The Captain's Christmas Bride

by Annie Burrows

  She couldn’t even place any reliance on the fact that so far, Alec was enthusiastic in bed. Enthusiasm in bed was no indication of deep feelings. Men could even be enthusiastic in bed with women they despised. She’d overheard Nick mock his own conquests often enough to know that much.

  Besides, Alec had told her, with that brutal frankness of his, that he’d been without a woman for so long that he’d have been grateful to get into bed with just about anyone.

  So, no, she wasn’t going to blurt out how she felt—how she was starting to feel about him.

  But she could show him.

  A rather naughty smile came to her mouth as she dried her face on her towel. She hung her wrapper loosely from her shoulders, rather than tying it tightly, and sashayed back to the bed, the way Nellie had taught her. She bent over to kiss him on the forehead.

  ‘I changed my mind...about getting dressed,’ she said.

  ‘I can see that,’ he replied, cupping the nape of her neck and kissing her mouth.

  So—he didn’t mind her making the first move sometimes. First thing in the morning. He was always keen on having marital relations first thing in the morning.

  ‘And I’m glad. I rather thought I’d offended you, the way I snapped when you mentioned the town house, and Lizzie’s come-out.’

  Well he had. So why hadn’t he been the one to try to make amends?

  The answer came back quicker than blinking. It was because he was a man. Men didn’t patch up quarrels. Lest it made them look weak.

  ‘It takes a bit of getting used to,’ she conceded. ‘Being married, doesn’t it?’

  ‘I could easily get used to this,’ he growled, sliding the wrapper from her shoulder, and nuzzling where her shoulder joined her neck.

  ‘Mmmhh...’ she agreed.

  They didn’t make it down to breakfast.

  * * *

  And so Julia had to spend the rest of the day making up for lost time. There were always a dozen last-minute hitches whenever there was a further influx of guests into a house that was already fairly full. Always a series of crises whenever a ball was being arranged. Besides the mundane lists she had to go through with Mrs Dawson, discussions with the cook and Gatley, as well as handling the friction that arose between the staff of Ness Hall and visiting servants.

  But at last it was time to return to her room to prepare for dinner. She was looking forward to a wash and a change of clothes. Her gown bore testament to everything she’d done that day, from emptying stale vases to inspecting and tasting Cook’s latest sauce. Hoping to avoid the eagle-eyed scrutiny of any of her aunts, she made for the back stairs, just as Nellie came running down them, almost colliding with her.

  ‘Nellie! How lovely to—’ She broke off her greeting when she saw that the opera singer’s face was white, her eyes wide with alarm. ‘What is it? What has happened?’

  ‘It’s that bugger Eduardo, pardon my language, my lady. I’ve got to stop him.’ She darted past Julia, then whirled round. ‘Actually, it might be a good idea if you was to come with me. I’ve a feeling the young lady will want you. Or someone like you.’

  Julia’s stomach contracted with a cold, twisting sensation. She’d noticed the way all her young cousins batted their eyelids at the handsome young actor. The way he’d played up to their adulation, flirting impartially with each and every one of them in turn.

  ‘I saw ’em out the winder,’ panted Nellie as she dashed down the corridor to one of the doors that led from the servant’s hall to the grounds at the rear of the house.

  ‘He’s taking her into that orangey. Which can only mean one thing.’

  Oh, dear me, yes. A young man could only have one purpose for taking a young lady out to the orangery. And it wasn’t to study botany.

  ‘He can’t have been in there with her very long, though,’ Nellie said over her shoulder. ‘I come running down the stairs as fast as me legs would carry me. So he can’t have got very far.’

  Though it didn’t take as long to become thoroughly compromised as one might suppose. Julia should know. She’d never have believed how quickly Alec could get her onto her back, had she not been there.

  * * *

  It was hard to make out anything very clearly through the windows of the orangery, since they were streaming with condensation. Though she could perceive the shapes of a man in a dark coat, and a female in the regulation white of a young girl. And that they were in each other’s arms.

