Dealing With Discipline Read Free

knee or taught her to dance or ride.
 He hadn't brought her violets on her sixteenth birthday.
 He hadn't been her first kiss.  
    Unfortunately she'd given her heart
away long before she'd ever met him. 
    Perhaps her guilt was
misplaced.  Her mother had reassured her over and over again
that among the ton  it was understood that husbands and wives had
certain... arrangements.  Certainly she'd seen the evidence of
that since she'd come to London.  There were a few love
matches however; in fact she was fairly certain that Hugh's sister
had one.  
    How she envied Eleanor
that.  There was no mistaking the affection in Lord Hyde's
eyes when he looked at his wife, or the way Eleanor practically
glowed when in his presence.  Irene didn't feel glow-y at all.
She felt rather wilt-y.  And like a big fat liar.
 Because hadn't she just pledged to love, honor and obey? Yet
she did not love her husband.  She had gone into the marriage
already planning to be unfaithful as soon as she had provided him
with his heir... but theirs was an arranged marriage and that was
how such things were done, were they not? She’s seen so many other
marriages like that since arriving in London and her mother
certainly espoused the notion, although Irene didn’t like to think
about what that might mean about her parents’ marriage.
    She did not expect
fidelity from him, had not even before her mother had convinced her
that she should acquiesce to the arrangement, and so he should not
expect it from her.  At least, according to her mother’s
explanations. Yet it didn’t sit right with her at all. Shouldn’t
she be expected to cleave to her vows?
    "Are you alright
sweetheart?" Hugh's voice skated across her nerves, his warm breath
tingling against her ear. His breath smelled of mint and Irene
found herself instinctively turning towards him, feeling a strange
urge to be closer.  There was no denying that Hugh was a very
attractive man, even to her. "You look pale."
    "I'm fine," she said,
giving him her best social smile.  The concern in his bright
blue eyes only made her feel even worse.  Sometimes she
wondered if he had feelings for her beyond affection, although her
mother had shaken her head over and over during the courtship and
said Irene was reading far too much into Hugh's solicitousness and
gifts.  "Just tired."
    Something foreign and
hungry looking glittered in Hugh's eyes for a moment, freezing her
breathless to be on the end of such a look. She’d never had a man
look at her quite like that, but it was becoming a regular
occurrence with him.  What did it mean?
    "We'll be on our way soon
enough," he said, taking her hand in his and giving it a kiss.
 The expression on his face made her think of a child being
presented with a plate of sweets... and she was the plate. There
seemed to be something more beneath his words than just a
reassurance that soon they would be done doing the pretty, but she
didn't understand what.
    The warmth of his hand
wrapped around her much smaller one seemed to sear her through the
thin fabric of her kid gloves, the press of his lips hotter than
ever and she felt a strange tingle sweep through her body as his
eyes drifted down to the small amount of bosom that was exposed by
her wedding gown.  Edged with lace and gold threads, the
bodice of her white gown hugged her body tightly, much more tightly
than she'd realized before this moment when she felt like she might
suddenly run out of breath.
    "Now, now, time enough for
that after your guests have left," Hugh's mother said chidingly as
she stepped to Irene's side, beaming at her new daughter-in-law.
 Irene had never been more grateful for an interruption; she
didn't understand what had just happened between her and her new
husband but she had found it incredibly unnerving. Air suddenly
filled her lungs again as the intense expression on Hugh’s face
slipped behind his usual social mask of complacency. "Come Irene, I
want to introduce you to my