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up
Rosamund; you’re going home unmolested unlike my poor servants.”
The woman screamed an unintelligible reply. “Don’t bother inviting
us to dinner; I’ll be keeping country hours so I can spend my
evenings pleasuring my wife.”

    “I hate
you!”

    “Good. You can
let me help you to your feet and walk to your carriage or we can
carry you outside and heave you inside like a she-devil. There’s
bound to be someone looking out a nearby window after all of your
noise. I highly recommend you use your feet.”

    “Untie me!”

    “I prefer my
eyes in my head.” He dragged her to her feet and immediately
regretted not tying her legs. He winced in pain as her boot struck
his shin. “Kick me again…” She kicked him harder. Spinning her
around he dragged her backwards out of his house and shoved her
into her carriage and shut the door. “Take her home.” She was still
screaming insults as the carriage rolled away down the street. Back
inside he closed the door. “That was my new sister-in-law.” The
servants stopped dabbing their wounds to stare at him with horror.
“Don’t ever let her in if I’m not here. If she tries to scratch out
your eyes you have my permission to push her into the street and
lock the door. I’m going to call on Lady Gillingham. If William
comes home in a state…tell him I’ll explain later.”

Chapter 5

    Comfortably
fatigued, Penryth tucked his wrists under his neck as he returned
Lady Gillingham’s smile as she propped her chin on his naked chest.
“You grow lovelier every time I see you.” Her young cheeks flushed
a dainty pink as she briefly pressed her lips to his ribs. “If I
were your husband I’d be sick with jealousy at the thought of you
smiling at some other man like that.”

    “If you were my
husband you wouldn’t leave me behind like excess baggage. You’d
take me everywhere.”

    “I wouldn’t
take my wife to India; she might catch one of those deadly
fevers.”

    “I don’t want
to go to India; I want to go to Wales.”

    “I’d best warn
the natives.”

    “Seriously
Penryth; I’d like to visit next summer. Boring Bertram won’t be
home for at least a year and with luck he’ll die before he can get
back on the boat. We could travel together. I could tell people I
was your wife.” She kissed his chest again before fluttering her
eyelashes. “I’d enjoy being your wife.”

    “Being a lowly
Mrs Bowen wouldn’t suit you my Lady.”

    “I wouldn’t be
Mrs Bowen for long. Carmarthen is bound to die soon. Being Lady
Carmarthen would suit me very well.”

    “I thought you
wanted to be Lady Oldham. Isn’t he still in love with you?”

    “Yes, but
Oldham’s so…I don’t know if I could marry someone who says he loves
me and then chews on his fingers like a madman.”

    “Perhaps they
itch to caress you?”

    “Hardly, he’s
just terrified of his mother’s reaction and you know he spends half
the year at home with his parents. I don’t think I could bear it.
Have you ever shared a dinner table with his mother? The woman is
frightening; a Valkyrie in the flesh. Every time our eyes meet I
get the feeling she dreams of disembowelling me.”

    “Oldham is her
only surviving son. Perhaps you should be content with your present
lot. Your husband isn’t a bad fellow, if a little too trusting for
his own sake. Is his eldest son his own?”

    “Yes of course,
but I prefer a more manly man, like you.”

    “Your husband
is a manly man. I’ll never forget his enthusiastic demonstration of
strength at your house party where he declared he’d win you or be
damned. Remember how he drew back his bow farther than the rest of
us? The arrow flew past the target, over the far fence into your
father’s prize bull. I’m surprised the old man let you wed.”

    “But Bertram’s
so boring. If I’d known he’d spend hours talking about the Indian
trading Company and profitable trade routes instead of me I’d have
turned him down. Hopefully India is