Trapped, Eden spoke to Pierce. “Please, let me have a moment in private with her. We have some business to discuss and then everything will be right again.”
Pierce’s brows came together in concern. “Business?” He looked at Madame Indrani. “What business do you have with my wife?”
Madame stared at him a moment as if she didn’t believe her ears, and then burst out into peals of laughter.
Nasim didn’t laugh. He came to his feet. “You are a married woman?” He practically spit the words out at Eden.
Without waiting for her answer, he turned to Gadi and spewed out a torrent of Arabic. Gadi’s face reflected surprise, and then undisguised anger as his gaze fell on Eden. He took a menacing step toward her.
Pierce placed himself between Eden and the Arab, blocking his way while Firth, in answer to a sharp command from Madame Indrani, placed a restraining hand on Gadi’s sword arm.
Nasim said something to Gadi in Arabic that made him relax. He then confronted Madame Indrani. “So, the girl is no longer a virgin?”
“What the bloody—?” Pierce started but Eden placed her hand on his arm. He turned to her and she silently pleaded for patience.
Madame sent a speculative glance in Pierce’s direction. The heat of a blush rose on Eden’s cheeks. She removed her hand from Pierce’s arm.
“No, I think not,” Madame said in answer to Nasim’s question.
“Then you will understand, Madame Indrani,” Nasim said, “that Ibn Sibah is no longer interested in her. We will take back his money. He paid for a virgin.”
“And he shall receive it,” Madame said. She was not laughing now. “You must return with me to London. I do not have the money here.”
“If I must,” Nasim said with a curl of his lip. He spoke a few words to Gadi who nodded. “We will wait for you in the coach.” Without another glance at Eden, he left the room. Gadi followed.
When the door closed, Madame broke the silence. “It appears we now have a problem.” She leaned forward, looking directly at Eden. “I wonder how we shall resolve it?”
Eden didn’t speak, but no answer was necessary.
“A countess,” Madame said softly. “It’s truly astounding, but no less than what I had anticipated from you, cher. I knew it the moment we met, you were destined for finer things.” Her mood changed, growing harder. “But what am I going to do about disappointing Ibn Sibah, hmmm?”
She slowly assessed Pierce from his shiny black riding boots up to his dark hair and blue eyes blazing with anger. Rubbing her lower lip with one finger, she added thoughtfully, “You have done very well for yourself, cher.”
Eden stepped forward. “I don’t care about Ibn Sibah. You can tell him whatever you wish. He’s not part of my life now.”
Anger flared in Madame Indrani’s dark eyes and then was quickly hidden behind a mask of cool indifference. “You have created a problem for me, Eden, and you will help me solve it.”
“Eden, tell me what is going on here,” Pierce said quietly.
Eden turned to him, but she didn’t know what to say or how to explain.
“Cher, you cannot avoid the truth,” Madame said, a hint of sadness in her voice. “Any more than you can give yourself to another man after one has already purchased you.”
Pierce tensed. “Purchased?”
This was going to be worse than Eden had ever imagined it. She wished she had something to say to make it more palatable.
Sensing her indecision, Madame Indrani whispered, “The truth, cher. It is the only way.”
The truth. She would have to tell Pierce everything. The idea made her weak. The air in the room suddenly seemed stifling. She opened her mouth, but was unable to speak.
Madame Indrani answered Pierce. “I run a discreet brothel, my lord, catering to the tastes of very wealthy men. I provide them with companionship and, for a very fine price, a mistress trained by me personally. Your wife is one of those girls I trained.”
Pierce stared at Madame as if he hadn’t comprehended a word she’d said. “My wife was another man’s mistress?”
Eden felt incapable of doing anything more than staring straight past Madame, waiting for this nightmare to end.