  Nellie tried the door, which was of course locked. The pair inside sprang apart guiltily as it rattled.

  ‘We’ll have to use the window,’ Julia told her, going to the one with the broken latch.

  She heaved up the sash and stepped over the sill. And gasped in shock when she saw that the girl Eduardo had persuaded into the orangery was none other than Alec’s sister.

  ‘Lizzie!’

  As she came to a shocked halt, Nellie cannoned into her back, having tripped over the sill as she climbed inside.

  ‘It’s not what you think,’ said Lizzie. ‘Eduardo said he knew where to find some blooms to take the plainness off my costume for the play.’

  ‘I’m sure he did,’ said Nellie with sarcasm. ‘And just as sure that ain’t what he showed you when he got you in here.’

  While Lizzie flushed and fidgeted, Eduardo sidled closer to her and put his arm round her waist. And then smiled. A not-very-nice smile.

  ‘I am sure you don’t want anybody to know what a very forward young lady your sister-in-law is, do you, Lady Julia?’

  Lizzie turned a stunned face to him, her face turning sickly pale when she saw that shark-like smile.

  ‘What do you want?’ Julia asked scornfully. ‘Money, I suppose.’

  ‘Money?’ Lizzie looked from Julia to Eduardo in bewilderment.

  ‘Five hundred pounds,’ Eduardo continued smoothly. ‘To ensure I never speak of how easy it was to entice Captain Lord Dunbar’s sister into a secluded spot, where we proceeded to make passionate love.’

  ‘Oh,’ cried Lizzie, stepping smartly away from him. ‘We never did any such thing! Honestly, Lady Julia,’ she pleaded. ‘He just kissed me, that was all. And people have been doing lots of kissing all over the house.’

  ‘No mistletoe in here, though, is there,’ said Eduardo mockingly. ‘So of course, you slapped my face.’ Which statement made Lizzie blush, because she’d done no such thing. ‘Well?’

  ‘I don’t have five hundred pounds just lying about the place,’ said Julia.

  ‘Lady Julia! You cannot give him money. I didn’t do anything. We didn’t do anything, not really!’

  ‘But she knows that I can make it sound bad, very bad. Particularly to your brother. Who knows all about the kind of things that go on when a man gets a woman alone amongst all this tropical foliage.’

  Now Julia felt sick, too. Sick with outrage. ‘Who told you?’ She whirled on Nellie. It felt as if everyone she’d ever liked, ever trusted, had betrayed her over this Christmas season.

  ‘It weren’t me,’ Nellie vowed. ‘I know it looks bad, what with me bringing you out here, as if we was in it together. But I swear I’d never do anything to hurt a young lady’s reputation. Not after the way I started out in this business. Wouldn’t wish that fate on anyone.’

  Though she knew Nellie was a brilliant actress, she couldn’t see any reason why the woman would lie about this. Besides, from other veiled remarks Nellie had made, it now seemed clear that her career on the stage had only begun after some man had stolen her virtue.

  ‘Then who?’

  Eduardo smirked. ‘Can you not guess who would leap at the chance to have her revenge upon you? Not very wise in your choice of friends, are you? Or very tactful in the way you bestow largesse, like some kind of Lady Bountiful, putting everyone’s backs up?’

 
; ‘Marianne,’ Julia whispered. Only she and David had known what had happened to her in this very spot—apart from Nellie. Only she had anything to gain from repeating the tale. Besides, David hadn’t had the run of the house of late. He wouldn’t have had the chance to strike up that kind of conversation with any of the actors, let alone Eduardo.

  ‘Nellie,’ she said, turning to the opera dancer, who was quivering with as much rage as Julia was feeling. ‘Could you please take Lizzie back to the house, while I deal with this...this...?’

  ‘Yes. Of course.’ Nellie drew Lizzie away from Eduardo, and over to the window. Where she muttered a blistering oath.

  ‘Someone’s coming!’

