by Wendy Vella
“Here’s how things will progress from this point, Dillinger family,” Thea said, slowly looking around the table and meeting everyone’s eyes. “You are to call me Thea, and I would ask that you please visit me and also Oliver, as often as you wish to.”
“He’s just trying to protect you, Thea,” Kate said softly. “But in doing so, I suspect he is smothering you.”
Thea smiled. It was lovely to hear Oliver’s sister protecting him even if she wanted to wrap her hands around his neck and squeeze.
“I understand that, Kate, but I have never really been a person that likes to be protected. In fact, my brothers decided long ago that if they restricted my movements too much then I would do something reckless.”
“And did you?” Mary asked.
“Yes, but that will be our secret, and when you next visit me I will tell you all about it,” Thea said, reaching for the teapot and pouring herself a cup.
…
Ace followed his father and brothers into the house. They’d been to the glass factory, where they’d discussed several issues that he had been unable to resolve. His father had a sharp mind, and since Oliver forced him to retire he had learnt to read and write, and gone on to study many things—even going to lectures and dragging his sons along with him.
“Your output will increase, Oliver, mark my words.”
“I’m sure you are right, Father.” Oliver shared a look with Daniel. Mathew Dillinger had lectured them on just this topic for the past hour.
“I hope there is still food on the table,” Peter, one of the middle Dillinger’s, said.
“We shall have cook prepare more if there isn’t, son,” Mathew said, opening the dining room door.
Oliver stopped when he saw Thea seated at his table with his nephew James on her lap. Daniel hit him in the back.
“Move, you bloody ox. I need sustenance.”
“What are you doing here?” Oliver said, looking at Thea as he continued to block the doorway, stunned that his wife was here, taking tea with his family.
Color flushed her cheeks at his curt tone, before she rose slowly from her seat and handed James back to his sister.
“Thank you for my lovely visit with you all. I enjoyed it very much,” she said to his mother, who gave her a sad smile before turning to glare at him.
“Good afternoon, Mr. Dillinger, Peter,” Thea then said before coming to stand before him. “If I may have a word in private, Oliver, if you please.” She then placed a hand on his chest and pushed him backward a few steps until she could walk around him.
“Good afternoon, Daniel.”
“Good afternoon, Thea,” his brother said, which earned him a glare from Oliver. They were to address her correctly—he had told them that.
“I suggest instead of glaring at me that you follow your wife as she looks ready to box your ears, if the look she gave you was any indication,” Daniel said, smirking.
He did, finding her beside the front door.
“What are you doing here?” he demanded when he was sure they were alone, if only briefly. She had been facing the door, but his words had her spinning, her eyes shooting sparks at him.
“How bloody dare you tell your family not to visit me!”
“Thea, let me—”
“There is nothing you can say that can explain your high-handed behavior,” she said in a tone that cut right through him. “To make them call me Lady Dillinger, when I have asked them to call me Thea. How could you!”
“It is the way you were raised—”
Oliver attempted to defend himself.
“You know nothing about the way I was raised nor, quite obviously, the woman I am.”
“And how could I?” he snapped back, his own temper rising. “We are strangers, you and I, strangers who were forced to wed. I merely did what I thought was right, what I believed was right.”
“Your family believe me a snob, believe that I thought I was better than them,” she said and he saw the tears in her eyes, but was too angry to stop his words.
“You are better than them.”
Silenced filled the space, so loud it nearly deafened him, and he knew with a sinking feeling that he should never have said those words.
“You believe just because I was born a duke’s daughter that I am better than your own family, better than the man and woman who raised you?”
“No—”
“I don’t like you very much at this moment, Oliver, so I’m leaving.” She pulled open the door and stomped outside.
“Oliver!” His father stopped him as he went to follow her.
“Not now, father.”
“She is not like other noblewomen, son. She is not embarrassed to be seen with us, nor is she the kind of woman who needs pampering or protecting.” Mathew Dillinger had the hard look on his face he’d often used on Oliver before he’d left home at the age of twelve.
“I have allowed you to keep us from her and your house, because I believed you needed time to settle, son, and get to know each other, but now I see that was wrong.”
“I did what I thought was best for my wife,” Ace said stiffly, sounding pompous and hating himself for it. “And because someone shot at me and I cannot allow that to happen to her…will not allow it,” Ace added.
“Well, you were wrong. It is not best for your wife, son, and while I understand your fears for her safety, you cannot keep her locked inside your house. She is not the kind of lady to simply sit placidly by and allow it,” his father added. “And now you need to fix your marriage before she walks out on you and never returns.”
“What? She said she’d leave me?” Ace felt ice fill his veins.
“No.” Mathew Dillinger waved a hand about. “But she is angry and hurting, son, and that is not a good combination, believe me. Go now and apologize, because Thea is the right woman for you, Oliver. You just need to believe that. Stop smothering her and let her into your life,” his father added.
Could he? Ace didn’t know what to think, but right now he needed to make sure his wife got home safely.
