Chapter 32
Lizzie yawned and stretched. It hadn’t been a dream.
The viscount lay beside her, propped up on one elbow. “Welcome back, chérie. Now I ravish you.”
“Stop threatening me. I refuse to speak to you unless you behave like a gentleman.” She turned her head away.
“Then, I remove all your clothes and ravish you.” He sat up to better match his action to his words.
“Don’t! Stop it! I’ll talk to you, if you stop.” Lizzie struggled. Her breasts were bared before he paused to consider her words.
“I vow not to ravish you unless you are silent, Elizabet’” He bent to kiss the upper swell of her breast. “But you must tell the truth or I punish you.”
Lizzie pulled her nightdress up to cover her shoulders. He held it gaping apart to expose one breast, somehow it seemed more naked than before when both were uncovered.
She said in a haughty voice, “Not being a Felmont, I do not lie. I have never lied.”
“Then you sin by omission, chérie.”
“That was not lying. Not telling your father you had rudely rejected me was a kindness, I’d no wish to see him try to flog you to death again. There was no need for you to call me scrawny, plain and graceless when you broke our engagement.”
“My heart was broken.”
She turned to him, her voice wavering, “Don’t lie.”
He stroked her with a feathery caress. “I loved you like the callow youth I was then. You were unattainable, a remote goddess living behind a glass wall. I could do no more than press my long Felmont nose against the panes and yearn for a kind word from you.”
“You did not yearn.”
“I didn’t really know what love was until we married. I wanted to own you, Lizzie. I wanted to have the right to touch you. I’d have agreed to any conditions to make the pact with you. As long as you allowed me to make love to you.”
“I dared make the pact with you because I was sure you didn’t want my scrawny body.”
“Exactly why I never dared tell you how I felt. As your highwayman, I declare you free from the pact you made with your ’orrible husband. I have sworn to make love only with my true love—unless you refuse to talk to me, then I ravish you all day and all night, ma chère Elizabet’.”
His love didn’t save her from his betrayal, it made the pain worse. If he loved her, truly loved her, he’d never have needed to fornicate with that horrid black-haired whore. She had to get away from him before she ended up like her mother, dead because of Felmont desires.
Lizzie’s traitorous body let a wave of nausea sweep over her at the thought of never seeing him again.
“What is wrong, my pale bride?” he asked. “Does it trouble you to carry his child?”
Lizzie let a gasp of dismay escape her.
“Ah, it troubles you that I know your secret.” He caught the tear with his lips against her cheek. “Don’t weep, chérie. Have I not promised to ravish you only if you are silent?”
“You lie all the time! You are pretending to be a highwayman!”
“I have treasure to share with you. Behold, my chest of spoils. Only some of it is stolen, the rest is borrowed from Rax’s sisters. We ’ave to give it back.”
He went to bring the small chest from the Priory over to the bed. “See for yourself.”
Lizzie struggled to lift the lid, agog with curiosity. What had he hidden there? He helped her, resting the heavy lid against his thigh.
Dace watched her stir the tangled necklaces in the treasure chest. He’d felt calmer going into battle.
His wife looked up. “This is the snuff chest from the Priory. You took it from Molly’s sons even though I told you they were welcome to have it. Do you think me a child still?”
Dace shrugged. Pain radiated from his shoulder. Damn! He staggered back with involuntary steps and dropped the chest to the floor. the lid fell backwards, tipping the contents to the floor, to litter it with a shower of false jewels, fake pearls, and tin coins.
“Shall I rub it for you?” his bride asked with sympathy.
It was likely to be the last time he got a kind word from her, maybe he should stop now and take her up on her offer. There’d never be another.
He could see that damned necklace on top of the heap.
Her breath caught. Her cheeks paled. She reached out to pick it up, bending over the tipped treasure chest.
He began his explanations. “Your mother wore it to upset my mother, Lizzie, so I relieved her of it. Your stepfather had insisted my mother return the Felmont necklace so your mother could wear it. Your mother thought it beneath her, it being only garnets. She wore it to please him and distress my mother. Young fool that I was, I never thought what I’d do with it after I stole it. Could hardly return it to my mother.”
His wife stared at the necklace dangling from her fingers. Her other hand clasped the edge of the fallen chest.
He knelt near the heap of jewelry.
