“Oh, of course.” Lord Wintergreen snickered as he stepped out of their path. “It was an unexpected pleasure to see you again, Miss Lennox.”
Leona couldn’t muster up the courage to reply. She nodded, and her head sunk between her shoulders as Tristan led her away.
When they were a distance away from Lord Wintergreen, Tristan asked, “Who was that man? From the moment I laid eyes on him, I couldn’t shake this feeling of unexplainable dread.”
“Hmm.” Leona didn’t know what to say. She prayed her husband didn’t remember everything she told him on the night of her confession. She silently chided herself for having revealed so much.
“What is his relation to you?” Tristan inquired. “He said he was your friend, but I find it hard to believe. You looked terrified by the sight of him. And… look.” He gently brushed a finger across her eyelid. “You look as if you’re close to crying!”
Leona was hardly in the mood for Tristan’s concern, no matter how sincerely it was given. Pushing his hand away from her face, she said, “He’s no one.”
“Was he a beau of yours?”
She wanted to stomp her foot on the ground, but she was hardly the sort of person to give in to childish tantrums. “Why are you asking so many questions?”
“Because I’m concerned about you! If that man’s wronged you in any way, I would have to…” Tristan’s voice trailed off. “Wait… is he…?”
Lord Wintergreen. Suddenly, it hit him. It was the name of the man who ruined her.
“What?” Leona pulled her arm away from Tristan and clenched her fists. Couldn’t he see how much this topic bothered her? “What are you insinuating, Tristan?”
“Nothing.” He shook his head. “Nothing, dear. Why don’t we head back into the castle? I’m sure Aunt Bess is looking for us right about now.”
“You have to tell me what you’re thinking!” she insisted. “I don’t think I could rest easy if I thought you were thinking what I think you’re thinking!”
Tristan chuckled. “You know what I think? I think you think too much.”
“Do you know? Do you know who Lord Wintergreen is?!”
“I have an inkling. Can we just leave it at that?”
Before she could answer, they were interrupted by someone shouting for them to wait. It was Lord Wintergreen. Miss Elliot was no longer with him.
“Wait, Miss Lennox! I would like to have another word with you!” he called to her. “I have some things to say to you that I couldn’t say around Miss Elliot, for obvious reasons.”
“Poor Miss Elliot,” Leona fired back at him. “I feel sorry for her. I really do.”
“And why is that?”
“She has no idea what kind of man you are!”
“Oh? What kind of man am I?” Lord Wintergreen put a hand on his hip and started circling them like a vulture. “Care to tell me, Leona? I’m not a cad any more than any man is a cad. I take what is freely given to me. You can’t deny you offered no resistance. Who could fault me for it?”
“I really wish you’d leave, sir!” Tristan spoke up, raising his voice. Leona never heard him sound so cross. “Leave us alone. Leave my wife alone.”
“Why did you get married so quickly, anyway? Was it a shoddy attempt to salvage your reputation, or… was it… something else?”
“Leave us alone, Wintergreen!” Tristan repeated. “If you don’t, I’ll be tempted to do many things that will ultimately result in your bodily harm.”
“Ooo, I quake at the threat,” Wintergreen said with a chuckle. “Where did you find this man, Miss Lennox? Did your father find him? Am I to assume he already knows the truth about you? Maybe I shouldn’t make such an assumption. If he knew everything, he would have had to be a saint to marry you… and he hardly looks or sounds like a saint.”
“Lord Wintergreen, please…” Leona whispered. When she saw the fury in Tristan’s eyes, she thought she should extend the plea to him as well. “Tristan, please…”
“Please, what?” Wintergreen continued. “Please don’t tell him you were a spectacularly pliable lover? Please don’t tell him you’re a whore?”
That was all Tristan could stand to hear. His fist flew out, landing squarely on Lord Wintergreen’s nose. He could feel the nose crack behind his knuckles, and the impact sent Lord Wintergreen tumbling to the ground.
