Bride for a Night(173)

Gabriel chose his words carefully. He had made a promise to himself that he would never lie to Talia again. But neither would he allow her to fear that she would never be accepted by her husband’s family. His mother was…not a complicated woman.

She delighted in her excessive bouts of emotion, but they were as shallow as they were mercurial. Talia would never genuinely understand a woman who could change her feelings with the same ease she changed a gown.

For now it was enough to convince his tender young bride that she could win her mother-in-law’s approval.

“She will adore you because you are generous and kind and loyal,” he informed her.

She remained unimpressed. “You make me sound like a favorite hound.”

“Fine.” He peered deep into her eyes, smiling with all the love that filled his heart. “Then she will adore you because she will see that you are my heart, and that without you my life would be devoid of happiness.”

As hoped, Talia melted beneath his low words, her fingers moving down the line of his jaw in a gentle promise.

“She will realize all that?”

He bit back a groan. His body wanted to be finished comforting Talia with words. It urged him to prove his love and commitment to her happiness in a far more primitive means.

Thankfully he was intelligent enough to realize that tossing her over his shoulder and hauling her up the stairs to his bedchamber was going to have to wait. At least until Talia was satisfied he had no nefarious plot in trying to keep her away from London.


“Absolutely,” he managed to mutter.

“And then?”

With an effort he forced himself to concentrate on his scheme to smooth Talia’s return to the ton. It was, after all, rather brilliant.

“Then she will return to London with the astonishing pronouncement that she finds her daughter-in-law an absolutely delightful young woman whom she fully intends to sponsor during the upcoming season,” he said, a smile of satisfaction curling his lips. “The various hostesses will be vying for the opportunity to lure you to their gatherings.”

She frowned, considering his explanation for a long moment. “You make it seem very simple.”

He lifted his brows in amusement. “Talia, we have survived my brother’s treachery, your father’s brutish bullying and being captured by French spies. Everything else is simple.”

She shook her head. “None of them were nearly so lethal as the ton.”

“Trust me, we will have every one of those pompous idiots kneeling at your pretty feet before the season is over.”

There was another pause, and Gabriel smothered his sigh of impatience. How could he blame her for her lingering unease? Not only was he requesting that she rely on the assistance of a woman who had treated her with blatant disdain, but she had endured years of abuse by the members of the aristocracy.

“I do,” she unexpectedly announced.

“Talia?”

“I do trust you.”

He trembled as her whispered words settled in his heart. Damn, he had been so terrified that he would never regain her trust. Now he pressed his lips to the hollow beneath her ear, torn between relief and the aching need to hear the words she had yet to utter.

“And?” he prompted, his voice hoarse.

“And what?”

He pulled back to regard her with a chiding glance. “Is there nothing else you wish to tell me?”

“Hmm.” She pretended to consider his question. “Mrs. Donaldson insisted that I bring your favorite gooseberry jelly and several meat pies with me. She has taken a crazy notion into her head that your fancy London cook is attempting to starve you.”