“I never saw you on the floor when I robbed your mother of her jewels. I stepped on you by accident, Lizzie. I’m sorry, my love, I’m so sorry.” He wished he had Rax’s charm and could apologize with such conviction that women fell at his feet.
“You bastard! You thieving Felmont!” Her color returned. She leapt to her feet to hurl the snuff chest at him.
It bounced off his head with a glancing blow. If he hadn’t been committed to telling the truth, he’d have pretended to fall senseless to the floor to let her believe she’d killed him. If she wanted to punish him, he’d have to let her.
He got to his feet to face her.
“You may strike me, Lizzie. I’ll not lift a hand to stop you.”
She threw the necklace at his face with a shriek of fury. “You Beast! You thief!”
Her cries of outrage stopped when he kicked the treasure chest out of the way, though he was careful not to step on the necklace to reach her.
His wife leaped backwards to stumble against the bed. “Don’t you touch me! Damned highwayman! Thief! I had nightmares about that highwayman for years, and it was you!”
He met her gaze, did his best to look innocent and knew he failed. “Not going to touch you, Lizzie. You may strike me to punish me, then afterwards I need you to forgive me.”
“Why are you glaring at me?”
“Because I am afraid you’ll hit my shoulder.”
“You’d let me hit your shoulder?”
“I’ll suffer the torment of the damned, if you’ll forgive me once I stop writhing in agony at your feet.”
She said primly, “Insanity runs in your family, even when not diseased.”
He gave a great sigh. “I was insane to rob your mother. I was young and stupid. That’s the truth, Lizzie. Hit me. Get it over with. Then forgive me.”
“Don’t tell me what to do!”
Poor Lizzie had feared and suffered all those years and it was all his fault.
She hissed at him, “You trod on me by accident! My mother knew, didn’t she?”
“Yes, she teased me about it often enough. After you survived, she stopped threatening my life. If you’d died from your injury, she’d have had me displayed dead in chains at a crossroads. Later, she laughed about being tired of holding you on the seat and let you sleep on the floor. If she’d been a better mother, it would never have happened.”
“If you hadn’t robbed her, it would never have happened. Next, you will be blaming me for falling asleep.”
His darling bit her lip. She didn’t want to cry in front of him.
“My mother rambled on and on, she spoke of many things in her madness. She laughed when she spoke of highwaymen. My fear amused her. Even insane, she didn’t think to tell me.” Lizzie threw the necklace against the wall. “The only good thing I can say about her is, she never told your father.”
“Hit me, get it over with. It’s hell to wait, Lizzie.” He kicked aside the few stray trinkets at her feet to kneel in front of her. “I apologize for robbing your mother. It was a
damned silly thing to do. I’m very sorry I broke your arm by accident. Please forgive me, my love.” He rested his forehead on her.
Lizzie raised her husband’s head by tugging on his hair. “You may take the accident with the door on our wedding night as your punishment. We are even now.” She ran her fingers through his dark locks for one last time. “I intend to leave you, divorce you, and free you to marry the black-haired whore you desire.”
“I don’t have a whore, black haired or otherwise, whom I desire.” He rose to stand so close to her she could feel him tremble as he spoke. “I want only you, Lizzie. From the look on your face, I have to apologize for that, too. Hellfire!”
“Fornicating Felmont! You desire only the woman nearest to you. Admit proximity is your only criterion for lust.”
“Not true.” He moved closer until she was pressed up against him.
“Not true?” she said with a Felmont drawl. “Then how do you explain whoring in our bed at Quorr House?” She’d never forgive him for that, never trust him, never dare to love him.
He drew her into an embrace. “We aren’t leaving here until I find out who whored in our bed with Consideration Felmont.”
Lizzie gave a gasp and tried to push him away. “Don’t lie to me! Why would a man who has tried for years to entice me to love him take a whore to my bed?” Her fingers tangled in his shirt. “Don’t you know who she was? I am not helping you find your whore. No doubt, she’ll say anything you ask to enjoy your attentions again.”
“Lizzie, I’m shocked you’d think that.” His fingers stroked her sensitive back.
“Why? Aren’t all whores also liars?”
“Not that. You implied that my attentions are enjoyable.”
“I am not talking to you anymore.” She feared what her addled tongue might prompt her to say.
“Good, then I shall ravish you, chérie.”
Lizzie Tempest Ruins A Viscount (Felmont Brides Series Book 1) Page 51
