by Golden Angel
They had both been quite bereft of fashion, gossip and company under the Baron's thumb. Although Gabrielle enjoyed being the center of attention in Hyde Park, Cordelia had noticed she'd spent most of her time asking questions of the young gentleman around her - most of whom had glowed under her attentions, not realizing her interest was because she didn't want too many questions asked of herself. Felix's conversation, expounding on the current fashions and topics of current interest to the ton, had had entirely different effects on the two women.
Cordelia had been intrigued, enjoying hearing about last Season's balls and the speculation over who would hold the best parties this Season and what the current fashions were. She'd loved hearing Felix talk about the theatre and the plays; she was looking forward to attending since she'd never been to a play or an opera. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Gabrielle had apparently felt mocked for her lack of knowledge, her own insecurities bubbling up and causing her to go on the defensive.
"I don't think he was mocking you," Cordelia said, trying to soothe Gabrielle with her own interpretation of the evening. "He just wanted to tell us some of the things to do and see in London and to prepare us for your out ball and entrance into the ton. He was just trying to help."
"Yes, help the poor, provincial country bumpkins," Gabrielle sneered. "Mr. High-and-Mighty Hood to the rescue. Of course you would think that. He was practically falling all over you; I was shocked that Dunbury allowed it. All three of you make me sick. I'm going to my room, I can't stand one more minute with any of you."
"Gabrielle-" Cordelia pushed herself to a standing position as Gabrielle headed for the door.
The younger woman glared at her. "Don't say a word. I know you don't really want me here. I swear, I'll take the first offer of marriage I receive, just to get out of this house."
Guilt swamped Cordelia as Gabrielle stormed out of the room. There had been times during the dinner when she wished it had been just her, Philip, and Felix. It would have been a much more pleasant meal without Gabrielle. The truth pricked at her conscience.
Yes Gabrielle had been unpleasant, but at least now Cordelia understood why. She didn't think her stepdaughter had the right of it, but her perception was at least understandable.
Sighing, Cordelia leaned back in the chair and closed her eyes, letting her headache dissipate. She wasn't up to dealing with Gabrielle right now after spending an entire evening keeping the peace. Perhaps it was better for Gabrielle to remain in her room, at least until Felix had left.
By the time the gentleman came to join her in the drawing room, Cordelia's headache had disappeared. She made Gabrielle's excuses, which both men took at face value, and the three of them enjoyed the rest of the evening, talking and playing cards. Since they didn't have the four players necessary for Whist, Felix had coaxed Philip into teaching her poker, an American game that was apparently scandalous for ladies to know.
******
Their first real argument was over Gabrielle's behavior that night. While Philip understood how she might have felt the way she did, the bare truth of the matter was that Gabrielle had taken Felix's words in the most negative interpretation possible. His sympathy to that notwithstanding, the girl needed an attitude adjustment, but Cordelia insisted he leave it alone for now.
While part of him was pleased that Cordelia felt secure enough with him and their marriage to argue, he would prefer she be willing to argue over just about any other subject. Gabrielle was fast becoming a sore point with him.
It wasn't just that she was rude and unappreciative, it was the way she distressed Cordelia, who bent over backwards to please her stepdaughter. To be totally truthful, he felt a bit jealous over how solicitous Cordelia was of Gabrielle when Gabrielle treated so badly while he felt more deserving of Cordelia’s attention. Gabrielle didn't even acknowledge Cordelia’s ministrations, much less show any gratitude.
Fortunately, their argument didn't dampen their lovemaking at all. He knew Cordelia thought he was being too unsympathetic to Gabrielle, but that didn't stop her from responding ardently when he kissed and caressed her. It certainly didn't stop her passion as he urged her to explore his body and take his cock in her mouth again, before pulling her up his chest and having her ride him.
Curled around her in the darkness, Philip could at least be glad that their first disagreement didn't affect their desire for each other. He wished he could be glad that the argument was over and done with, but he had the sinking feeling that this would not be the last time he and Cordelia came to a head about Gabrielle.
With her come-out ball next week, her beauty, and her dowry, hopefully some honorable gentleman would feel inspired to take her off their hands. After all, he'd seen her being pleasant enough in the park, so he knew she could be when she chose to. Which really made her behavior at home all the less tolerable.
One of these days, Cordelia was going to have to choose between his feelings and Gabrielle's, and Philip wasn't altogether sure he would win that toss-up.
******
The day before Gabrielle's ball found Cordelia hiding from her stepdaughter. She was at her wit's end, and she didn't know what to do. Gabrielle was so very particular and demanding about the ball, and Gabrielle’s nerves heaped upon Cordelia's nerves about the first ball she would be throwing as the Marchioness of Dunbury, was wreaking havoc on her. Her head was constantly throbbing, she could barely pick at her food during meals, and the only reason she slept was a combination of mental exhaustion and Philip's physical loving.
Bedtime was her favorite part of the day. It was the only time when she was completely free of Gabrielle, and Philip spent the time making her feel glorious. She could forget everything that was distressing her, lay all her burdens to the side, and just concentrate on the pleasure between them.
