Chapter 7
“Aaron, you have chosen a bride who will surely elevate your house. I have had a chat with her, and she is quite lovely!” said Thomas Richmond, Earl of Thanet.
Gideon glowered at his acquaintance, who had clearly been toasting the marriage a little too assiduously over the morning.
“Thank you, Thanet. For your kind words and helping to make my cellars more spacious,” he smiled with all the warmth of a drawn blade.
“I note that you are your usual sour self while your bride is bright as a star.”
“You sound as though you would like to trade wives, Tom,” said Jeremy Bexley, clapping a hand onto Thomas’ shoulder, “not bored of yours already, are you?”
“Immensely, old man,” he whispered. “How did you snare such a lovely creature so quickly, Aaron?”
Gideon exchanged glances with Jeremy, who remembered Catherine from that night at Spencer’s a week prior.
“Fate, old boy. Fate,” he muttered. “Please, do partake in the rest of my cellar.”
“Don’t mind if I do!” Thomas crowed.
Gideon looked across the room, his eyes finding Catherine as they had done a thousand times since they’d arrived at Almack’s, the assembly rooms he had rented out for the morning. She was talking to Obadiah Threnthorpe and his wife. Gideon’s breath caught.
God’s wounds. Of all the people she could have chosen, she engages in conversation with two who are crucial to my ambitions. Coincidence?
“Jeremy, old boy, you are the only other who is privy to the circumstances, and I should like to keep it that way,” he murmured distractedly.
“Your secret is safe with me, of course. Perhaps, at a more convenient time, we could have a private discussion?”
Gideon looked at his friend, startled. Jeremy wasn’t smiling but looking back at him with sharp, expectant eyes.
“Regarding?”
“The secret and its keeping. Enjoy your wedding breakfast. Congratulations.”
Jeremy thumped Gideon on the shoulder as he took his leave. Gideon clasped his hands behind his back to hide his clenched fists. He felt a strong urge for a brandy but wanted to keep his wits sharp.
No more accidents with Catherine. I lost control of myself earlier, and it will not happen again. No matter what provocation she puts me to.
Again, as he threaded around the large assembly room packed with members of London’s elite society, his eyes fell upon his new wife.
She was alone now, glancing around with wonder on her face and merriment in her eyes.
Gideon found himself a quiet alcove where shadows embraced him.
He watched her sip a glass of wine and give a wince at the taste. Quick to appear and quickly suppressed.
She was a stranger to the taste of alcohol, it seemed.
That only served to increase her air of innocence.
She drifted with careful grace. Her hair was pinned up, revealing a swan-like neck.
Her ivory dress flaunted pale shoulders and the merest hint of the swell of her breasts.
It was modest but clung to her figure just enough to be suggestive. He found it all a bit… alluring.
Look away. Find the Threnthorpes and ask about their investment in the mine. I do not have time to moon around over a woman. God, why could I not have just sent her packing!
He knew the answer.
It was no more in him to abandon a woman in such distress than it was to elicit said distress in the first place.
Life had made him hard and as focused on his ambitions as an arrow.
But it had not dulled his sense of honor and integrity.
Now, his life was complicated, where before it had been as simple as a sword blade.
He managed to pass the rest of the breakfast while making as little contact as he could with his new wife. He mingled as she did, the two of them presenting the appearance of a sociable couple who took obligations to their peers seriously enough to forgo the pleasure of each other’s company.
Finally, he managed to get the elusive Obadiah Threnthorpe alone.
“There you are!” Gideon forced joviality into his voice.
“I am indeed. Splendid bash this, Your Grace,” Threnthorpe replied with a broad Lancashire accent.
“T’is indeed.”
“And a splendid couple you make. I don’t mind saying that when I first mentioned to the wife that I was considering going into business with an unmarried Duke, she had her reservations.”
Gideon feigned surprise. “Truly? Whatever for?”
“Because we are Friends, Your Grace. And clean, moral living is chief to us. I hold that a man ought to be safely wed as soon as he is able. It keeps him from mischief, if I may speak plainly. The longer he puts it off, the more mischief he is likely seeking—if thee takes my meaning.”
Gideon grinned, while in his head he’d much prefer tell the sanctimonious Northerner to go hang.
