Chapter 3 #3
Mumbling a thank you, she whirled around and picked up her skirt.
As she stepped into it and pulled it up to button it at the back, Theo batted her hands aside and buttoned it for her.
When she turned and reached for the jacket Theo had carelessly tossed over the rocker, a loud hiss echoed in the air as he inhaled a quick breath of fury.
Roughly, Theo caught Genevieve’s wrist in a firm grip.
With a tug that was far from gentle, he forced her to face him.
“We need to discuss what just happened,” he paused as she opened her mouth to protest, and his look was enough to silence her. “And whether you want to or not, we are going to discuss the matter.”
“Very well,” she bit out with frosty precision as she tried to pull her wrist free of his snug grip and failed. “Speak your piece, Lord Selbourne.”
“If that’s your way of distancing yourself from me, it won’t work, Genevieve.
Although my title will become quite familiar in the future.
” The harsh, forbiddingly autocratic note threading through his words made her body tighten with trepidation.
She buried her apprehension beneath a look of defiance.
“And exactly what is that supposed to mean?”
“I intend to marry you.”
“You cannot possibly be serious.”
Genevieve stared at Theo in abject horror.
What on earth made the man think she wanted to marry him or anyone else?
A whisper from deep in the back of her mind tried to push its way forward.
Genevieve silenced it before it could resound in her consciousness.
Determination tightened Theo’s sensual mouth, and the resemblance to his father became even more pronounced than ever before.
“I’m quite serious,” he said in a grim voice. “What is it about Rockwood women and their aversion to marriage?”
“You forget I am not a Rockwood by birth, and my pedigree is far from acceptable,” she said with cold defiance. “Not to mention you’ve not even questioned me as to why I’m not a blushing innocent. A fact that makes me unsuitable for a man who will one day be an earl.
Theo’s blue eyes resembled a stormy sky over Callendar Abbey as he glared down at her. With a hard tug of her arm, she tried to break away from the firm, unyielding grip he had on her wrist.
“If you meant to insult me, Genevieve, you’ve succeeded,” he gritted out between his teeth, his jaw a hard line of anger. “Do you really believe I’m the kind of man who cares about your background? You aren’t responsible for what happened to you as a child.”
“And what, precisely, do you think you know about my childhood?” she demanded as a chill slithered across her skin.
“A great deal more than you realize.”
“Do tell,” she snapped.
“Peter told me how Ruckley sent you to Mayfair under the pretense of learning how to be a maid in a nobleman’s household.”
Shock made Genevieve grow rigid as she stared up at his grim expression in open-mouthed horror. Her stomach lurched with a sickening sensation as her gaze locked with Theo’s. Peter had sworn he’d never tell anyone the truth, and yet he’d betrayed her. He’d told Theo about her past.
“Peter never knew he’d revealed the truth to me,” Theo said quietly, as if he could read her mind.
“He’d had too much to drink one night. The following morning, he didn’t even remember telling me what Ruckley had done to you.
I left it that way, I knew how he would have tortured himself for having betrayed your trust.”
Genevieve didn’t say anything, she simply stared at him as she struggled not to throw up.
She remained silent for a long moment, and a frown of concern furrowed Theo’s brow.
Swallowing the bile rising in her throat, she regained enough of her composure to shield her ravaged emotions with an icy calm she didn’t feel.
“The circumstances of my childhood might not be my fault, but I have no intention of marrying you or any other man,” she bit out coldly as she arched away from him. “No one knows what happened here.”
“We know what happened.”
“As I said,” she bit out crisply. “Forget it. I already have, because it meant nothing.”
“And what if a child was just conceived?”
Theo bobbed his head toward the cot and its straw mattress, which was a far cry from any decent bed, then turned his gaze back to her.
Pain sliced through Genevieve at his statement, and her cheeks grew as cold as Callendar Abbey’s ice-covered pond in winter.
Frozen in place, she didn’t move for a long moment, then with a fierce tug, she pulled free of the strong male fingers wrapped around her wrist.
Without answering him, Genevieve yanked her riding jacket off the back of the chair and shoved her arms into the garment’s sleeves.
The action made her shoulder protest with a vicious jolt of pain spinning through her chest. Ignoring the burning sensation of the wound just above her breast, she pulled the jacket over her shoulders.
The sooner she returned to the abbey, the better.
“I asked you a question, Genevieve,” he said softly. The silky note in his voice indicated he wasn’t about to stop pushing for her to marry him. “What if a child was conceived a few moments ago?”
For a long moment, Genevieve studied the stone floor beneath her feet, then forced herself to look up at Theo and meet his gaze steadily.
“Then I’ll deal with that problem on my own.”