  ‘Hide!’ Julia pointed to a row of large urns at the far end of the orangery. ‘Get down behind them. You can get in at the end of the row.’

  Eduardo frowned, and looked towards the window nervously. And it hit Julia, in a burst of clarity, that he really didn’t want anyone else to know what he’d been up to with Lizzie. When the theatre was closed his company made a lot of money by performing at private house parties like this one. If word got out that he couldn’t be trusted with young, innocent female guests, the work would dry up. Or more likely, he would be expelled from the company.

  ‘You’ve as much at stake as Lizzie, haven’t you?’

  ‘What? No.’

  ‘Oh, yes, you have.’ Julia shook her finger at him. ‘So this is the deal I’ll make with you. I won’t say anything about your behaviour, and nor will you. You will not damage Lizzie’s reputation, and I will not damage yours.’

  He stared at her for a second, his face registering shock, then defeat, then pure unadulterated fury.

  ‘You think you’re so clever,’ he hissed. His words were almost drowned by the grate of a boot heel at the window.

  Julia saw the swirl of a man’s coat out of the corner of her eye, in the same instant that Eduardo grabbed hold of her. And ground out one final threat.

  ‘If you don’t want her ruined, then you won’t struggle. Or I’ll point out exactly where she’s hiding, to whoever comes in through that window.’

  Then he placed his mouth over hers and kissed her.

  It was a loathsome kiss. Every nerve in her body screamed to break free, but she didn’t struggle and she didn’t slap him. She just stood slack in his arms and let him run his tongue over her lips. Allowed him to exact his paltry revenge. Because she knew that whoever had just poked his head through the window would only see a married woman committing an indiscretion, and wander away again, chortling to himself over the latest scandal created by one of the notoriously unfaithful Whitney family. And the whole incident would soon be forgotten.

  Nobody could have been more surprised when instead of doing any such thing, the man came marching over to where she stood, frozen in Eduardo’s vile grasp.

  ‘Get your hands off my wife!’

  It was Alec! He seized the actor by the scruff of the neck and tore him off her. Eduardo’s heels skittered across the tiled floor as Alec lifted the slender young man almost off his feet.

  ‘Bastard!’ Alec let go of Eduardo’s collar, but only so that he could punch him in the face. The actor reeled back, blood pouring from his nose. But Alec wasn’t finished with him. He gripped him by the collar and the seat of his breeches, and heaved him in the general direction of the window. She wasn’t sure if it was by luck or judgement that Eduardo went sailing straight through the open part. Even so, his flailing arms caught the frame, showering splintered wood and broken glass onto the gravel path.

  Eduardo got shakily to his feet. Opened his mouth as if to make a protest. Alec gave a low growl and stalked in his direction. The actor changed his mind about whatever he’d been about to say, and took to his heels instead.

  Only then did Alec round on her, his face a mask of fury.

  ‘You trollop.’

  She flinched. And was about to protest that Eduardo had forced the kiss upon her. That she was only covering for Lizzie. But Lizzie clearly didn’t want even Alec to know what she’d been up to, or she would have come straight out of her hiding place the moment she’d realised the newcomer was her own brother, who could be trusted not to spread malicious gossip.

  Her hesitation was all it took to fuel Alec’s fury to new heights.

  ‘I thought what happened in here at Christmas was a terrible accident,’ he ground out. ‘The culmination of a series of blunders. I was prepared to overlook your behaviour because I thought you were just a naïve, foolish girl with a head stuffed full of nonsense. But now I see that this is a regular trysting spot for you. Good God! You must be insatiable. You kept me in bed all morning, and then arranged to meet another man out here!’

  How could he think that? Didn’t he know her at all?

  No. Come to think of it, he was always jumping to the worst conclusion whenever she made the slightest blunder. And she was sick of having to...to crawl to earn every scrap of affection. It was the story of her life. She only had to put one foot out of place and all affection was instantly withdrawn.

  She lifted her chin and glared at him. If he could come to such a horrid conclusion, simply because she’d been reluctant to instantly provide a plausible excuse, then he didn’t deserve any kind of explanation!

