All About Seduction(87)

Her mouth dry, she tapped and called out softly.

Mr. Broadhurst was usually not a heavy sleeper. When he didn’t answer, panic rose in her throat. She just couldn’t be caught standing here in a transparent gown.

Above her on the attic floor, soft thumps and rattles signified the servants’ first stirrings. Her elbows pressed into her ribs. The housemaids were getting ready for their day and would be descending any minute.

Caroline knocked louder.

Still no response.

She twisted. Could she try to find a key before she was caught? Or would one of the other keys even work in her door?

Heavy footfalls ascended from the floor below. Dear God, the gentlemen’s gentlemen were probably about to come upon her. She pounded the flat of her hand on the wood.

Down the hall her door jerked open.

Caroline heaved a sigh of relief and darted back toward her room, but when she got there, Mr. Broadhurst filled the frame.

“Sir, let me in.” Rather than shove him out of the way, she recoiled from touching him. He was a loathsome creature and she would feel slimy.

He didn’t step to the side. “Have you done what you were supposed to do?”

“Yes, I have.” Her skin fired and she couldn’t look at the man she’d spent the last fifteen years of her life with. A man she had thought she knew. Jerking her head to look over her shoulder, she swallowed hard.

“Which man?”

Caroline gasped. Did he know she ducked into an empty room? Surely Mr. Broadhurst hadn’t concerned himself with the sleeping arrangements. She couldn’t tell him she’d been with Jack. Besides, he’d heard Jack’s staged exercise. Her legs—already feeling weak from the unfamiliar activity—threatened to give out on her. “Sir, that is none of your affair.”

He folded his arms over his striped nightshirt—so like the one Jack had given her to wear.

“I cannot stay out here in the hall, the servants are about.” She would have to push him out of the way, but her strength had never been any match for her husband.

Mr. Broadhurst reached out and tilted up her chin. “You do not have the look of a woman who has just left a man’s bed. Your hair is not mussed. Your lips are not swollen. You look untouched. You’re lying. Again.”

Panic threatened to choke her. Gathering strength to confront her husband, she spit out, “I did not need to be kissed to accomplish what was necessary.”

“Caroline.” His look was doubtful.

Her face hot, she hissed, “I hardly think my mission will be successful if his seed all runs down my legs.”

Mr. Broadhurst’s eyes narrowed, then he yanked her into the room.

She jerked away.

“Get in bed,” he commanded.

Caroline gathered the nightgown she’d left on the covers.

Mr. Broadhurst yanked it away. She turned and found he was standing naked behind her. Had he been wearing nothing under his nightshirt?

His body was old, the skin wrinkled and sagging over flabby spotted flesh. She shuddered. “What are you doing?”

“You want everyone to think the child is mine. The staff will expect us to have relations.”

Caroline shrunk back. He hadn’t been able to carry out his part for months, but now his member jutted out. Cold dread poured down her spine.

“It seems the medicine the doctor has given me makes me feel like a new man.”

“I cannot have relations with you and another man. I am sore enough as it is.” She had little hope that he would care. Jack had at least minded that she was in pain. Nothing had ever mattered to Mr. Broadhurst, not tears, not cries of pain, not pretending to be asleep when he joined her. It was his right as her husband, and he often reminded her he’d paid dearly for the privilege. But so had she.

Feeling cold all through her, Caroline climbed into the bed.

Mr. Broadhurst followed, and her skin crawled. He lifted her sheer nightgown and rubbed his hand over her thigh.

“Did you not enjoy it?” he questioned.

“No!”

She scooted across the expanse of the mattress to the far side.

“I despise the act,” she hissed. “With you, with him, with any man. Now leave me be.”

“You are still my wife.”

Caroline stared into the darkness of her room and waited for Mr. Broadhurst to claim his marital rights. She shut down her thoughts and reactions, as she had learned to do to tolerate his touch.