Margaret Moore by A Rogues Embrace Page B

eagerly.
    “I have, and a more disgusting, bitter drink I have never had the misfortune to taste. They should have left it in the New World, as far as I’m concerned.”
    With that, and several other observations, Richard amused his wife’s son as they left the great city. Finally, however, Will leaned his head against his mother’s shoulder and nodded off to sleep.
    When Richard was quite sure the boy was sound asleep, he quietly said, “I must commend your lawyer.”
    Elissa turned a wary eye his way.
    “That is an incredible marriage settlement. Tell me, was it his idea or yours to present it under those particular circumstances so that I could not read it beforehand?”
    She bristled, yet he didn’t care. “For the suddenness of its presentation, you may blame the king,” she replied tartly, “since he chose thedate and time of our nuptials, not I.”
    “You might have sent it to my lodgings before I left for Whitehall.”
    “I did not know where your lodgings were, nor did Mr. Harding,” she replied pertly, again turning to look out the window, as if that dismissed the matter.
    He leaned forward. “I am sure you could have found out, or come earlier to Whitehall, or sent the document to the theater.”
    “Mr. Harding had barely finished writing it when it was time to go to Whitehall ourselves.”
    “He wrote it? Not his clerk?”
    “Yes.”
    “He seems to take a rather personal interest in your affairs.”
    She regarded him scornfully. “It is clear to me that you cannot comprehend that a man could treat a woman as a respectable client and nothing more. He wrote it himself to save time, if you must know. Mr. Mollipont writes slowly.”
    “Then the wonderful Heartless Harding should find another clerk.”
    “Will you stop talking about Mr. Harding in this insolent manner? He has no special interest in me, I assure you, nor I in him. He was a friend of my father’s, and if he had not written my other marriage agreement, who can say what might have happened to me when…”
    Her face flushed as she paused and looked away, her breasts rising and falling with passionate indignation.
    He kept his gaze on her irate features. “It doesn’t matter what you feel for him, my sweet, or what he feels for you,” he lied as he tried to ignore a sudden vision of her in that other man’s arms. “What is important is that you understand that I know full well I have been duped, and that I intend to ensure that it never happens again.”
    He leaned across the coach to put his knuckle beneath her chin, making her look up at him. “That agreement virtually emasculates me.
    “I don’t think anything could emasculate you.”
    His lips twisted into a wry, sardonic grin. “I daresay I should be flattered. However, to find one is reduced to a role something less than a steward when one has just been made an earl is another situation entirely.”
    “I understood all that was required is that you live on your family estate, and so you shall.”
    “What I wanted was to be master of my family’s estate, as I should be. That has been denied me. I shall be nothing more than—”
    His wife’s eyes suddenly gleamed with what looked suspiciously like mockery. “Chattel?” she suggested.
    “You are
my
chattel, my lady,” he growled,“even if I am not to command the estate.”
    As annoyed as he was, he realized he would have done better not to show it, for the hint of amused mockery disappeared, replaced by cold sternness. “I know what the law says about a wife’s place, and how keen men are to keep us there.”
    “I am not William Longbourne.”
    “I also know that,” she snapped. “But except for your reputation, I know almost nothing else about you, save what I learned…” Her voice trailed off to an embarrassed silence.
    “Save what you learned last night?” he asked softly, pressing his knee closer to her leg.
    “Yes.”
    All thoughts of her marriage settlement fled Elissa’s mind as his expression