CHAPTER FIFTEEN
He stood in the aperture, stripping off his gloves, dangerous under the broad-brimmed hat, the greatcoat emphasising his height. He was pale, and his features were set, the scar standing out white.
His eyes found Rosina. “I thought so,” he said, his tone grim, and threw aside his gloves on a chair by the door. The hat joined them.
Rosina’s pulses were rioting, but she faced him squarely. “It — it is of no use to t-try to stop me, Anton.”
“Rosy, I can’t let you do this!” He took a few hasty paces towards her, but checked as Rosina backed away. Hurt entered his eyes. “What, has nothing changed? Rosina!”
“One moment, my lord,” interrupted the lawyer, moving quickly to the door, which Raith had left open behind him.
Raith swung round and saw it, shifting away to one of the windows.
Rosina had come up against a bookcase, and she stood with her back to it, her hands grasping at the edge of a shelf behind.
That Anton had come after her both warmed her heart, and filled her with dismay.
That he would fight her going she could not doubt.
It was difficult enough without that. The very sight of him brought back a too strong recollection of the previous night, undermining her determination.
Ottery spoke a word of dismissal to the clerks within the other room, and then closed the outer door. He went across to Raith, addressing him with all his habitual calm.
“Allow me to take your coat, my lord.”
With impatience, Raith turned and allowed Ottery to help him out of the enveloping greatcoat, his eyes on Rosina. The lawyer laid aside the garment on a convenient side table, and returned to his desk.
“Lady Raith has asked me to arrange to release her from this marriage, my lord.”
Raith’s heart jarred painfully, and he saw the flooding consciousness enter his wife’s face. His voice was barely steady. “So I had guessed. Did you agree?”
“How could I, sir, without knowing your mind?”
A long sigh left Raith’s lips. “You might be pardoned for supposing it to be other than it is.” He looked again at Rosina, and found his waif in residence. Hell and the devil, but this demanded privacy!
He crossed to the inner door, and opened it. “You will permit us to make use of your room?”
Ottery bowed. “Lady Raith, will you not go apart with his lordship?”
Rosina stood her ground, her eyes full on Anton’s, her voice a trifle shaky. “No, Mr Ottery, I will not. You know so much there can be nothing said between us that you may not hear.”
Raith winced and saw his lawyer’s gaze move from him to his wife and back again.
“I believe matters ought better to be resolved between you, ma’am, without a witness.”
“No!”
“Rosy!”
With pain, Raith saw his wife fling away to the position he had just vacated by the window. Unable to help himself, he let go the door handle, and came towards her. She threw up her hands, and the dark orbs showed panic. “No, you must not. Don’t come near me!”
He stopped, but his eyes were despairing. “Not come near you? You cannot be afraid of me, Rosy. Not now.”
“It — it is not that.” She looked down and he saw her unquiet fingers. “You have too much power to affect me. My resolution will fail, Anton, if I am alone with you.”
His heart melted, and he moved to her, cupping her cheek. “I want it to fail, Rosy. I cannot let you go.”
She looked up at him. “I knew you would say that.”
“Yet you took clothes from your dressing room. You meant to escape me. What, was Ottery to conceal you somewhere? Surely you know he would not aid you.”
Rosina glanced across at the lawyer. “No, but he would do it for you, if I can convince him of the rightness of my request.”
“I beg to differ, ma’am,” came from Ottery himself, bringing Raith’s head round. “His lordship best knows how much I am against separation.”
Rosina wrenched away from her spouse’s hold. “Then you did mean to set me aside!” She paced away from him, pulling at her fingers. “Oh, I knew it. Last night, when I came to find you, that is why you had been drinking.”
“Rosina —”
“No, don’t say it!” She turned on him a fierce countenance.
“You have no need to excuse yourself. I had guessed it, in any event. It was why I had looked for you, to ask you, so that I might know my fate for certain. Only my maid told me Kirkham had been troubled about you, and in my anxiety I forgot it.”
Raith made no attempt to approach her. He kept his tone low, but knew a thread of vibrant passion ran through it, despite his control. “You have a right to be wounded, Rosina. But you do not know the whole. There were reasons —”
“I know them,” she interrupted, a break in her voice. “Why do you suppose I am here? Do not imagine that I blame you, Anton.”
“You may not blame me, but you are wounded none the less.”
Rosina did not deny it, but she made no direct response. “It is immaterial. No one else will believe, any more than you did, that Forteviot and my guardian were lying.”