“I will think about what you are saying, Father,” Ace said. Opening the door, he then walked outside.
Thea was not there waiting for her carriage, as he’d thought she’d be. Looking around him, he saw her running up the street.
“Stop!” Ace roared as he ran after her, but she was surprisingly fast and in seconds had a sizeable gap on him. His veins filled with ice as he saw the hackney, in the distance. Surely she didn’t mean to get into that?
“Thea, you foolish bloody woman, do not get in that hackney!” But it was too late; she’d hailed it and leapt inside. The door closed as he was a few feet away, and then it started to roll down the road. Cursing soundly, he tried to catch up, but in seconds it was gone. Turning the air blue, he ran back to his parents’ house. He had sent his carriage away for an hour, and there was no sign of Ted or the carriage he had brought for Thea to use. Panic sluiced through him. What if something happened to her? what if she didn’t go to their house, but detoured somewhere and he did not know where. What if she fell into trouble and he was not there to help her? Was the man who had tried to kill Oliver even now following her?
“Problems?” Daniel appeared on the doorstep behind him.
“My wife has run away and jumped into a hackney and my only hope is that she has directed it to take her home.”
“I’ve always thought of you as controlled, Oliver, someone who behaves rationally when all around him, others are irrational.”
“I’m sure there is a point to this,” Ace snarled.
“You are totally irrational when it comes to your wife, Oliver. She has you unsettled, and whilst I and the rest of the family are reveling in seeing it, there is also the matter of your recently acquired stupidity.”
“What?” Ace glared at his brother. “I am not stupid and I’ll plant my fist in your face if you say it again.”
“You are stupid when it comes to Thea, and the expectations you ha
ve of her and others in regards to their treatment of her. She is no doll that will be broken, brother, but a strong, intelligent woman with a will of iron. If you persist in treating her as you do, then it is my belief you will lose her.”
Ace felt his fingers curl into fists. He will not lose her.
“Daniel, to the best of my knowledge you are still a bloody virgin, so what gives you the belief that you can lecture me on marriage?”
“I’m not, actually,” Daniel said, smiling, which led Ace to believe this was a recent thing. “And what I am is observant, and I can see when someone has made an ass of himself.”
“It’s times like this that I wish I was an orphan,” Oliver muttered, running back down the steps and up the street. Finding a hackney he was on his way home in minutes.
Chapter Fifteen
Thea ran inside and up to her rooms. Once there, she stripped down to her chemise and found the small bag she’d hidden in her dressing room. Opening it, she pulled on the breeches and loose shirt she had used for riding and boxing when she was at Rossetter.
“My husband is an ass,” she growled, “an ignorant fool.” Stuffing her chemise into the waistband, she then pulled on the shirt. Unpinning her hair, Thea plaited it and secured it with a black ribbon. Leaving the room minutes later, she ran to the stairs and down, making her way to the room where Oliver hung the bag he punched. Opening the door, she went inside and closed it behind her. There was no key in the lock; however, he had told her that no one came into the room without permission, so she was safe from detection here.
Circling the bag, she reached out and pushed it, making it swing backward and forwards.
“How dared he tell his family to call me Lady Althea, and to stop them from visiting her here!” Thea shouted at the bag as she clenched her fists and lifted them into the stance that Ted had taught her. “Wait for me to go riding with you,” she muttered, striking at the bag. It felt good to hit something. If not her husband, then this bag would do.
“He wants to keep me in a cage,” she swung again, left and right, jabbing the bag.
“I am to have no part in his life other than the bedroom,” Thea vented her outrage. “I will not be smothered!” she cried.
“Is my wife here, Elliott?” Ace handed his outer clothing to the butler.
“Yes, Sir. She arrived home a short while ago and went straight to her rooms.”
“Thank you.” Ace ran up the stairs and made for Thea’s bedroom. He would talk with her rationally, explain why he had done what he had. She would understand and surely see reason, and then he would tell her never to run away from him again because his heart was still pounding.
She wasn’t there. He saw her dress on the floor and her shoes, but not her. Looking in the other rooms did not yield her, either. Elliott had said she was home, and he would have known had she left again, so where the hell was she?
He knew then, and in seconds, he was running back down the stairs. He heard the thwack of a fist hitting the bag as he approached, and closed his eyes briefly, relieved that she was all right. Opening the door, he then walked into the room.
Her face was a study of angry concentration as she circled the bag, jabbing with a left and then a right every few seconds.
“I am not a doll to be wrapped in swaddling,” she muttered. Jab, jab. “How dare he treat me like a pathetic woman with no mind?” Jab, jab.
His wife was in a towering rage, Ace realized, as he leaned against the wall to watch her. The breeches clung to the sweet curves of her bottom and showed him the long line of her limbs. Her shirt was loose, but he could see her unrestrained breasts beneath, moving with every punch she threw. A long, black plait fell to her waist, and twitched from left to right.
