Free Regency Innocents by Annie Burrows Page B

decide to run away to her farm in Dieppe. And where would that leave him?

Chapter Four

    H eloise gazed wide-eyed around the mirror-lined interior of the most expensive and therefore the most exclusive restaurant in Paris.
    â€˜Most people come to Very Frères to sample the truffles,’ Charles had informed her when they had taken their places at a granite-topped table in one of the brilliantly lit salons.
    That seemed inordinately foolish, considering the menu contained such a staggering variety of dishes. ‘I will have the
poulet à la
Marengo.’ She leaned forward and confided, ‘Although it is much cheaper in the Trois Frères Provencaux.’
    â€˜You do not need to consider the expense,’ he pointed out. ‘I am a very wealthy man.’
    Heloise shifted uncomfortably as his gaze seemed to settle critically upon her rather worn lilac muslin. ‘I am not marrying you for that.’
    â€˜I know,’ he acknowledged. ‘But you must admit having a wealthy husband will make your lot more tolerable.’
    â€˜Will it?’ she replied in a forlorn little voice. She reallycould not see that it mattered how wealthy her husband was when he was in love with someone else. Someone he could not have. And when she would only ever be a poor second best.
    â€˜Of course,’ he replied briskly. He had decided to make amends for his overbearing attitude the previous evening by spoiling her a little. And demonstrating that he was prepared to consider her feelings. ‘I appreciate that you may find certain aspects of marrying me more uncomfortable than I had at first assumed.’ If he didn’t want her bolting to Dieppe, he would have to persuade her that marriage to him would be nothing like the picture she had painted of being chained down by Du Mauriac.
    â€˜I shall not forbid you from pursuing your own pleasures.’ He did not want her worrying he would be forever breathing down her neck. ‘Nor shall I expect you to hang on my arm.’ He would not force her to any event that she would rather not attend. He knew that her rather retiring nature might make it hard for her to hold her own with some of the people with whom he routinely crossed swords during the course of his public life. However, he did not want her to feel he saw her shyness as a failing. ‘It is not done for a man to be seen about too much with his wife,’ he explained. And though we must live in the same house, there is no reason we may not live virtually separate lives.’
    Her heart fluttered in panic. It sounded as if he meant to deposit her in some house in a foreign country, where she knew nobody, and leave her to fend for herself.
    â€˜D … don’t you want people to think we have a true marriage?’
    He felt touched that she could still think of his image, when she must have so many reservations about the new life she was about to embark upon.
    â€˜We must be seen about together occasionally, yes,’ he acknowledged. ‘Just once every se’en night or so should be sufficient.’
    She 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?
    â€˜Do you have a house in the country, my lord?’ she asked. The hens were seeming increasingly attractive.
    â€˜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.’
    â€˜Ch … Charles,’ she stammered, the familiarity of his name catching on her tongue.
    â€˜And may I call you Heloise?’
    She nodded, rendered speechless at the warmth of the smile he turned on her for acceding to this