Free The Earl's Untouched Bride by Annie Burrows Page B

bit her lip. She could hardly complain if he could not face wasting more than one evening a week on her. Hadn't she rashly declared she would go and live in a cottage and keep hens if he did not wish to be burdened with her company?

    'Do you have a house in the country, my lord?' she asked. The hens were seeming increasingly attractive.

    'That is far too formal a way to address me now we are to be married,' he countered, puzzled by her abrupt change of subject. He had done what he could to put her at ease. Now it was time to take things to a more intimate level. 'You had best call me Walton. Or Charles.'

    'Ch...Charles,' she stammered, the familiarity of his name catching on her tongue.

    'And may I call you Heloise?'

    She nodded, rendered speechless at the warmth of the smile he turned on her for acceding to this small request.

    'I hope you will like Wycke.'

    'Wycke?'

    'Although I have a house in London, where I reside whilst Parliament is in session, Wycke is my principal seat, and it is where...' Where the heirs are traditionally born, he refrained from finishing. Regarding her upturned, wary little face, he wondered with a pang if there would ever come a time when he would be able to tackle such a delicate subject with her.

    Though, legally, he already had an heir.

    'There is one rather serious matter I must broach with you,' he said firmly. It was no good trying to shield her from everything. There were some things she would just have to accept. 'I have someone...residing with me in Walton House — that is, my London home.'

    Heloise attacked the tender breast of chicken the waiter had set before her with unnecessary savagery. She had wondered just how long it would be before he raised the topic of his mistress. Of course she would not voice any objections to him visiting such a woman. But if he expected her to let his mistress carry on living with him, then he was very much mistaken!

    'Indeed?' she said frostily.

    'He is not going to be easy to get along with, and on reflection I recommend you had better not try.'

    He? Oh, thank goodness — not a mistress.

    Then why should she not try to get along with this guest? Heat flared in her cheeks. Of course — she was not good ton , and this person was clearly someone whose opinion he valued.

    'Whatever you say,' she replied dully, taking a sip of the meursault that had somehow appeared in her glass when she had not been attending.

    'And, while we are on the topic, I must inform you there are several other persons that I do not wish you to associate with.'

    'Really?' she said bleakly. She was not good enough to mix with his friends. How much more humiliation did he intend to heap on her? 'Perhaps you had better provide me with a list?'

    'That might be a good idea,' he replied in an abstracted manner. In marrying him, Heloise would become a target through which his enemies might try to strike at him. It would be unfair to leave her exposed when, with a little forethought, he could protect her. Some people would take great pleasure in making her as uncomfortable as possible simply because she was French. Others would be livid that she had thwarted their matrimonial ambitions towards him. 'Those you need to be wariest of are certain members of my family.'

    She knew it! He was downright ashamed of her! What further proof did she need than to hear him warn her that his own family would be her bitterest enemies?

    'You see, I have severed all connection with certain of them — '

    Catching the appalled expression on her face, he pulled up short.

    'Beware, Heloise,' he mocked. 'Your husband is a man notorious for being so lacking in familial feeling that even my closest relatives are not safe from my cold, vengeful nature.'

    She was so relieved to hear that his forbidding her to mix with these people was not because he was ashamed of her that she could easily dismiss the challenge aimed at her with those bitter words. Whatever had happened in the past was