Her Enemy At the Altar

by Virginia Heath

  Without thinking he sat next to her on the sofa, draped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. ‘It doesn’t matter, Connie,’ he whispered against her hair. ‘The damage had already been done long before you realised what he was up to.’ She was still clinging to him, still obviously upset by their argument and Aaron wanted, more than anything, to tell her something to chase that sadness away. ‘I spoke to the solicitor about the annulment.’

  He felt her tense slightly in his arms. ‘You did?’ She sniffed and pulled away from him then, creating some distance between them and sitting proudly staring off to the side so that he would not see her tears. She hastily wiped her eyes and turned back to him with a smile. ‘What did he say?’

  ‘He said that under the circumstance he believes that there is a chance that the annulment will be granted. The fact that we married in such haste and that you only agreed to it under duress are points in our favour. I am sure that the vicar who married us will confirm that you were quite a reluctant bride. Then, of course, the feud between our two families is well documented. The case will have to be heard in this diocese, so I am sure that the bishop will have some sympathy for our plight. The fact that we have only been married for such a short period of time is also a positive factor. It will show the ecclesiastical court that we both recognised that we had made a mistake quickly and that we want to rectify it.’

  Saying it out loud was more upsetting than he had thought it would be. A few hours ago he had railed at the poor solicitor, declaring his own desire to be well shot of their inconvenient marriage and the blasted woman that he had been saddled with. But Aaron had still been furious at her then, his feelings had been hurt and he had been in a fit of temper. Now he was not convinced that he did want to be rid of Connie. Her perceptiveness terrified him, but he was becoming inordinately fond of her presence, despite the occasional fireworks. But he even enjoyed those.

  ‘That is good news.’

  Her voice sounded flat and Aaron wondered if perhaps she was also having second thoughts, too. The solicitor had also cautioned him to have a plan in case things did not go as they hoped and had reminded him that Connie would have nothing if the marriage was dissolved. That thought plagued him more than he wanted to consider. If she wanted shot of him, why should he care what happened to her? Except he did.

  ‘Of course, an annulment is not guaranteed. There is still a strong chance that the petition will be dismissed and we will be stuck with one another. If that is the case, there is a perfectly good Dower House on the far edge of the estate that you can set up your own household in.’ He hoped that would give her some peace of mind.

  Connie tried to appear buoyed at the thought even though she had suddenly developed an uncomfortable, empty feeling in the pit of her stomach. He clearly wanted the annulment else why would he have spoken to his solicitor about it so soon after his father’s stroke? ‘Surely it will not come to that, especially as we have not...you know...’ She felt the colour fill her face and frantically tried to think of a delicate way of putting it. In the end, abject mortification won out and she simply flapped a hand ineffectually in the air until he finished the awkward sentence for her.

  ‘Done the deed?’

  She could not look at him and suspected he was grinning at her utter and total mortification. When she heard him exhale abruptly she risked a peek. He had slumped fully on to the couch, his head resting on the back, and was staring vacantly up at the ceiling. When he spoke, he did not look at her. ‘I did mention that to the solicitor as well and apparently it really does not make that much difference to the judgement at all. It might have been a pertinent detail in Henry the Eighth’s time, but not any more. The existence of, or lack of, your virginity is irrelevant. In fact, bringing it up at all might turn out to be horrible for both of us.’ He turned his head then and smiled sheepishly. ‘The only way that it is relevant to a case is if one of the parties is incapable of the act—and that has to be corroborated with medical testimony. We would both have to undergo quite intrusive physical examinations. Aside from the fact that I would not wish to put you through that, I have to admit that selfishly I would rather not have to submit to the tests myself. They are apparently quite thorough.’

  It took several moments for Connie to realise that he was also blushing profusely. The sight was so unexpected and so totally out of character for him that she giggled. The tests must be quite intrusive indeed for him to react that way and his reaction made her burn with curiosity. He shot her withering glance, rolled his eyes and then chuckled, too. ‘Do not ask, Connie, for the answer would shock you and I am not sure that I could get through the telling without cringing with embarrassment.’

  Looking delightfully and completely flustered, he decisively stood and stared at the fireplace. ‘Why don’t I rustle up some tea for us both? And then, if you are still up for it, we can continue trying to make head and tail of all of those ledgers.’ She was grateful for the fact that he was desperate to change the subject.

  ‘I should like that a great deal. It will be nice to be able to do something constructive. I shall be down in a minute.’ Just as soon as she had splashed enough ice water on her face to calm the intense burning and resemble less of a beetroot. Just talking about those intimacies had made her all flustered. And curious.

  ‘Excellent.’ He bounced from foot to foot, his own cheeks still glowing a little bit. It made him look quite adorable. ‘You will probably rue the day that you agreed to help me.’ His eyes scanned her from top to bottom and she could have sworn that his colour deepened. ‘Well, I shall see you momentarily then.’