“Do you think I care any longer? Whatever may have been my feelings yesterday —”
“But I care, Anton.”
He was silenced. So wrapped up had he been in his own pride that he had not considered Rosina’s emotions. She was right. People would believe what they wished to, and the least hint of the circumstances alone would be enough to damn her.
He looked across at Ottery. “I cannot have her pilloried. We have to stop him.”
“Undoubtedly,” agreed the lawyer, but his glance was on Rosina. Raith looked back at his wife, and found her eyes huge in the white face.
“Anton, I don’t care for that.”
“Don’t you?”
“I could bear it for myself, but I will not have you condemned for a chivalrous impulse.”
“It has nothing to do with chivalry. If I must care, it can only be on your behalf, Rosina. My concerns were purely selfish, I admit that. I have no interest in what the world may say.”
Rosina eyed him, her look wistful. “Could you ignore it, when there is not a soul who will receive your wife? The true facts of our marriage are bad enough. Lady Doddinghurst was quick to find flaws in Mr Ottery’s story.”
“It was poor at best,” admitted the lawyer.
“But it is better than the slightest whisper of what Lord Forteviot proposes to tell the world. Raith, you think you may withstand it, but I know your temperament. I cannot stay with you. It will poison your life.”
A constriction lodged in Raith’s chest. “Do you imagine people will talk any the less for your leaving me?”
Rosina looked away. “For a while, perhaps. But if I am not there to —”
“If you are not there, I had as well cut my own throat now! Rosy, this is pointless.” He crossed to the desk, throwing a wild hand at his lawyer. “Ottery, for God’s sake, help me!”
The lawyer rose up from his desk and came to lay a calming hand upon Raith’s shoulder.
“You are too impatient, my lord. Allow Lady Raith at least the opportunity to give rein to the sensations driving her.” He gripped the shoulder he held.
“I think you do not understand that her whole design is to spare you, sir. She has no thought of herself.”
Raith let go an uneven breath, and dropped to perch upon the desk. His eyes went to Rosina’s. “Then it makes even less sense that she should wish to end our marriage.”
“But I don’t wish for it!”
“Then —”
“My lord, leave it!” cut in the lawyer sharply.
Raith compressed his lips, and wrenched his eyes away from Rosina’s expressive countenance. Ottery was right. Small wonder she would not go apart with him, if he could not let her edge in a word without some forceful interruption. What had she said? That he had too much power over her?
He glanced at her again, rueful now. “Am I ever this overbearing?”
Her tiny smile gleamed on Rosina’s lips. “You are not easy to withstand, my lord.”
“But you have held out against me several times.”
The smile disappeared, to be replaced by a look of determination. “I must this time.”
Raith felt the protest welling up, and had to fight to keep silence. Instead, he looked at his lawyer. “What am I to do?”
Ottery gave him a grim smile. “Hold your tongue, sir.” Then he looked across at Rosina. “I will engage to keep his lordship in check for the moment, ma’am.”
Rosina began to pace as she spoke, anxiety forcing the words out.
“You must not think I blame you, Anton. It is all my fault. I should never have taken this step. If Gatty had not suggested it, I should not have thought of answering that advertisement. I was trying to obtain a post — any post — although housekeeping was all I knew how to do. I should have done just that. Forteviot could less easily have found me were I occupied as a servant. Even had he done so, it could not have involved anyone else.” She paused, glancing round at her spouse.
“You, Anton. I cheated you from the first. I used you, trying for a security that was impossible to achieve. Now see what has come of it.”
Her spouse looked as if he might speak, but Mr Ottery forestalled him. “My dear Lady Raith, you must not reproach yourself for that. You were as much used.”
“As much cheated!”
“Wait, my lord.” Ottery laid a hand on his arm. “Had you any more to say, ma’am?”
“Any more?” Rosina threw up her hands. “Oh, so much! If I had only known, had I an inkling of who he was.” She wafted vague fingers and looked at her husband.
“I don’t mean your identity. But who you are.
What has been made of you by the bludgeoning of fate…
” Her voice began to fail, and she had to swallow on the rising tears.
“Had you been any other man, one less affected by … I might have borne to be the means of bringing this trouble upon you.”
The tears escaped, trickling down her cheeks, and she saw how her husband’s eyes were riveted upon her, a world of distress visible in his gaze. Rosina tried to ignore it, forcing herself to continue.
“Even could you find a way to stop Forteviot, how can I stay? I could not hope to assuage the torment that lives within you. It is too strong, too deeply set. And for the origin of that wound which you take such pains to shield —”