Chapter 21
“Indoors,” Leonard barked. “Right now.”
Prudence paused long enough to collect the cat she’d rescued from the arms of one of the footmen. The poor thing was shaking like a leaf. She held it close to her body as she followed Leonard into the house, feeling angry and defiant.
If she was honest with herself, she’d known he would react like this.
He could never tolerate her doing anything remotely strange or unpredictable.
Prudence had no particular desire to climb trees and might have asked someone to do the job for her were it not for the fact that she’d known exactly how her husband would react to her actions.
That probably should have been a reason not to do it, really.
Perhaps she couldn’t blame him for being angry.
He whirled to face her once they had reached the sitting room. “I can’t imagine what you were thinking,” he said in a low voice, eyes narrowed and boring into hers. “Behaving like that… Don’t you realize that you might have been killed?”
“I couldn’t have been killed,” she protested. “Even if I had fallen, I wasn’t up high enough to be killed by a fall. Hurt perhaps but not killed.
His expression didn’t change. “Am I supposed to be happy with that?” he wanted to know. “My wife might have been grievously hurt, but she would have survived, so that’s all right? Is that what you expect me to say?”
“I don’t expect you to say anything, Leonard, but why are you so upset?” Prudence asked. “You must see that even if it worried you, everything turned out for the best in the end. You can see that I’m fine now.”
“I can see that you were lucky. I can’t believe you would do something like this.
But I suppose I should believe it, shouldn’t I?
You’ve shown me right from the start, and again and again, that this is who you are.
I have no right to be surprised by you anymore.
” He sighed. “I’m going to have to cancel my plan to go to the country. ”
“Of course, you don’t have to cancel,” she protested. “Don’t be hasty, Leonard.”
“Hasty is the last thing I’m being. I’ve overlooked many indiscretions,” he told her firmly.
“I should have understood the situation we were in the when I caught you sneaking out. I couldn’t possibly go off to the country and spend every day wondering whether you were taking risks with your life—whether I was about to receive a letter informing me that something dreadful had happened and I needed to rush home for your funeral. ”
“You are overreacting,” she told him. “Ridiculously so.”
“If it was just this incident, I would say you were right, but it hasn’t just been this, has it? You do all kinds of ill-advised things, and who knows what you’ll come up with next? I won’t be going, and that’s final.”
Prudence drew a deep breath.
The truth was, though it was a great surprise to her to realize it, his words came as a relief.
I didn’t want him to go. Not really. If he’s going to stay, that means we’ll get to know one another better after all, and we won’t have to rush the process.
That seems like a good thing, even if it’s not something I knew I wanted.
I suppose I made the right choice in going up that tree today, if it means that Leonard will remain here with me instead of going away.
She schooled her expression carefully to make sure he wouldn’t see any of those thoughts on her face. “Of course, you must do what you feel is right,” she said.
He groaned. “You’ve left me little choice, you know,” he told her. “It would be for the best if you were able to admit the position you’ve put us in.”
“I won’t apologize,” she told him firmly. “Not for helping this poor little cat. Oh, Leonard, just think what might have happened had I not been there. It could have been awful. It’s a blessing that I was able to help when I was.”
“It’s a cat,” he pointed out rather harshly. “Cats are well known for being more adept in trees than humans are. I have a feeling the animal would have done just fine for itself if you hadn’t been there.”
“You can’t fault me for wanting to help it just the same,” she said. ‘Or, perhaps you can. The way you keep calling it the animal, it’s as if you think…” She trailed off.
“As if I think it’s an animal?” he asked, lifting an eyebrow. “What would you have me call the cursed thing, Prudence? It’s not as if it has a name. It’s not as if it’s ours for pity’s sake.”
“It could be ours,” she insisted. “In fact, I think it will be, for I intend to keep it.”
He stared. “You’re not keeping that thing in the house.”
“This thing is a very sweet little kitten, and it’s clear that it doesn’t have a home, or it wouldn’t have been climbing our trees in the first place,” she shot back.
“Now, you don’t have to like it, Leonard, and you don’t have to stay here.
You’re still at perfect liberty to go off to the country if you don’t want to share quarters with my new pet. But I am going to keep him.”
“So now you tell me how things are going to be in my household?” he asked. “All this time, I’ve done my best to make you feel welcome and at home, and this is the thanks I get? You treat me as if I’m the guest here, and you are the lord of the place?”