Unfortunately, Philip had been fairly busy during the day as the Season had begun, although he had accompanied them to a small ball on Saturday night, along with Hugh and Irene. Once Gabrielle debuted, they would begin to attend the larger soirees, assuming everything went well. While Marjorie, Irene, and Eleanor had all been wonderful help with the ball, as much as they could, they all had their own lives to attend to as well. It meant that Cordelia was spending much of her time engrossed in planning the ball with Gabrielle, and it was wearing on her nerves.
When Gabrielle wasn't nitpicking every last detail of the ball, she was making the most snide comments about Philip's absences during the day, his disinterest in Mr. Hood's flirting with Cordelia at that last dinner, and Cordelia's sense of fashion. Apparently, Cordelia's favorite colors made her look sallow or washed out, Philip didn't care about Mr. Hood flirting with Cordelia because he didn't care about Cordelia herself, and his current absences during the day proved that. Fortunately, Cordelia had the wonderful nights to keep her from becoming too insecure, but she had to admit, she'd felt lately as though Philip had been distancing himself from her.
Then again, could she blame him? She knew she'd been doing the same.
It was just that she didn't know how to speak to him about what was going on in her day-to-day life. She felt that he was rather severe with Gabrielle at times and unsympathetic of the girl's feelings. While he'd been right about Gabrielle putting Felix's words in the worst possible light, Philip had the tendency to do the same thing to Gabrielle. Since her days were currently filled with Gabrielle and the upcoming ball, it meant that she had very little to speak with him about unless she wanted him to think even more negatively about Gabrielle. Which she didn't. The tension between the two of them only caused her more distress.
She was used to the role of peacemaker; unfortunately, Philip's trenchant disapproval and Gabrielle's glowering within his presence and her outright animosity when he was absent, made Cordelia's usual role impossible.
Which was how she ended up hiding herself away in the smallest room on the main floor of the house - a small, card room that was so unused there were cloths covering the two chairs, single table, and c
haise. The room itself was a bit dusty, but Cordelia didn't care. It was quiet and, above all, private.
So when the door suddenly opened, she jumped, her heart pounding. Her anxiety didn't go away when she saw her husband in the doorway instead of Gabrielle. The confusion on his face was evident, and she knew he was wondering why she was hidden away in a closed up room, and she didn't have a good explanation for him.
To her surprise, that wasn't the first question he asked.
"Cordelia, darling, what's wrong?" were the first words from his lips, his brow creased as he came forward and put his cool hands on either side of her face.
She let out a puff of air as his thumbs replaced her fingers over her temples, soothing away the lingering tightness and finally relieving her entirely of her headache. Cordelia closed her eyes, practically humming with appreciation as her anxiety was forgotten under the caress of Philip's wonderful hands.
"Just a bit of a megrim," she said, happy to have an easy and honest answer. "How did you know I was in here?"
"I came looking for you, and one of the maids said she saw you in this hall. I've been looking in every room."
Cordelia stifled a groan. If one of the staff had seen her, that meant Gabrielle could probably find her just as easily.
"Sweetheart," her husband said, his voice becoming just a touch sterner. "What are you doing hiding away in here?"
With her eyes closed, her headache soothed, it was somehow easier to tell Philip everything that was wrong. Once she got started, it was as though she couldn't stop; the words coming in a confused tumult as he sat down on the chaise beside her and gathered her into his arms. She didn't want him to think worse of Gabrielle, but she'd been holding all her tension inside of her for so long that once she began to release it, it was as though she couldn't hold anything back.
Just venting the problems gave her relief.
******
Although he'd relieved his wife's tension, Philip was consumed by his own strain once Cordelia had explained.
"Sweetheart," he said, trying to keep his voice as gentle as possible despite the thread of anger and - yes - hurt that had worked its way through his chest. "Why haven't you told me how difficult Gabrielle is being?"
"Well..." she hesitated, and his frown deepened. He was no longer going to be able to put up with her prevarications on the subject of Gabrielle, not if this was the result. The bags under her eyes had grown much darker in the past few days, and she'd barely been eating; he'd assumed it was just the stress of the upcoming ball since that's what she'd implied during their conversations. Now he knew that Gabrielle had been piling onto that stress, and Cordelia had not only been allowing it, but she'd been hiding it from him! "I supposed because she's my responsibility and-"
"No," he interrupted her, determined to put an end to this once and for all. He was the head of the household, and he'd obviously been too lenient already, allowing this nonsense to continue. Apparently, the first spanking Cordelia had received for putting Gabrielle ahead of herself, to her own detriment, had not made enough of an impact. "She is our responsibility. I came into this marriage expecting a partnership, where we should share our burdens, not where you would hide them from me."
He couldn't keep the disappointment and the little bit of hurt from his tone. Philip wanted to be the person his wife came to, the one that she would lean on, but instead she was concealing part of her life from him, and he truly didn't understand why. While he might be occasionally harsh with Gabrielle, he was also fair, and he certainly didn't expect anything from her that he wouldn't expect from any other well-bred, young lady.
