“To avoid getting married to someone you don’t know and for whom you don’t care. That’s a good reason.”
“Not good enough, though. Because, like you, I too see this place as my home. I may not have come here often, but I grew up here. These things”—he gestured around the room—“were placed here by my grandmother and my mother. Luckily, it seems my father couldn’t be bothered to make any changes.”
“You’re wrong,” she said.
“Sorry?”
“You’re wrong. He gave my mother strict instructions that this should always stay as it was. He didn’t want any changes to be made to this room.”
She’d managed to surprise him. He glanced at the flowers and she followed his gaze.
“Yes, even the flowers. I have a standing order for them. He told my mother what kind of flowers and where to buy them, and she passed the information to me.”
“Why?” He shook his head. “Why would he do that?”
She shrugged. “We assumed it was because he loved his wife and he wanted a permanent reminder of her.”
“Didn’t that bother your mother?”
“Not at all. To begin with, as no doubt you are aware, my mother was employed to be his housekeeper, so naturally she followed his instructions. And then, much later, after they grew to love each other, she continued with the tradition. My mother had a loving and generous heart. She knew that a heart is big enough to love more than one person. Exactly as she did with my father. No, she wasn’t jealous of Charles’s feelings for your mother.”
He grunted and looked away. This wasn’t how he imagined it had been.
“Whatever,” he said, determined to keep control of this meeting. “Here is my proposition. One, we marry as required and then, as soon as the five years are up, we divorce. I’ll pay you out and you leave here.”
“What if I don’t want to go?”
“You will.”
“And how do you believe you’ll make me go? Hm?” It seemed anger at what she perceived to be a threat had made her bold. She took a few steps towards him. She was so close now that he could see that the deep brown of her eyes was comprised of flecks of black and a gold which almost made her eyes look like they were on fire. One brow was raised in angry query. “If you think you can bully me like you do everyone else, you have another think coming. I’ve met much worse than you before in my life.”
Again, she’d alluded to her past, and it intrigued him. “Really? Like what?”
He watched as the anger suddenly fell away, as she realized what she’d been forced into revealing.
“Like it’s nothing to do with you.” She stepped away and pushed her fingers through her hair, tucking a stray strand behind her ear. “Just don’t threaten me. I don’t like it and it won’t work. If I go, it’ll be on my terms. Because I want to. It’ll be nothing to do with you.”
Despite himself, he was impressed with how she stood up for herself. It couldn’t be easy.
“I didn’t threaten you. I merely said I cannot imagine us being here together will be amenable in any sense of the word. And that it will not be me who leaves.”
“Nor me.”
He shrugged. “In that case, we’re stuck with each other. So I propose over the course of those five years, we lead separate lives. The house is big enough, that’s for sure. You can have the use of the top floor and the east wing and leave the rest to me. I want to be clear. There will be no straying into my side of the house.”
“And I’d like it clear that you will not be straying intomyside of the house. Or upstairs.”
“I can assure you I have no wish to re-visit my childhood nursery, thank you very much.”
“Good, because I use it as my office.”
He raised an eyebrow in surprise. But he was glad that the one place he hated in the house was doubly out of his way now.
“Mr. Jackson says that, legally, we have to wait twenty-eight days before we can marry. I suggest that, during this time, we begin as we mean to go on. You do whatever it is you want to do to while away the time while I run the estate.”
“Irun the estate,” she said simply.
“What do you mean?”