Free Once Upon an Accident 01 - The Accidental Countess by Melissa Schroeder

do.”
    Colleen said not a word as she listened to his mother. If he didn’t know better, he’d have thought she was not a bit upset. Then he saw she was clenching her teacup so tightly, it was a wonder it didn’t shatter.
    “Listen, Mother, Colleen and I need to talk about this. Why don’t you and Anna go back to the inn, rest and then we’ll have dinner?”
    His mother looked from him to Colleen and then back again to him. A shrewd expression entered her eyes.
    “Yes. That sounds like a marvelous idea.”
     
    *
     
    As the carriage pulled away, Victoria Ware settled against the seat.
    Anna’s bubbly voice broke the silence. “I had no idea he would ever marry again.”
    Victoria looked at her daughter, nineteen and so full of dreams and warmth. “He vowed not to. But…I think he got more than he bargained for with this one.”
    “What do you mean, Mother?”
    She grimaced, thinking of the way that tramp of a first wife had hurt her son. She’d not wanted him to marry so young, but he said he was in love so she had agreed. It had proved to be the wrong decision. Not six months later, she had started cheating on Sebastian and was dead a year after that from a jealous lover’s bullet.
    “Yes, well, they married under unusual circumstances.” Victoria stopped Anna when she opened her mouth to ask questions. “You do not need to know anything about it. It is private and between them.”
    Anna pouted for a minute and then smiled. “Well, the way he looks at her…” She sighed.
    Oh, yes. She’d seen the way her son studied his wife. Sebastian was no choirboy. She knew he’d had many women. But when he looked at Colleen, it reminded her of her own dear Edward.
    She thought about her plain daughter-in-law. There was something so familiar about those eyes. That shade of grey danced at the edge of a memory. She shook her head, knowing her mind was still not working properly. The last few weeks had been trying, worrisome and downright horrible. With the stress the family had already endured, tension had ridden high when Sebastian did not return on time.
    One thing was for certain. She would do everything in her power to make sure there was no annulment. As she closed her eyes, she remembered the look on her son’s face while he watched Colleen, and the daggers her daughter-in-law had shot at him with her gaze.
    She smiled. Oh, yes indeed. Those two would give her wonderful grandchildren.
     
    *
     
    Colleen sat on her bed, anger boiling her blood. She could not believe what a mess they had made of things. What were they going to do now? She had to find some way to break out of this ridiculous muddle. She didn’t want a husband. Now she was stuck with one and a bloody title.
    Sebastian entered the bedroom and shut the door behind him. He leaned against it, crossing his arms. He didn’t say anything for a few moments, but he studied her, his gaze moving from her head down to her toes and back up again.
    “Well, let’s hear it.”
    “Let’s hear it?” She couldn’t believe he was being so casual. “Let’s hear it?”
    “I know you are dying to yell at me, so let it go.” He gestured with his hands casually, as if he were asking for the price of a cravat.
    “Yell at you?” Her voice was a hoarse whisper as she tried to contain her anger.
    “Really, Colleen, you are beginning to sound like a simpleton. You keep repeating everything I’m saying. You did the same thing with my mother and sister. It’s a wonder they don’t think you have some kind of mental deficiency.”
    The gall of the man! He was accusing her of acting like an idiot. And there he stood, behaving as though there was nothing wrong. For the first time in her adult life, rage took over.
    Glancing around, trying to calm her heart—which was beating so fast she was amazed she didn’t expire on the spot—she noticed her favorite brush lying on her bed. She grabbed it and flung it at him with all her might. He ducked, and the brush