Free Scandal by Carolyn Jewel Page B

corners of her mouth too quickly turned down. She looked at the floor and tugged on one of her gloves, bringing the kidskin closer to the tender crook of her elbow.
    â€œI didn’t believe him,” she said. “Why should I have? You know what he was like. But he stayed at Rider Hall. He stayed home with me, and he was never once drunk. He didn’t ask me for money. Nor spend the night in town. I wanted so much to believe he meant it.” She bit her lower lip, and then slowly, sensuously, she smiled. He doubted she knew what she looked like with the dreamy uptilt at the corners of her mouth. “I was happy, Banallt. For the first time in ... forever, it seemed, I was happy. He was the man I married, the man I fell in love with, and I fell in love with him all over again.”
    He let the silence stay between them. What the hell had Tommy Evans ever done to deserve such devotion?
    Her head leaned against the column. “We went to visit his parents. They had several guests at the house. Down from London. We weren’t going to stay long. Tommy and I had talked about going to Havenwood to see Papa and John. He knew how dreadfully I missed them.”
    Banallt kept his silence. If Tommy Evans had wanted to visit Sophie’s family, then it would only have been to borrow money after he showed off a young wife whom he pretended to adore and who obviously adored him.
    â€œBut one afternoon I came home early from some outing with his mother. I don’t even remember now what it was we were doing. And I walked in on him with Mrs. Peters. In our room. Our bed.” A tear slipped off her lower lashes and headed down her cheek.
    Banallt’s heart dove to his feet. He saw and felt the image in his head. Sophie, believing she had her heart’s desire, that her husband loved her. Her hand on the door, seeing Tommy with another woman, their bodies locked together. He felt her heartbreak. Damn Tommy Evans to hell. Banallt wasn’t over her. No matter how often he told himself he was, he wasn’t. If he lived to be a hundred, he’d not be over her. “I am so sorry.”
    â€œHe made me love him again, and what a fool I was.”
    He closed the distance between them and brushed the tear from her cheek. What was he supposed to say to her when he’d been more than a little responsible for the man’s many transgressions? “Sophie.”
    â€œLater, we argued terribly,” she said, unaware that more tears were spilling down her cheeks. “I said a great many unkind things.”
    â€œYou were angry.” He was afraid she was going to break. She was trying mightily to control herself, but he knew she was at the edge. “And hurt.”
    â€œI refused to stay another night in that room. Where he’d been with that woman.” She looked up. “Her eyes were closed, you know. She mayn’t ever have seen me or known I came in. Perhaps Tommy never told her. I saw them, and right before I closed the door, Tommy ... he looked right at me. And I could see in his eyes that he’d lied to me all along.”
    Banallt brushed a finger along her lower lip.
    â€œAll I wanted was for my husband to love me. Just a little.”
    â€œSophie ...”
    â€œThat night, he was killed. His mother knew we’d argued, though not why—I wouldn’t tell her that for the world—and she blamed me. If we hadn’t argued, he’d never have gone out.” She looked away. “Married couples argue all the time,” she said.
    â€œShe was a mother, Sophie, who’d lost her son. She must have been mad with grief.”
    Her eyes met his, silently acknowledging his point. She reached for his hand, holding just his fingers in hers. “Yes, that’s so.” She sighed. “She blamed me that Tommy got drunk that night and stayed drunk all night and killed himself riding home.” She let out a breath. “If I hadn’t told him to