The Marriage Act Read Free Page B

go to any lengths to say a proper goodbye. That she’d come here at all should be proof enough of that.
    Welford gave a tight, grudging nod. “Very well.”
    “You’ll do it? You’ll come with me?”
    “Yes.”
    She went almost limp with relief, all the tension of the carriage ride from Halewick lifting at once. “Truly? I have your word?”
    He frowned. “I’ve said I will.”
    “Yes, but do you promise to conduct yourself as if we’re happy together? Will you do that too?”
    “For your father’s sake,” he said. “Not for yours.”
    “Thank you, Welford. Truly, from the bottom of my heart.” There was an element of the ridiculous about it, rendering fervent thanks when he’d just insulted her, but she didn’t care. She’d worried it was a hopeless errand, trying to persuade him to do her this favor, but he’d agreed.
    Only now—now came the hard part. She was going to have to spend the whole of the journey in his company, and put on a convincing show of devotion once they reached her father’s side. She’d have to stomach hostility and insults, and endure his constant incivility and pointed reminders of all she’d done wrong.
    But at least she’d have Ronnie’s support. Though he was Welford’s brother, she could count on his friendship, of that much she felt sure. Welford might not like it when he learned Ronnie insisted on coming with them, but she’d cross that bridge when she came to it.
    And there was one other piece of information she hadn’t yet shared with him. “Perhaps I should have mentioned...”
    He sighed. “What is it, Caroline?”
    He must be tired, or distracted. He never called her Caroline. His letters from Vienna had always begun
Lady Welford
or sometimes even
Madam
, and as he’d dragged her from the posting inn to his waiting carriage on the morning after their wedding he’d refused to speak to her at all. “Papa isn’t in Chelmsford. He was visiting my uncle Geoffrey when he became too ill to travel.”
    Welford eyed her coolly. “Where exactly are we going?”
    She wiped damp palms on the skirts of her rose-colored carriage dress. Chelmsford was less than forty miles away, a single day’s journey on the Great Essex Road, but this...”Kegworth. A village between Derby and Leicester.”
    “Leicester. In Leicestershire.”
    “Yes.” She swallowed nervously, pretending she couldn’t see his angry glare. “Some hundred and twenty miles away. With good weather, we should be only three days on the road.”

Chapter Three
    Some husbands are imperious
,
and some wives perverse:
and as it is always more easy to do evil than good
,
though the wisdom or virtue of one can very rarely make many happy
,
the folly or vice of one may often make many miserable.
    —Samuel Johnson
    The breakfast room was deserted when John came downstairs the next morning, and he spent an hour attending to the business of meeting with his banker and notifying his solicitor he would be leaving Town. It wasn’t until he returned to his town house to find the servants loading the carriage that he set eyes on his wife again. She was in the front hall, watching the door and fidgeting as if impatient to be on the road.
    It was his first chance to observe her in the light of day, and he had to admit the years hadn’t lessened her loveliness one whit. If anything, the passage of time had only added to her allure, her stylish blue carriage dress hinting at the fuller curves beneath. He’d been half hoping she’d turned pockmarked or unkempt, if only because it would have been easier to deal with her without the distraction of her extraordinary beauty. But her skin was as glowing as ever, her long dark ringlets as thick and shining, and she still had the same exquisite grace that made her every move fascinating to watch. It was a pity the inner Caroline didn’t match the outer one.
    And Ronnie was with her. It was the first time John had seen his half brother since his stepmother’s death—and