties with an appearance. They are old friends. So no fighting tonight, Babble.”

  He walked away. She barely even noticed, the excitement of her first ball already starting to fill her. She turned to tell Alfreda, “Unpack—”

  “I heard. I thought you said his mother was ill enough to warrant your rushing to London with him.”

  “She was, but your recipes appear to be helping. I haven’t been back to see for myself. My presence quite upset her, so I’ve stayed away. She didn’t like me a’tall.”

  “I hated the woman who might have been my mother-in-law. My mother hated hers. You don’t need to follow suit. She’ll be the grandmother of your children. Make an effort to like her for their sake.”