All About Seduction(97)

“There is no shame in needing time to heal, Jack. I cannot see it as a fault, but I fear your determination to get better may make you overextend yourself,” she said softly. “I do not know of another man who would push himself so hard.”

“I hate being a cripple.”

“If you had insisted upon visiting your family, I could have arranged for a carriage, or a pony cart if you would have found that less ostentatious, so you didn’t have to walk the entire way.”

Would she feel so generous about offering him conveyance to Manchester? Was there a way he could still make it to London? But then he’d need to walk miles to get from the station to the manufacturing district and to the inn where he would stay. Even if he could make it to London on time—assuming he could find the money for the train—he didn’t know if he could get to his appointment.

She went up the last of the stairs and turned to look over her shoulder. “I will send servants to help you the rest of the way. I wouldn’t want you to be too drained. You need your strength for later. Besides, the bedchamber abovestairs has doors that lock. The breakfast room does not.”

Her face colored red, and she darted through the door, leaving it open above him. He wanted to call her back, but her reference to his stamina had him feeling lighter and more determined than ever to make it to his new room with locks on the door. Because if he achieved nothing else, he was going to make sure Caroline was well pleasured. In that way if in no other, he could assure himself he was worthy of her in a way no other man was.





Chapter 19



“What was the domestic matter you had to see to?” asked Mr. Broadhurst, making Caroline jump an inch off her dressing stool.

Her maid mumbled an apology as if she had caused her mistress to startle.

“A bit of spilled pomade necessitated a room change,” lied Caroline.

Her maid’s eyebrows dipped in a vee above her nose.

All these lies that kept rolling off her tongue shamed Caroline. But she saw no reason to point out to Mr. Broadhurst that Jack had returned. She wouldn’t hide the truth if her husband asked, but this was a time when discretion seemed the better part of valor.

In the looking glass reflection, Mr. Broadhurst’s expression turned dark, but he could not pursue the matter with the maid in her room.

“My dressing gown, if you please,” Caroline stood and held out her arms.

Her maid complied, pulling the heavy velvet robe around her, and Caroline fastened the frogged buttons up the front.

Mr. Broadhurst stepped into the room, his hand at the belt of his paisley robe. Surely he didn’t mean to sleep in her bed again tonight. Even the servants would wonder at that.

Her skin crawling, Caroline dismissed her maid.

As soon as they were alone, Mr. Broadhurst turned to her and said, “Are you deliberately trying to obscure which gentleman you are sleeping with?”

“Yes.” She fiddled with the button and its braided loop at her neck. “I cannot see that you need to know which man I use. Once I am pregnant I will never want his attention again.” As the words came out, they felt false.

She didn’t like intercourse. The act always hurt and made her feel invaded, almost as if she were being cleaved in two. She couldn’t have imagined ever wanting it, but the way Jack touched her exposed skin had shifted something inside her. He’d left her breathing fast, faintly tingly and yearning for more of the same—perhaps even a gentle kiss. Of course what she needed from him was a baby.

But there likely would be too little of the noninvasive sort of touch if she allowed him more liberty to grope her or kiss her. Men seemed intent on fondling and kissing in a way that disgusted her. But to send Jack out of her life in totality, that was more than she could bear to contemplate. As long as Mr. Broadhurst never knew, she would still be able to see Jack. Daily, if he worked in the mill office.

Mr. Broadhurst grabbed the neck of her dressing gown, crushing her hand in his. He pulled her until she was on her toes and growled, “Do not forget you are my wife. When we are certain what is needed is done, you will never see him again.”

Her heart thumped madly and cold rivulets of fear ran down her back, but she was able to keep her voice even. “As I would wish it. Unhand me, Mr. Broadhurst. There is no call to act uncivilized.”

“Don’t you dare get used to this.” He shook her, his eyes burning with a manic intensity.

“Let me go,” she said firmly, but every part of her was filled with terror. It was as if she saw the pits of hell in his eyes.