“No, not yet,” Madame corrected. She smiled. “She had been trained, but she is a very special woman. She has that rare combination of beauty and intelligence. There was nothing my Eden didn’t learn easily whether it was poetry, music, science, or—” She paused a moment before finishing. “—or love.” She savored the last word. “I’m certain you have found her quite satisfactory, haven’t you, my lord?”
“I will have you thrown out,” he answered levelly.
“Oh, no, you won’t,” she countered. She sat back in the chair. “We now have a secret, the three of us. A secret, I’m certain, you don’t want anyone else to know outside these four walls. Your wife had been purchased by the Sultan Ibn Sibah to serve as a concubine in his harem. He paid a princely price for her. Unfortunately, Eden escaped and apparently ran into your arms. It must be quite an exciting story, cher.”
Eden turned. “Please, Madame. He is not part of this. Leave him out of it.”
“I can’t, Eden. Ibn Sibah paid a great deal of money for you. You heard Nasim. I must now repay the money. It is only right that your husband pay me for my loss. That’s good business.”
“But he is not involved in it. He knew nothing about me. I pretended to lose my memory. I didn’t want to live in a harem.”
“You pretended to lose your memory?” Madame said. “I’ve never heard of such a thing. And you believed this, Lord Penhollow?” She shook her head, dismissing the thought.
Eden was afraid to meet Pierce’s eyes.
“Tiens! The choice has already been made,” Madame said, her voice hardening. “You knew what the terms were, cher. I didn’t take you in from that filthy gutter and feed and clothe you all these years out of the goodness of my heart. Besides, Lord Penhollow is receiving a good value. You are a beautiful woman. You will give him many happy years. All I want is the money due me for your virginity. Whether the man who purchases you makes you his wife or his mistress is of no difference to me.” Her eyes gleamed with ruthlessness as a new thought struck her. “Then again, I suppose I could take you back and work it out of you… but it would take many years. What do you say, Lord Penhollow? Perhaps you will be happy to have her off your hands now that you know the truth?”
Eden found her tongue, half-afraid that Madame might be right about Pierce. “You have no heart, Madame. Furthermore, you can’t force me to return with you or pay you!”
Madame Indrani stared at Eden in wide-eyed surprise. “Cher, you’re changing. You would never have dared to question me before. You were always so thankful.”
“I’m still thankful, Madame. I would have died if you hadn’t taken me in that night.” She looked at Pierce. “I was a child when I went with her. I was starving and frightened. I’d seen a man murdered and feared I would be next. I begged her to take me. She was my only hope.”
“And we had an agreement, didn’t we?” Madame said. “You may have been young, cher, but you were shrewd and you knew what my business was. Now the time has come to pay up.”
“You know I don’t have money. If I had it, I would give it all to you.”
“I will not be cheated out of what is rightfully mine.” Madame pointed to Pierce. “He must pay me.”
“He didn’t cheat you. It was me. He knew nothing about it. I pretended to lose my memory—”
“Yes, you and your pretending! Did you also pretend to love this man so that he would protect you?”
The air left Eden in a rush. “What are you saying? What are you trying to do?” She took a step toward Madame and then whirled to face her husband. “Pierce, don’t believe her. Please, darling, don’t believe her.”
“Please, darling, don’t believe her,” Madame mimicked, pulling on her gloves. “I was merely pointing out the obvious, cher,” she said without pity.<
br />
Eden could have lunged at her with nails bared. She wanted to wipe the smirk off the woman’s face.
Pierce’s voice interrupted them. “How much does she owe you?”
“No!” Eden cried, but they both ignored her.
Madame smiled. “Twenty-five thousand pounds.”
Pierce’s mouth dropped open. “Twenty-five thousand pounds,” he repeated in disbelief. “That’s a fortune.”
“And she has been worth every penny, hasn’t she?” Madame replied.
A telltale heat rose in Eden’s cheeks, but her husband’s eyes flashed with anger.
He moved to his desk and opened a drawer. “You will accept my bank draft?”
“But of course, my lord,” Madame replied smoothly.
