Chapter 7 #2
“It’s the truth, isn’t it?” He settled back against the seat. “The truth should never offend.”
She turned her attention back to the window.
“The truth should not be used as a whip, either, Montgomery,” she said without looking at him. She took another deep breath. “How can you love me? You don’t know me. Yet you needn’t say it in such a tone. As if feeling anything for me in the future would be impossible.”
“I didn’t want a wife. I expect to deal amicably with you if I can ignore you.” At her swift look, he added, “If I’ve hurt you, forgive me. It was not my intent.”
“What did you intend, Montgomery?”
She rolled the R in his name, making the name longer, giving it a flavor of Scotland.
When he didn’t answer, didn’t know what she wanted him to say, she folded her hands together and turned to look at him again, smiling pleasantly.
“To ensure I know my place? How could I not? You and my uncle have made it perfectly clear what my place is. I’m an imposition to be removed, an impediment that walks and talks.
If it weren’t for Veronica, we wouldn’t be touched by scandal.
Tuck her away, marry her off, place her somewhere she can do no more harm. ”
“If you hadn’t attended the Society meeting, Veronica, none of this would have happened. Why the hell did you?”
“The Society of the Mercaii was reputed to be a legitimate organization seeking to study the occult,” she said.
“The Society of the Mercaii is an organization given up to the study of hedonism and sex.”
“I didn’t know that at the time,” she snapped. “I thought I was going to be engaged in intellectual inquiry.”
“Intellectual inquiry?”
“Yes.”
She looked away, which just annoyed him further.
“In what? What did you think the Society could do?”
She remained silent for a few moments. Finally, she spoke. “I feel things,” she said. “I have a Gift.”
He folded his arms, recalling her conversation with her uncle on the steps the night he’d rescued her. “A gift?”
“I feel what other people are feeling. I can sense their emotions. I wanted to know if the Society knew of any other people like me.”
“You can sense other people’s emotions?” he asked. He wondered if she could feel his incredulity.
She frowned at him.
“A great many people mock what they don’t understand,” she said.
“You’ll find that the majority of the world mocks clairvoyance. Most of us are rational.”
“I’m not daft. I’m fey, but I’m not daft.”
“Then I needn’t bother telling you what I think,” he said. “Since you can feel it.”
“I don’t read minds,” she said.
“Tell me.”
She frowned at him again.
He smiled. Evidently, she was cross when her bluff was called.
“You’ve been grieving,” she said suddenly, her tone as flat as the look in her eyes. “Is that why you’re so angry? Because the woman you love isn’t here, and I am?”
The question was so unexpected it stole his breath.
Silence ticked between them, marked by the sounds of ordinary life. Another vehicle passed, and the horses seemed to greet each other. Inside, however, each was mute. Neither looked away, as if rooted to this place, this moment, by some tenuous connection.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he finally said.
She smiled slightly, the expression without humor. A simple curve of the lips that meant nothing and conveyed little. She tilted her head, studying him as if she were a curious bird.
“There is such pain coming from you, Montgomery. Even during the ceremony, I felt it. A wave of anguish that almost knocked you to your knees. Even here I can feel it. It’s as if you’re bleeding.”
He folded his arms in front of his chest, staring at her impassively. If he could have simply ignored the circumstances that night at the Society, he wouldn’t be here. No, he had to rescue this woman because he’d been unable to save another.
Damn it, he had been thinking of Caroline.
Neither he nor Veronica spoke, the atmosphere in the carriage one more suitable to winter than a fine spring day.
Veronica laid her head back against the cushions, closed her eyes, effectively distancing herself from him. Or so he thought, until she started to speak.
“You love her very much, don’t you?”
He remained still, not from fascination or interest but because he knew that if he moved, it would be to silence her. He’d reach across the seat and place his hand over her mouth to keep her from speaking.
Abruptly, she opened her eyes, her face going pale.
“She’s dead, isn’t she? That’s why you’re in so much pain.”
If he could have left the carriage, he would have. Instead, he fixed a look on his bride that she evidently understood because she suddenly went mute.
Soon, they were at his house. When his driver opened the carriage door, Montgomery ignored all the rules of etiquette by leaving the carriage and striding to the front door, unknowing and uncaring how his wife was welcomed to his home.
She followed him into his library.
“I’m sorry I’m not her,” she said, continuing their conversation as if he hadn’t walked away.
He turned slowly to face her, attempting to regain his composure.
Alisdair and James would be howling with laughter to see what Fate had done. He was married to a woman dottier than Aunt Maddie.
He leaned over, reached for the bell on the corner of his desk, and rang it twice.
“Mrs. Gardiner will show you your room,” he said. “Please tell her if you need anything.”
“Am I being dismissed?” she asked.
“If I could dismiss you, Veronica, I would. However, I’m afraid that you and I are linked by law.”
“Thank you for marrying me,” she said, startling him. “Thank you for being a gentleman, and in some ways, a knight. I didn’t mean to hurt you, Montgomery. If I did, I’m sorry. I can’t help what I feel. It just comes to me.”
“You have no control over it, I suppose?”
She shook her head.
“In that, you and I are different. I have control over my life. I don’t have to suffer your company.”
She flinched as if he’d struck her.
“Feel anything you want about me. I just don’t want to hear what you feel or what you think.”
“From now until the day we die, Montgomery?”
“I’m not as privileged as you, Veronica. I do not pretend to be able to view the future.”
“I don’t see the future. I never said I did.”
He inclined his head. “That’s right, you don’t see the future. You can only read someone’s heart. You can only feel what he’s feeling.”
“Yes,” she said, nodding. “At the moment, you’re wishing you’d never seen me,” she added, her voice so faint he almost leaned forward to hear her. “That you’d allowed me to be raped or that you’d simply walked away.”
Then his surprising wife turned and left him staring after her.
“It was a lovely ceremony, Mother,” Amanda said, helping her mother count the silver.
“I’m afraid it was a very hole-and-corner affair, my dear. Given the circumstances, it was as well done as it could have been.” She straightened, slapped her hands together as if to rid herself of the problem of her niece, and smiled at her oldest daughter.
“You can rest assured, my dear, that when your wedding comes along, it shall be a grand and illustrious event.”
Amanda smiled. “Veronica will be pleased to live in Scotland again,” she said.
Her mother shivered. “Such a barbaric country. I find it difficult to believe that our poor dear Queen has loved it all these years.”
“I think we should plan to visit them.”
Her mother looked at her with some surprise. “You have never expressed an interest in travel before now, Amanda.”
“She is family, Mother.”
Her mother nodded, as if giving the idea of travel to Scotland some serious thought.
“If it’s good enough for the Queen,” she said, “then it’s good enough for us.
” She smiled. “I shall speak with your father about it. We should, if nothing else, ensure that Veronica is living well in Scotland. After all, we’re the only family she has left. ”
“Except for her new husband,” Amanda said. “A very interesting man.”
“A Lord, for all that it’s a Scottish title,” the countess said.
“Even so, Montgomery is a handsome man,” Amanda said. “How very like our sly little Veronica to have escaped scandal with such a catch.”
“Had it not been for you, Amanda, we should never have known.”
The fondness of her mother’s smile was indication enough she’d pleased her parents.
Yet in telling her parents about Veronica’s shocking actions, Amanda had cut off a potential source of funds. She could become quite cross about the entire situation. Veronica had married and left the household. However, her dear cousin had married a wealthy man.
There must be some way to make that work to her advantage.