Leona bit her lip. She wanted to chastise her husband for turning violent, but who could blame him? Wintergreen had it coming to him.
“How dare you, sir! How dare you!” Wintergreen gasped as he clutched his bleeding nose. His pained squawking attracted stares from several people around them. Gentlemen were coaxing their ladies to look in the other direction. “You know I can’t let you get away with that!”
“I quake at the threat,” Tristan laughed as he returned the other man’s words.
“A duel!” Wintergreen screeched. “I demand it! I demand satisfaction! I will not let you humiliate me like this!”
“And I accept. In fact, you’ve saved me the trouble of asking for a duel myself! If you think I would let you get away with insulting Lady Randall, you are very much mistaken.”
“It’s not an insult when it’s true!” The blood from his nose was dripping over his mouth, splattering when he spoke. “When shall I have my satisfaction?”
“I will return to make the necessary arrangements. Right now, I’m taking my wife home,” said Tristan, turning to Leona. “Let’s go.”
“You better not back out!” Wintergreen hollered at them as they fled.
“Never!” Tristan took Leona’s hand and led her back to the carriage. He whispered to his wife, “After what’s happened today, I can’t imagine you’d want to stay here. I, for one, wanted to get away from that man as quickly as possible.”
“So do I,” Leona quietly agreed. “I hate him. I want to get as far away from him as soon as possible.”
“I’ll have Higgins take you back,” Tristan said, referring to the carriage driver by name. “I’m sorry this day had to take such a terrible turn.”
“Are you really going to have a duel?”
“Certainly. There’s no way I could let him get away with the things he said!”
Sighing, Leona shook her head. Now she’d have something else to worry about. “I really wish you wouldn’t.”
Tristan helped her onto the carriage and cupped her cheek in his hand. “I’m sorry, Leona. It’s something I have to do. I’ll come home as soon as we’ve decided on a place and time.”
Leona lowered her eyes and folded her hands in her lap. “Tristan?”
“Hmm?”
“Do you think he’s right?” she whispered her question. “Do you think I’m a whore?”
“No, silly. And if you ask such a ridiculous question again, I’ll have no choice but to tickle you until your eyes pop out.” He stepped away from the carriage and signaled the driver. As the carriage departed, he added, “I’ll be home soon!”
When Leona was gone, Tristan turned around and headed back to the place where he left Lord Wintergreen. As he headed back, Tristan stumbled twice. Was he nervous? Or was it… something else?
He really wasn’t in the best of health.
“Wonderful,” Tristan muttered to himself. “What have you gotten yourself into?”
Chapter Thirty
After supper, Leona and Tristan returned to their shared bedroom and sat beside each other in silence. Neither of them wanted to mention the day’s events, but they knew the topic would have to come up eventually.
Tristan was the first to make an attempt at casual discourse. “You should have been there when Aunt Bess got home. She was really worried about you… she demanded to know why you left early. I told her you were feeling ill, which raised a lot more questions, but… if only you would’ve seen them!” he chuckled.
“Seen who?”
“Andrew and Bess! They arrived arm-in-arm, and they were chatting like they’d been friends for ages,” he said. “Something tells m
e they don’t hate each other as much as they let on.”
“Your aunt seems very strict with him, but she’s really quite sweet.” When Leona looked over and saw Tristan clenching and unclenching his fist, she almost gasped. “Oh my… your hand!”
He held his hand in front of him. “What about it?”
“It’s red!” she exclaimed. “You must have hit him harder than I thought! You didn’t break a bone, did you?”
“No.”
“Does it hurt?”
”I’m fine. Anyway, that Wintergreen fellow had it coming to him.”
“Well, I won’t deny that, but… I really wish you hadn’t caused such a commotion.” Leona snatched Tristan’s hand and gave his knuckles a gentle rub.
“He should have never said the things he said! Can you believe the nerve of that man? I couldn’t let him get away with it!”