Eden watched in horror as his pen scratched its way across the bank draft. “Pierce, no.”
He ignored her.
She reached across the desk and slammed her hand down on the page. “No!”
He was forced to look up at her then… and she did not like what she saw in his eyes. Gone was the softness of a tender lover and in its place was the cool resolution of a stranger. “There is no other way.”
“There must be!” Her voice was barely a whisper. “This isn’t right. It’s not fair.”
The set of his mouth turned grim. “I only do what is necessary.”
“Necessary for what?” Eden demanded.
He didn’t answer, but began writing again.
She stepped back, uncertain.
He blew on the ink and then sanded it dry. Rising from the desk, he walked around to Madame Indrani. He didn’t hand the draft to her immediately. “And what do I receive for my money, or am I going to see you on my doorstep next month?”
Madame lifted her chin. “I’m a businesswoman, my lord, not a blackmailer. You have purchased my silence with this money. I will reimburse my Arab friends, and we are quit of each other. I will have what I earned and you will have what you want. You need never see me again.”
He held the draft up between two fingers and Madame took it. Folding it in half, she tucked it inside her bodice. “It was a pleasure doing business with you, Lord Penhollow. Come, Firth.”
They left the room.
Eden and Pierce were alone.
Neither spoke a word.
Eden listened for the sound of the front door shutting. Madame Indrani was out of her life. It almost didn’t seem possible. She sank down in the chair in front of Pierce’s desk. It was still warm from the heat of Madame’s body.
Pierce walked back around his desk and closed the bank ledger. He placed it in the drawer.
What now?
“Pierce, I’m sorry,” Eden said. She stared at the intricate pattern of the India carpet.
He didn’t answer.
She raised her gaze and discovered him facing away from her, staring out the window. The afternoon sun highlighted the strength in his jaw and the planes and lines of the face of this man she loved so much.
Love. Sitting in this quiet room with him, the air charged with unsaid words, Eden realized the depth of her love for him.
She’d thought she’d loved him before their marriage but over the past couple of weeks, it was as if that love had been replaced by a new and stronger emotion. She had not expected this growing and deepening of emotion between them.
His voice broke the silence. “Did you marry me for my money?”
“No!” The word shot out of her. She stood. “Pierce, you must know better than that, especially after everything that has passed between us these last weeks.”
He looked up at her, his clear blue eyes like two pieces of stained glass. “I’m not certain I know you at all.”
His words cut right through her.
“Why didn’t you tell me, Eden?”
“I was afraid to.”
He made an impatient gesture with his hands. “I could understand your fear in the beginning, but later… Eden, why didn’t you say something?”
Her heart began pounding. She had no answer. Instead, she asked, “What would you have had me say?”
His eyes glittered dangerously. “The truth.”
Eden lowered her head, unable to bear his scrutiny. “I wanted to. In the beginning, I was afraid Nasim and Gadi would find me and drag me back with them.”
“Did you really think I would let them?”
She forced herself to face him. “I didn’t know. Not at first.” A lump had formed in her throat. It was hard to talk.
“But what about later, Eden, later when it wasn’t so hard to tell me things? We’ve talked about everything! I’ve opened my soul to you and not once, not by any word or action, have you led me to suspect this.”
“You told me once, you would love me even if I was a milkmaid.”
“There’s a bit of a difference between milkmaid and a prost—” He paused before finishing, “Concubine.”
Eden flinched at his choice of words. “I didn’t mean for matters to go this far. I’d intended to leave, but then…” She paused, uncertain what to say. Now all the servants’ talk and her meeting with the Widow Haskell in the woods seemed silly.
“Then what?”
She forced herself to look at him. “That night… at the piano, it changed things. I didn’t want to leave. I knew I should, but I couldn’t. Then there was the fire and you asked me to marry you and… I wanted to be the person you thought I was.”
He turned his head, staring out the window, his expression bleak.