“No one here is a guest,” Prudence said hotly. “If I want to keep a pet, I’ll do so because this is my home as much as it is yours.”
She understood how forward she was being.
She knew that she was out of line and that there was every chance he would snatch the cat from her and tell her in no uncertain terms that she couldn’t keep it.
She might even be punished for the way she was speaking to him, and if she was, she would probably deserve it.
But there was no other way to get through to a man like Leonard. He didn’t listen to reason. He wouldn’t care if she tried to tell him how she felt about things. The only thing she could do to ever get her own way from him was to insist on it. There was nothing else that would work.
She clutched the cat to her chest, determined not to allow him to take it from her.
She let out a sigh. “You are impossible,” he murmured. “And you’re determined to remain that way, aren’t you?”
“Out of all the things a person might insist upon, I don’t think a little cat ought to be such a problem,” she told him. “You just want the argument; that’s all. You could simply allow me to keep the cat, and nothing else would need to be said about it.”
“And no doubt that’s precisely what will happen in the end,” he said, rolling his eyes. “But really, you are too much, Prudence. Have you ever not had your own way about anything before in your life?”
I didn’t want to marry you. I didn’t have my own way about that.
Just a few days ago, she might have said that out loud. She would have enjoyed testing his patience, seeing the look on his face as he was backed into a corner by their verbal sparring.
But today, she found that she couldn’t bring herself to say it. She didn’t want to risk upsetting him or making him angry. Worse yet, she didn’t want to make him think that she regretted their marriage.
I don’t regret it. I’m glad to be married to him. No one could ever say that it was an example of me getting something I wanted. I didn’t want it, but I do want it now.
My goodness… Caroline was right after all. I have grown to care for my husband. I’m grateful that he isn’t going away to the country, and I’m glad to be married to him. How on Earth did all this happen when none of it was ever the plan?
“I have my way about most things,” she told him.
“I can see that,” he agreed. “Very well, you can keep the cat. And I’ll ask you here and now to promise me that you won’t go climbing in any more trees.”
“Will you believe me if I promise you that?” she asked him.
To her surprise, he laughed. “No, I won’t,” he told her.
“I know you well enough by now to realize that you’re going to do whatever you want, regardless of what I think about it and regardless of what you say to me.
There isn’t any point at all in extracting a promise from you, and I know that perfectly well.
But I’m going to ask you to give me a promise anyway.
Maybe the next time you’re tempted to do something foolish, you’ll remember this conversation, and even if it won’t stop you, it will make you pause. A man can hope.”
Prudence couldn’t help it—she smiled, too.
“You want me to tell you I promise I won’t climb trees?” she asked.
“And in exchange, you can keep the cat with no argument from me,” he said.
She paused, searching his face.
There was no chance of ruin to her reputation, or to his, based on the actions she had taken today. For once, that wasn’t what this was about. He was upset for another reason.
Maybe he really did think I was at risk of falling.
There had been that one moment when she’d slipped.
It had been a little frightening, she supposed, though her grip had been good enough that Prudence didn’t think she had ever been in any real danger.
Still, to someone watching from below, that might have been frightening. Maybe she really had scared him.
She felt a surge of sympathy. If she had seen him in a situation she had deemed dangerous, she might be reacting in much the same way he was right now. It would have frightened her, and she might have responded with anger.
He’s being like this because he was worried about me. Because he cares about me.
It was a staggering thing to realize, and it startled her even more that it meant as much to her as it did. She wouldn’t have imagined that his caring for her could matter to her in such a powerful way. But she felt warm inside, as if someone had ignited a candle within her.
“I won’t climb any more trees,” she told him, and very much to her own surprise, she meant it. She really wouldn’t. She didn’t want to make him worry, especially now that she understood he really would worry.
She wrapped her arms round the cat she’d saved and sank down into a chair.
Leonard looked at her for a moment, and she was sure he must have something else he was thinking of saying. But if he did, he didn’t find the words. He turned away and left her in the sitting room on her own, perhaps thinking that she would take the time to ponder the choices she’d made today.
Or perhaps he was going to think about his own choices.
Either way, everything seemed to have changed between the two of them, and Prudence had no idea what to expect anymore.