“Yes, but…” With a sigh, Leona returned her husband’s hand to his lap. “A duel? That’s madness. You’re not really going to participate in something like that, are you?”
“Of course I am! It’s not just your honor at stake anymore, Leona. If I failed to fight for you honor, or I failed to rise to the challenge, what sort of man would I be? I’d be a coward, for one.”
Leona rolled away from him and mashed her head against her pillow. “I never asked you to fight for my honor… I don’t care a fig for anything that idiot says! I’d rather have a cowardly husband than a dead husband.”
Grumbling to himself, Tristan slid under the blankets. “Well, I’m going to die anyway. I might as well.”
“Tristan! How could you say something like that? No one is guaranteed a tomorrow, but it would be foolish to test your luck. I don’t want anything to happen to you!”
“I’m not such a bad shot.”
“That’s beside the point! A duel is ridiculous! There’s always a risk… I don’t care if you’re the best shot in England!” Leona turned, facing Tristan’s direction so he could see her roll her eyes. “My baby will need a father.”
Tristan’s eyes were locked serenely on Leona’s. After a few seconds of silence, he asked, “Which one?”
“What?”
“Which father?”
Leona’s mouth fell open, and she shook her head in disbelief. “I can’t believe you’d say something like that to me! I never expected you to say something so cruel!”
“Well, I think it’s a valid question! For all I know, you might prefer it if he’d win the duel. After all, he’s your child’s true father, is he not?”
Leona slammed her fist against the bed and shouted. “Oooh! I think that’s the meanest thing anyone’s ever said to me! I thought you cared about my feelings more than that. Don’t you have any idea how I feel? Don’t you have any idea how horrified I felt when I laid eyes on Lord Wintergreen… or how embarrassed I felt when he spoke to us? Don’t you know how much I’d like to change the past… or how much I’d like to bury the memory of him in some deep recess of my mind?!”
“I’m sorry.”
“You can’t possibly think I meant to refer to that man as the father of my child?” Leona went on. “I never want to see him as long as I live! Never, ever again!”
He saw tears forming in her eyes, and it wrenched his heart. He never wanted to see tears run down her cheeks, and he certainly never wanted to be the cause of them. “I’m really sorry, Leona. I wasn’t thinking.”
“Until now, you’ve been the nicest man I’ve ever met…”
“And… I still am!” he insisted. “You can’t hold one mistake against me!”
Leona turned her back to him again. “You don’t care about me at all, do you?”
“Of course I do! Don’t be silly.”
She sniffled. “If my baby has any father at all, you know I would want it to be you…”
“I apologize, Leona. How many times must I apologize?”
Leona held her breath. She didn’t want to cry anymore. She felt like she was always crying in front of him, and she hated it. “You don’t need to apologize anymore. I have no reason to expect any apologies from you… you’ve been too kind to me as it is. If anything, I deserve your animosity.”
“Animosity? I’m not being… animous,” he said with a chuckle. He hoped some humor would turn the situation around, but that wasn’t the case. Even though she had her back to him, he could see her wiping away tears. “I care about you so much, Leona! Surely you know that?”
“That may be the case, but… you’ll never care about me as much as I want you to. How could you, after everything I’ve done?” She sucked in a breath and exhaled sharply. “Words can’t describe how much I want to… be with you.”
“We’ll be together!” he insisted emphatically. “At least… we’ll be together as long as my poor, old heart can hold out. I’m not about to go off and die in some stupid duel!”
“I don’t think you understand. I mean… I want to be with you,” she repeated with added emphasis. “I want you to hold me and touch me and… be intimate with me. But I know you don’t want to. I’m sure you like me well enough, but I’m just as sure the thought of touching me must repulse you.”
“Leona.”
“I don’t blame you, Tristan. I can understand why you wouldn’t want to be with me. I’m having another man’s baby, and I tried to seduce you to some wicked end, but… now my feelings are genuine. I want to be with you. I love you.”
“You love me?”