“Pierce, would you have married me if I had told the truth in the beginning? Would we be what we are now?”
He turned abruptly and crossed over to the liquor cabinet.
She wet dry lips. “Pierce?”
He took out the whiskey bottle and poured himself a generous draught in a glass.
“Pierce, please forgive me.”
Putting the glass stopper in the bottle, he turned to her. “It’s not that simple. Nothing is simple anymore. You see, I’m the one who erred. I wanted to believe in the love I thought we shared.”
“You should! I do love you. I would do anything for you.”
“Except tell me the truth.”
Eden bowed her head, realizing he was right. “Yes.” She took a step and then added, “But only because I feared the truth would tear us apart.”
“It’s more than that,” he said softly. “I’m ruined.” With a small mocking toast, he downed the contents of the glass.
“Ruined?” Eden repeated dumbly. “What do you mean?”
He didn’t answer her directly, but tapped his fingers lightly against the glass as if lost in thought. She had to echo her question again before he seemed to realize she was still in the room.
“After Madame presents the bank draft to my banker, I won’t have the money to cover the payment I promised for the new mine equipment,” he said succinctly. “It’s due in three weeks.”
Eden felt herself flush cold, then hot, with apprehension.
He smiled, his expression harsh. “All those people who warned and counseled me to not trust my instincts about you… begging me to wait just a while longer…”
He poured himself another drink. “I thought I knew better. I trusted you. By the way,” he said, a trace of bitterness in his voice, “twenty-five thousand pounds is actually a very fair price for you.” He picked up the whiskey. “You are an exquisite creature and certainly worth every shilling—”
“Don’t,” she interrupted. “Please don’t talk about us that way.”
“There is no us, Eden. There has only been you and your secrets.”
“You said you loved me.”
“That’s before I found out what a lying little whore you were.” He said the words in cold anger. Then he set the glass down. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. It’s what I think, but I shouldn’t have said it. You have ruined me, Eden, and everything I’ve worked to build.”
She crossed her arms protectively against her chest, not
liking this resentful stranger her husband had become. “Can’t we sell off some of the land? Or something in the house?”
“My estate is entailed, Eden. I can’t sell off the lands even if I should wish to do so. I’ve already committed my ready cash to the mining operation, and then there was the fire in Hobbles Moor and the cottages that I’m rebuilding. I’m at least ten thousand pounds short of covering everything.”
It took several moments for Eden’s stunned mind to think. There had to be a way to salvage the situation. She would do anything. “Pierce, I’ll go to Madame Indrani. I’ll get the draft back from her—”
He moved like lightning, his hands grabbed her arms, his face contorted with anger. “You’ll do no such thing. You’re my bloody wife.”
“I only want to help. I’m responsible for this. I love you, Pierce. I don’t want this to come between us. Please.” The tears she’d struggled hard to hold back now ran freely down her face. “Perhaps we can borrow the money?”
He shook his head angrily. “I won’t go to the moneylenders and I won’t borrow from my friends. The whole reason I paid that bloody money to Madame Indrani is to protect you and Mother. If word gets out of what you were and what it has cost me, it will ruin both of you. I have no desire to see you treated the way she’s been treated over the years by the other women. Eventually, you’d give up and withdraw the way she did and our children would forever hear the whispers of the gossips.”
Just as he had as a child. “But what about you?”
The anger died in his eyes. He crossed over to the cabinet and picked up the whiskey. “I’ll survive. I’ve been there before. I can work my way out of it again.”
“Pierce.” Her voice shook. “I’m sorry.”
He closed his eyes and drew a deep steadying breath.
It was going to be all right, she told herself. He was upset, but it would be all right.
As if to confirm her words, Pierce set the whiskey back on the cabinet. “Eden…” He didn’t continue.
“Please say we’re going to be all right, Pierce. I need to hear you say it.” I need to hear you say you love me.
WHEN DREAMS COME TRUE Page 22