Ghost of Christmas Past by Rebecca King Page B

and demanded that I go
through with the wedding as soon as I was able to sit up. She
rambled on about not losing the contracts; they were too valuable,
but I didn’t pay all that much attention. At the time, I didn’t
know whether I would be able to walk again and couldn’t bear the
thought of being anyone’s burden. Frances being Frances caused a
scene, obviously, and made such a ruckus that the doctor refused to
allow anyone to see me after that. If it had been left to Frances,
I would have had a wedding at my bedside, in spite of the fact that
you could have been lumbered with a cripple for the rest of your
life. After overhearing your conversation about Barbara with my own
ears, I knew that something had to change. It was then that I
decided to just get away from everything and everyone. There was
nothing more the doctor could do for me anyway and so I asked Uncle
John to make arrangements for me to leave for the country. As soon
as the house was ready, I was heavily dosed with laudanum, taken to
a carriage and relocated to the lodge in Leicestershire. It was far
enough away that Frances would never think to find me there, yet
close enough that I didn’t need to travel for days in discomfort.
Given what had happened the night before the wedding,” she
hesitated but ploughed on anyway. “When you made it clear that you
wanted your mistress, I knew that in all conscience I couldn’t
saddle you with a wife who couldn’t walk. I didn’t want you to feel
obligated to me because of the contracts or my injuries. So I
decided to get away from all of it and Uncle John helped
me.”
    Rupert
lifted his hand to silence her and stared hard at her. “What do you
mean, what happened the night before the wedding? The conversation
with my father? I never made it clear that I wanted to keep
Barbara. If I recall that conversation I told my father to leave
her to me to deal with.” His heart hammered in his throat and he
studied her closely but knew deep in his heart of hearts what she
was about to say. He was stunned. Simply stunned.
    “ I didn’t mean then.” Thea slowly shook her head. She wished
now she hadn’t said anything. “I meant later.” The last thing she
wanted to do now was confess that it had been her who had climbed
into his bed the night before the wedding and allowed him to take
the pleasures of a married man before they had even said ‘I do’.
When she made no attempt to expand on her announcement, Rupert
leaned across the table and tipped her chin upward until her eyes
met and held his.
    “ Tell me, Thea,” his words were husky yet determined and he
bit back a sigh of frustration when she merely continued to stare
at him. “It was you, wasn’t it? The night before the wedding, it
was you who climbed into my bed.”
    Thea
nodded and pulled her chin out of his reach. Her fingers were
clenched tightly around her wine glass and she stared blankly down
at the table as the memory of that night came flooding back with
such sensual force that she immediately wanted to cry.
    “ Good God, Thea, why the hell didn’t you wake me up before you
left?” he whispered. Anger rose so quickly that he pushed away from
the table and put more logs onto the fire in an attempt to bring
himself under control.
    “ I couldn’t,” she whispered feeling shame and humiliation that
was as acute as it had been the night her world had been shattered
by his careless words.
    “ Of course you could. We were due to be married. If you cannot
talk to me after what we shared, who could you turn to?” He didn’t
bother to try to keep his temper out of his voice.
    Thea
sighed and began to fee her own patience wane. “You fell
asleep.”
    “ Then you should have woken me up,” Rupert retorted
sharply.
    “ What for? You made it perfectly clear that you wanted that
woman you were, you were -” She was aware that she was waving her
hand ineffectually toward him but manners prevented her from
actually saying the word aloud.
    “ Is