  It was a tactical retreat, Aaron thought as he bounded down the stairs. Discussing marital relations with Connie had made him think about them. Now that he knew that they could have been having them for all this time without ruining her chances for an annulment, well, frankly, he did not quite know what to think.

  His body, on the other hand, was not having that problem. It seemed to be in no doubt as to what it wanted to do. The first stirrings had occurred shortly after he had wrapped his arm around her in consolation—but once she had started glowing pink he was done for. There was something quite erotic about Connie’s vibrant blushes and that particular one had been particularly vivid. Her graceful neck had heated and the blush had disappeared behind the pristine white lace that topped the bodice of her exceptionally well-fitting gown. It had left him wondering if her breasts blushed, too. Once he started thinking about her breasts he remembered how they had felt squashed against his chest, how smooth the skin above her garters had been and then, to torture himself further, he began to consider if she was a proper redhead in every sense of the word.

  What had possessed him to invite her to help him with those blasted ledgers again today? He might actually spontaneously combust with lust if he had to sit with her again so soon, inhaling that intoxicating perfume of hers. He simply had to think of more sobering things.

  Fortunately, that proved to be a very simple thing to do. The estate was still in peril because he was rapidly running out of money, his father was still hovering between life and death and, thanks to his curt dismissal of his estate manager, the Earl of Redbridge was bound to view this as evidence of his daughter’s betrayal.

  By the time he was sat back at his desk in the study, Aaron was even more troubled. Poor Connie. She had done nothing wrong and yet now her family would be even more lost to her. If only there was something Aaron could do to make it all better. Deaks popped his head around the door.

  ‘I have today’s post for you, sir.’

  It was the sight of those letters on the silver tray that gave Aaron an interesting idea.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  At Connie’s insistence, all of the account ledgers were moved up to her small sitting room the very next day. Not only was the light much better than in the dark panelled study, but she could not sta
nd the cloying, musty smell of the viscount’s tobacco or work particularly comfortably with all those dead animal heads glaring down at her. Aaron clearly did not like the environment either because he had barely put up any sort of a fight when she had put the suggestion to him.

  For two days the pair of them had spent every free moment, when not sat with the ailing viscount, poring over the books and had created a much simpler summary of the state of things. The situation was indeed grim. There was no way of pretending otherwise. Aaron’s father had squandered a lot of money on unnecessary things, worse, his outgoings in the last three years had been significantly more than his yearly income. The income generated by the estate had dwindled considerably under Mr Thomas’s stewardship. This year’s harvest was not even in the ground and, as Aaron had feared, with December knocking on their door it was now much too late to put it there and expect it to grow.

  Then there had been the viscount’s ill-conceived purchase of the one hundred acres of barren land on the other side of her father’s estate. He had paid seven thousand pounds for that land, double what good arable land in this part of the country should be worth, and it was plainly not good arable land. In actual fact, it had not earned him so much as a farthing in return and, if Aaron was to be believed, it was unlikely to earn any more than that in the future either.

  As Connie had suspected, the London town house, even though it had been rarely used in the years Aaron was off to war, still maintained a full complement of staff. In reality, those staff had effectively been paid handsomely to stand idle while hundreds of pounds had been wasted on heating and feeding them all. Fortunately, Mrs Poole and Deaks ran a much tighter ship here at Ardleigh Manor and Connie could find little trimming that would make any tangible difference to the finances.

  All in all, the deficit was close to ten thousand pounds. It was a substantial amount of money and at the moment they had no clear plan on how to replace it. In desperation, Aaron was currently scouring through the weighty pages of The Complete Farmer for inspiration.

  ‘What about barley?’ He was peering at a particular page most intently through his spectacles, his hair in complete disarray from the numerous times he had already ran his hand through it and looking like an adorable cross between a rogue and a scholar.

  ‘What about barley?’ she asked, parroting his question with a smile. ‘Can it be sown in the winter?’

  ‘Not exactly. I can find no crop that appears to be sown in England in December. But we can plant barley in February if it is reasonably mild and it is ready to harvest much quicker than wheat.’ He was looking delightfully pleased with himself, an expression that reminded her of the way he had looked at her the other evening when she thought he had been about to kiss her. Just thinking about it set her pulse aflutter.

  ‘Is there a good market for barley?’ Connie asked dubiously to cover that errant thought. She had only ever had it in soups and stews. Barley, that was, not kisses.

  ‘It is apparently one of the primary ingredients for beer, so I assume so. It also grows almost anywhere. Perhaps it is worth a try?’ With that he sat back, tossed his spectacles down on to the table and sat back, rubbing the bridge of his nose. ‘I need some fresh air. Let’s go for a ride.’

  ‘You go. One of us needs to be here for your father.’

  ‘The doctor was here less than an hour ago and declared there to be no change. If we tell the servants which direction we are headed, then someone can fetch us easily enough if we are needed.’ He stood up and held out his hand. ‘Come riding with me, Connie. We have both been cooped up inside for too many days.’

  She was sorely tempted. ‘I shall need to change first.’

  ‘Excellent. You do that and I will get us some horses saddled.’