“I do and echo your sentiments precisely! Hence my choosing to seek out a wife for myself.”
“Aye, and not because you seek my brass, eh?” Threnthorpe chortled, actually nudging Gideon with a well-padded elbow.
“I would not sully the institution of marriage with such a mercenary motivation,” he nodded solemnly.
“A sound reply. You and your wife must dine with Mrs. Threnthorpe and me while we are in London. We do not often stray from the North—the South has never quite felt the same to us.”
“I should be glad to,” Gideon said, then corrected himself, “we—should be glad to. And you must come to us too, at Caerleon. I will send you an invitation card.”
“Mrs. Threnthorpe would be most pleased. Our prerogative first, of course. Shall we say this time a fortnight? We are lodging at Number 3, Jermyn Street, with a view of St James’s Square.”
Gideon inclined his head graciously, suppressing the urge to whoop in victory. Threnthorpe took his leave, and Gideon turned to find Catherine standing behind him.
“Are you enjoying our celebration?” she asked.
He realized he was grinning and promptly shed the expression.
“It is… tolerable.”
“More than tolerable. You looked ready to cheer. I enjoyed talking to Sir Obadiah earlier. He is very funny. So direct!”
“He is a commoner, bought his way into the gentry,” Gideon said dismissively.
He didn’t want to go into his business arrangements or the reason for his elation, which had clearly been too obvious on his face. He couldn’t suppress the good feeling inside, though.
“I have been trying to secure his investment for some time now in a business venture. This has proved the perfect opportunity.”
Even now, he felt that he was sharing too much, but something in him needed to be let out. It was the urge to share a victory.
Better to share it with Jeremy or Ben, except that they care nothing for business, or with Jeremy… who I am now rather suspicious of. Hang it all, is there no one I can share this with?
“Yes, the coal mine in Lancashire,” Catherine said brightly. “Sir Obadiah is truly very enthusiastic about the idea. He was explaining it to me earlier.”
Gideon stared at her. She colored under that gaze and cast her own eyes downward, swallowing.
“Is there something wrong, Aaron?”
“I do not recall telling you about that venture.”
“As I said, it was Sir Obadiah…”
“If I do not raise a subject with you, you may take it as read that I do not wish you to be discussing it. With anyone!” he barked.
He glanced around, moderating his tone for fear of drawing attention. His ire had surged at the thought that this woman he barely knew was discussing his most important business with an investor.
Catherine raised her eyes, and he spotted the spark of defiance. It was bright and hot, but died quickly, a spark thrown into tinder from flint and steel, but failing to catch.
“I’m sorry. I was simply trying to mingle with our guests and make a good impression. Was that not why we are holding such a public event?”
Gideon gritted his teeth, unable to gainsay her. He looked about and then took her arm, guiding her towards a door and through it. On the other side was a gilded corridor with more doors leading off it.
“I want to make one thing clear to you, Catherine,” he said brutally.
“I did not choose to marry you. That act was dictated by circumstances. And your actions are the root of those circumstances. I do not and shall not know if I can trust you, and speaking behind my back about my business affairs is no way to go about proving otherwise—”
She suddenly pulled free of his arm, stepping away from him. Her cheeks flared scarlet, and her eyes suddenly blazed. The spark had taken light.
His words failed him at the sight of her ferocious beauty. She had cast off the image of the timid, fearful young woman as though it had been a cloak.
“I will not go on apologizing to you every day for what I did. But you did choose to marry me. And despite your remonstrations, you did not have to. I will not grovel in gratitude every day, either. I accept our circumstances and will do my utmost to make them work. I will not bleat about how I’ve been forced into this marriage, Aaron! ”
“Bleat?” Gideon snapped.
“Yes, bleat! If you must treat me like a stranger, then do so. But a true gentleman treats even a stranger with courtesy and respect.”
“So, you question my character now? That is rich for someone who is dependent on…”
He stopped himself at the last moment. Suddenly, he was aware that they had both raised their voices and might be audible above the babble next door.
He had also been about to shout about Catherine’s condition.
It seemed clear to him, having witnessed it more than once himself.
Her ailment appeared to have vanished since her ingestion of his personal antidote earlier in the week.
She frowned. “Dependent on what?” she said slowly.