  ‘You’re nothing but a spoiled, wanton trollop!’

  He had clearly only just managed to prevent himself from plunging to even deeper depths, but the hurt remained the same. She wasn’t any of those things! But he’d taken one look at the situation and decided she must be guilty of the worst sort of conduct. He hadn’t even asked her for an explanation. Not that she would have given him one.

  ‘You pick up men like pretty toys and toss them aside when you’re bored.’

  She sucked in a sharp, shocked breath. She’d never treated anyone like a toy. She’d had her own feelings trampled often enough to ever contemplate treating anyone else so shabbily.

  ‘I thought you were struggling to control your hurt,’ he bellowed. ‘I thought you were brave. God, I actually admired you for your fortitude. But it was no such thing, was it? You just didn’t care. You swapped me for David the way most women change their shoes!’

  He might as well have slapped her, that last comment hurt so much.

  She lifted her chin another notch. Fine then! If this was what he really thought of her it was as well to know now, before she...before she began to really care what he thought. Because she didn’t. She didn’t.

  In fact she hated him. In that moment she really hated him for speaking to her that way.

  ‘Nothing to say?’

  ‘No.’ She gave him a hard smile. ‘You’ve clearly seen through me, so what is the point? I won’t beg for your forgiveness, if that is what you’re hoping for. Nor offer you an explanation. You don’t deserve one.’

  She made as if to get past him. His hand shot out and gripped her arm.

  ‘Where do you think you’re going?’

  ‘Back to my room.’ She pulled her arm out of his grasp with all the disdain she could muster. ‘There is a ball tonight, in case you have forgotten. For which I need to prepare.’

  ‘You mean to dance, and smile for your father’s guests as if nothing has happened?’

  She looked over her shoulder as she stepped over the shattered window frame. ‘Nothing has happened,’ she said. But it might at any moment. For the fronds of the potted palms at the end of the orangery were quivering, as though someone was trying to get out from behind the pots.

  Now that she’d been treated to a dose of Alec’s temper she wasn’t surprised Lizzie had chosen to hide from him when he’d first come in. And now there was no point in Lizzie confessing to the truth. If Alec really thought so poorly of her, then what was the point of trying to salvage anything? She should have known their marriage was never going to work. Sh
ould have realised that it was too good to be true. No man could possibly be as decent, and kind as she’d begun to think Alec was.

  ‘Apart from you behaving like a brute, and breaking the window, that is. Gatley is going to be furious. As am I. Honestly...’ she sent him a withering look ‘...anyone would think you expected me to behave like a nun. A little kissing is nothing.’ She tossed her head airily as she set off towards the house. Just as she hoped after making such an inflammatory remark, Alec surged through the shattered window frame to give her a piece of his mind.

  ‘To think I was trying my damnedest to make a go of this accursed marriage,’ he shouted at her back as she strode across the terrace. ‘Now I see that I was the one who did all the trying. I put in all the effort. You did nothing!’

  That remark was so unjust that it was all she could do not to turn round and slap his self-righteous face. But she refused to lower herself to his level.

  Instead, she held her head high and remained mute, hoping it would look as though the torrent of abuse and foul accusations was washing right over her. Because while she stalked away from the orangery, he followed. Which was, at least, giving Lizzie and Nellie the chance to escape undetected.

  ‘All you have done is moan about your bloody so-called friend, and complain I’m nothing like that saintly David!’

  Which was completely untrue. She’d never complained of that. On the contrary, she’d been glad he was so different from David.

  Well, all that was at an end.

  He made sure of it by continuing to say unfair things, all the way up the stairs. And every insulting thing he’d thought about her, and was now actually saying to her, felt as if it was flaying a little more flesh from her bones.

  She marched into her room, and right through to the dressing room. Because there was only so much she would tolerate.

  ‘Well, since you are so obviously finished with any pretence you can stand me,’ she said, seizing his valise, ‘there is no further need to play at being husband and wife, is there?’