“You really are the kindest, gentlest man in the world, and I know you’d never hurt me, and I should be happy with everything you’ve given me and thrilled by all the kindness you’ve shown me, but…” Her thought was interrupted by a sniffle. “I sit around thinking about how much I want you to touch me… I think about how wonderful it would feel… and I know nothing like that will ever happen, and I can’t expect you to want it as much as I do because I am a fallen woman. I know I’m not the sort of wife you wanted, but… you’ve really been the most wonderful husband, and I know I should be content with the relationship we have. I’m sorry…”
“Leona,” Tristan repeated her name with a chuckle. “You really do say the silliest things sometimes.”
“I… do?”
“Yes! I’m not repulsed by you, and I could never think poorly of you! I adore you!”
“You… do?”
“Yes!” He laughed. “If it seems like I’ve restrained myself, it’s because I thought you wanted me to restrain myself. Now that you’ve told me differently… you’ve said you loved me, even… that changes everything. Look at me, Leona.”
Wiping her eyes one last time, Leona slowly rolled to face him.
“I never dreamed you would come to care about me so much. I certainly never thought you’d love me. I was starting to think I was un-loveable.”
“I do love you,” she whispered. “I know you could never love me back, but--”
“Stop making assumptions,” he interrupted. “I love you very much. You’ve been everything I’ve ever wanted in a wife… and more. You’re a blessing to me, and so is the life you carry inside you. I want to put a smile on your face forever… and wipe your tears away.” He gently brushed a thumb across her tear-stained cheek. “I love you.”
His words almost made her heart stop. He loved her? Leona was so happy, she thought she could hear choirs singing in her ears.
“Believe me when I say I’ve wanted to put my hands on your body more times than I could count. I’ve had to exercise restraint at least a million times, because I thought that’s what you wanted!” With a grin, he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her toward him. “And I’m about to prove it.”
Chapter Thirty One
Tristan took her hand and started to rain kisses across her wrist, but Leona was more interested in what he said than what he was doing.
“Tristan,” she whispered his name. “Are you serious? Did you really mean it when you said you loved me?”
He traded one hand for the other
and started kissing it as well. “Oh, I’m very serious, Leona. You’ve brought more joy to my joyless life than you could possibly imagine.” He let go of her hand and started to draw back the blankets. “Wait… you’re not going to tell me your confession of love was just a hoax, are you?”
“No, of course not!”
Tristan grinned. “I’m only joking. I know you love me.”
She sat up in bed. “Really? How long have you known?”
“Three minutes,” he answered with a chuckle. With his hands, he urged her to lie back down. “I have no reason to doubt your love. I’m certain you wouldn’t lie to me about something so important.”
“Well, I’ve lied to you before...”
“So, you don’t love me?”
“No, I do love you!” she shouted at him. “It’s just… this conversation is… I…”
Her tongue was tied, because Tristan was starting to slide her nightgown off her shoulders. Leona didn’t know why she was so nervous. Her skin was burning in anticipation, and her heart was hammering against her chest.
“Good, don’t talk,” he said with a chuckle. “I’d hate to be interrupted by some random thought. It’s happened to me before, you know. You usually end up crying when I start to remove your clothes.”
“Tristan!” she gently pounded him on the head. “Don’t tease me like that!”
“But it is true!”
“No, it’s not!”
“Shh.” The nightgown drifted further off her shoulders.
“You’re not going to talk me through what you’re doing? What if you think I’ve gotten fat? How am I supposed to know what--”
Tristan’s mouth found hers, and he silenced her with a kiss. Meanwhile, his fingers continued to tug at her nightgown, rolling the material over her breasts. “I think you’re perfect,” he whispered as his lips descended to kiss her collarbone. “I think you’re completely, totally, utterly perfect.”
“I-” She was about to protest, but her thought was stifled when Tristan’s kiss landed on one of her breasts. His lips circled and suckled her nipple. “I…”
The Fallen Woman (A Regency Romance) Page 20