He didn’t fight the desire that rose inside him. He wanted her any time of the day, but here, dressed as she was, in his room, doing what he loved—in seconds he was fiercely aroused.
Their lovemaking had been a revelation to Oliver. She had given all of herself during those moments and her passion had matched his. His wife was not a woman to lie still and let him do as he wished; she participated fully. His eyes nearly crossed as he remembered her hands and mouth on his body last night. In the bedroom, they were uninhibited. There were none of the restraints that plagued them in their day to day life.
Her moves were graceful and the power behind her fists was strong for a woman of her size. He watched her for a few minutes more, and then her shoulders slumped and she stepped into the bag, wrapping her arms around it. It was a gesture of defeat and made Ace ache deep in his chest that he had once again hurt her.
Walking forward, he placed his hands over hers and covered her with his body from behind. She stiffened but did not pull away.
“I only wanted to protect you, Thea, but it seems instead I have caused you a great deal of anguish.”
“I cannot live like this, Oliver. I need more from my life with you.”
He took her with him as he straightened, turning her so he could look in her eyes.
“To have told your parents to call me my lady or Lady Althea and not to call on me was cruel, Oliver, to us both.”
He wiped a finger beneath her eyes and it came away damp.
“I’m sorry, Thea. Can you forgive me? My only thought has been for you, and what I perceived should be your life here in my house. I had no notion of how to treat you, only that you were born a lady. Therefore, you should, in my eyes, be treated as one.”
She stepped out of his reach and Ace realized she had not done that before.
“I am not like other ladies of noble birth, Oliver, as I believe I have told you before.”
“I’m sorry,” he said again. “My intention was never to hurt you.”
“I need to ride my horse, I need to do this.” She pointed at the bag that now swung between them. “I need people in my life, Oliver, and I want some of those people to be your family.” Her eyes were serious as they looked into his. “C-can you understand that?”
“I can try,” he said, pushing the bag aside and walking toward her as she backed up a few steps.
“Don’t touch me!”
“Why?” He stopped to look at her.
“This argument will be over if you do. I-I cannot think when you touch me,” she said, scowling.
He wanted to laugh with relief, but swallowed it. His touch made her lose reason—he had not lost all hope, then.
“Our first argument,” Ace said, moving forward slowly.
“No, it is not. We have been arguing since I first met you,” Thea said. “I want your word that you will let me ride, and visit your family, Oliver, and that they can come here and visit with me, too.”
“As long as you do not do any of these things unaccompanied, I will agree. But let me add that my reluctance to let you leave the house has stemmed from that man shooting at me, and because of that I have become over-protective.”
He saw the shadow of that memory in her eyes. It still worried her, also.
“I can understand that. However, it was not me who was shot at, Oliver, but you.”
“But now you are mine, and if someone wanted to hurt me they would only need to touch you.”
“B-but you have family, too. Surely they are also in danger if that is the case?”
“My family has been protecting themselves for a very long time, Thea. You have not,” Ace said.
She wiped the back of her sleeve over her forehead. It was a masculine gesture he had undertaken many times, but on his wife, it looked alluring.
“You spend most of your day working on your business, Oliver,” she added and he quickly pulled his eyes from her body and tried to focus on her face.
“Yes, is that a problem? Would you like to see more of me?” His heart sank. Working was important to him, and he had many things that needed his attention each day.
“No, I have no wish to monopolize your time,” she said, much to his relief. “However, I would like to help you if I am able. Is there a par
t of your business that I could be involved in? Or could you take me with you occasionally so I may see what you do and we could then discuss your business when we are at home? Perhaps to visit a factory, or…”
Her words trailed off and Oliver knew it was because he was frowning.
“You want to learn about my business? But you are a lady, raised to do the things that ladies do,” Ace knew he sounded like a fool but couldn’t seem to shut his mouth. “I mean that it would be too confusing for you, and—”
He didn’t see her punch coming, but he felt it, a sharp jab to his stomach that had him doubling over as he had not prepared for it. Seconds later, the door slammed behind her. Trying to breathe, Ace wheezed upright and then laughed. His wife had doubled him over; no one had done that to him in years.
Her door was locked when he reached it. He tried the connecting one between their rooms but that was locked also, so he knocked.
“Open the door, Thea, we need to talk.”
“Go to hell!”
“Your language is coarser than a sailor, wife,” he said, smiling. Delicate flower she was not, and it was time he realized that. “Now open the door.”
“I’m obviously too stupid to understand how locks work!”
Ace winced at that.
“I did not mean you were stupid. My words came out wrong. Let me in and I will explain.”
“No!”
“Open this door now, Thea.” Ace ratted the handle.
“No. Leave me alone, I wish for some time to myself.”
“And yet I wish to speak with you so please do as I ask.”
She did not reply. Ace thought about tracking down his housekeeper for the spare keys, but that would take to long. He wanted Thea, and he wanted her now.
“Are you behind this door, Thea?” He rattled the handle again.