  * * *

  Less than twenty minutes later they were both headed across the parkland at a fair old pace and Connie got the distinct impression that they were not merely riding aimlessly. Aaron definitely appeared to have some purpose. ‘I shall race you to that hill over there.’ He pointed towards a rise in the distance. ‘Unless that is too challenging a course for you?’

  ‘Do you need a head start, husband?’

  He just grinned at that and it warmed her. When Aaron smiled one of his genuine smiles she felt it all the way down to her toes. ‘After three. One. Two...’

  On three they both flew and for a substantial portion of the race he was alongside her, bent low of the saddle and a look of pure enjoyment on his face. At some point she must have taken the lead because he was well behind her when they reached the hill. He accepted her gloating with a good-natured shrug, then led his horse to the crest of the rise where he stopped. Connie followed him and felt her breath hitch at the sight beyond. This insignificant hillock was in fact part of the border between the Wincanton estate and her father’s. Beyond were Stuart fields, gently sloping and undulating towards Redbridge House.

  The sight of it still pained her and Connie was about to turn away when she spotted two figures emerging out of a small copse of trees. She shot Aaron a look, unsure of how to react to such an unbelievable coincidence, but she could tell by the expression on his face that he had orchestrated it.

  ‘Go,’ he said, taking the reins of her horse loosely in his gloved hand. ‘I will keep a lookout.’

  Connie did not need to be told twice. Within moments she was running down the other side of the hill to the waiting open arms of her mother.

  Watching them seemed unnecessarily obtrusive, so Aaron tried to look out over the land ahead. But he saw the way the two women hugged each other and cried. The reconciliation with her brother was equally as boisterous before the three of them disappeared into the cover of the trees. His throat felt tight with emotion. For the first time he truly saw all of her grief and sadness at the loss of her family until she had realised that they had come to see her, then the relief and desperation on her lovely face had moved him and he was glad that he had been able to do this one tiny thing for her. She really was a brave little thing and she deserved better than to be shackled to a man who was so unworthy because she had been given no choice in the matter.

  She also deserved to have a happy life in the future, although that was unlikely to happen after the scandal of the annulment. That bothered him a great deal, too. His solicitor had explained how these things were always blamed on the woman much more than on the man. In time, society might well forgive him. He was titled and male and therefore a commodity. But Connie would have to live with the stain. It was highly unlikely that any decent man would marry her and he did not want her to be alone.

  Even though Connie was dead against it, remaining married to him but having her own household in the Dower House would offer her protection from public censure, yet give her freedom. Many unhappily married couples lived apart and such arrangements were accepted. Connie could take a lover and live her life exactly how she wanted. Aaron would not stop her.

  Except just thinking about her living within arm’s reach, yet so far away, made him angry. Already he could feel his teeth hurt from the way his jaw had clenched at the mere thought of her in another man’s arms. Or in another man’s bed. Which led Aaron to the conclusion that neither solution to their marriage was acceptable to him. If only he deserved her, he would tell her so. If he had not been going mad from all of the guilt and shame he carried in his heart, he would impress upon her his desire for them to give their fledgling relationship a chance so that he could prove that he could be a worthy husband and that he would make it his life’s work to make her happy. But he did not deserve her or the happiness that having her would undoubtedly bring.

  * * *

  When she emerged from the trees she was smiling. Her eyes were swollen from crying, her cheeks were rosy and yet he had never seen anything quite as beautiful in his life. She rushed to where he stood and engulfed him in a spontaneous hug. He could feel the in
tensity of her emotion in her trembling body as she held him tight.

  ‘Thank you, Aaron.’

  The choked whisper was so close to his ear that he was sure that he felt her soft lips brush his skin. Instinctively, his own arms came around her and found the curve of her waist while he tried to ignore the surge of wanting that coursed through his body. It was more than lust, he realised with a jolt. Somewhere along the line he had developed an affection for Connie that was separate from, and yet inextricably linked to, his fierce attraction for her. When this was all over he would mourn her absence, a rogue thought that had his arms tightening around her. He allowed himself the luxury of burying his face into her hair before he broke the contact and stepped back. There was no point in torturing himself further even though he was certain the damage to his unworthy heart was already done.

  ‘We have agreed to meet again next week. I hope you don’t mind?’ She was worrying her luscious bottom lip with her teeth, drawing his eyes them and tempting him like forbidden fruit.

  ‘Of course I don’t mind. I do not want you to be miserable, Connie. I know how much they mean to you.’ Awkwardly he fiddled with the reins to hide the wave of longing that he knew must be visible in his eyes. ‘They looked to me to be as happy to see you as you were them.’ Another emotion rippled through him then. Envy. He had no memory of his mother and he had never had that sort of a relationship with his father. There had always been distance between them caused by the differences in their characters. He knew his father cared about him, but they had always clashed more than they agreed on anything. Now it was too late to change that. Soon his father would be dead and Connie would be gone and Aaron would be left all alone again.