While part of him understood that Cordelia was unused to support from her husband and had been dealing with Gabrielle on her own for years now, he thought he'd shown her that he would be a different kind of husband to her. He thought she understood. Now he couldn't help but feel both a little rejected by the fact that she had sought to hide her troubles from him rather than share them, and pained that she might have lumped him into the same category as the late Baron.
Twisting slightly so she could look at him, her eyes imploring, as she registered the hurt in his voice.
"I didn't mean... I didn't think..." Her voice tapered off because of course she had meant to hide it from him and of course she had thought that was for the best.
Philip appreciated that she didn't try to lie to him, but that wasn't going to make him any more lenient with her. If nothing else, there were two things he was determined his wife would learn. The first was that they would share their lives together and be able to turn to each other for support, and the second was that there was no good reason for allowing anything to have a detrimental effect on her health.
It would be so easy to turn her over his lap and imprint those lessons on her bottom immediately, but Philip decided it was best to take her back to the bedroom. More privacy, and obviously his hand hadn't made enough of an impression last time.
Helping her up, Philip's lips thinned. As much as he loved spanking Cordelia, the disciplinary spankings were much less fun than the erotic ones.
"Come," he said firmly, taking her hand in his, ignoring the adorable way she bit her lip as she looked up at him. "We'll talk this over further in the bedroom."
Chapter 10
Draped over her husband's knee, skirts about her hips, Cordelia already wished she had gone to Philip when Gabrielle had started to become too much for her to handle. Yes, he was sometimes unsympathetic to the young woman, but Cordelia knew that, on the other hand, she was too lenient, and she really could have used her husband's firm demeanor to help handle Gabrielle's demands for her debut ball.
And now, Cordelia was going to be spanked, instead of Gabrielle.
"After all, it's not Gabrielle's fault that you didn't come to me," Philip said, rubbing his hand over the firm curve of Cordelia's buttock. "You could have come to ask for my assistance, with her or with the ball, at any time. Instead, you chose to deliberately omit what was causing you such distress when we conversed." The disapproval in his voice hurt almost more than his hand when it came down on her creamy flesh.
SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! SMACK!
Cordelia squirmed and gasped, tears springing to her eyes as the swats smarted. The worst part was the dread hanging over her, because before he'd settled her into place over his knees, Philip had gotten a flat-backed, square hairbrush from her dressing table and placed it beside him on the bed. As much as his hand hurt, she couldn't imagine how much that unyielding wood would!
"I'm sorry," she said, utterly sincere and regretful she'd let things get so out of hand before speaking with him. Indeed, if he hadn't caught her at a vulnerable moment, she probably would have continued to do so, and she knew it.
She also realized it was wrong of her.
After all, if she wanted a different relationship with Philip than she'd had with her late husband, it was incumbent upon her to act differently as well. While she might think Philip too harsh, she wasn't giving him much of a chance to do things differently either, by keeping things from him until the situation escalated to where he felt harsh was necessary. She’d become used to hiding things from her first husband, especially when it came to her incompetence at keeping Gabrielle under control, even though he’d undermined her constantly. Philip had been supportive of her from the start, but she had still fallen back into the habit of hiding her failings.
"I wasn't thinking... I should have come to you."
"Yes, you should have," Philip said, his hand caressing her bottom, which was still tingling from the initial smacks, making her tingle in an entirely different way. It gave her the slight hope that perhaps this spanking wouldn't be as bad as the last time she'd been given a punishment. "I hope that this will help you to remember in the future to both take better care of yourself and to not hide your troubles from me."
SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! SMACK!
Any hope Cordelia had had of a lighter punishment went flying out the window as Philip's hand c
ame down, firmly and painfully, on her upturned bottom. Tears began to roll down her cheeks, but, despite her squirming, she did her best to stay in place. She felt she deserved the pain, because she knew she'd caused Philip an emotional hurt - she could hear it in his voice. They both needed this to get past this moment, and perhaps being spanked would give her incentive to go to him in the future, before the situation had spun out of control.
Those worthy emotions slowly began to dissolve as her bottom turned from a blushing pink to a more rosy hue, each slap of his palm against the tender skin making her cry out.
SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! SMACK!
Her squirming changed to small kicks, and she began to plead with him, begging him to stop, promising she'd learned her lesson.
"Pleeeeeeeeease, Philip!" she begged, as his hand on the small of her back held her in place, his firm swats to her burning backside continuing unrelenting. "I'm so-so-sorry! I won't do it again!"
It felt like her bottom was swollen, the skin was so heated and tight from his swats. His paddle-like hand had traveled up and down her buttocks, from the very top of the curving mounds down to the sensitive patch between her arse and her thighs. The slaps there were the worst, making her shriek and buck as her sit-spots blazed red-hot.
Her fingers scrabbled against the rug, her legs kicking, and she no longer felt quite so bravely stoic about taking her punishment like a good girl. She just wanted it to be over with, and she was sure that she would never, ever, ever give Philip a reason to discipline her like this again!