Besides which, Lysander seriously doubted the two minutes his mother was allowing them to have together would be long enough to discover why Bella had suddenly become so cold toward him.
Embarrassment, perhaps, vulnerability at the depth of their intimacy?
Or something else?
Whatever it was, it would have to wait until they were alone together tomorrow night for them to talk again.
Their wedding night.
It could not come soon enough for Lysander.
Chapter 9
In the end, it was Esther who settled the matter of whether Bella’s marriage to Lysander should take place the following day. The young girl would not hear of the wedding being postponed, stating she was determined to have Lysander as her brother rather than the “horrid Arthur.” Besides which, Esther, her injured arm secured in a sling, was being thoroughly spoiled by both the duke and the duchess. She would no doubt continue to be so during Bella and Lysander’s honeymoon period.
“Edward is quite beside himself with pleasure with having your sister to spoil and pet,” Angelique remarked indulgently as she helped Bella put on her wedding gown and bonnet. “Such a pity I am too old now to give him any more children,” she added wistfully before brightening. “But we shall soon have a grandchild or two to bounce upon our knees!”
“I told you I am not— You were referring to the duchess.” Bella winced at her error.
“I am sure I heard Tia ask you to call her by her name only yesterday,” Angelique said distractedly as she straightened the folds of Bella’s gown. “After all, after today, the two of you will be sisters. There.” She stood back, obviously pleased with her efforts. “Look at yourself in the mirror, Bella.”
Looking at herself was something Bella had been trying to avoid doing again since yesterday, when a brief glimpse in the mirror in her dressing room before the seamstress was shown up to her bedchamber had revealed Bella’s eyes were bright and fevered, her lips red and puffy from the passion of Lysander’s kisses, and her cheeks and throat flushed from the abrasion of the slight stubble on his jaw.
She had looked thoroughly debauched.
No wonder Angelique had remained in the doorway of the bedchamber, rather than entering the room fully.
For Bella to look at herself now, dressed in her virginal wedding gown of cream silk and lace, did not seem altogether proper after the intimacies she had allowed Lysander yesterday. As he comforted and distracted her, she corrected.
That still rankled more than she could say.
Nor did she care to look too deeply into the reason it did so.
For all she and Lysander had an obvious physical connection, she must never forget this was still a marriage of convenience and expediency. Convenience for Lysander, when he could not have the woman he loved. Expediency for Bella as a means of escaping her brother’s greedy clutches. Both things Bella, despite her growing affection for Lysander, would do well to remember, on this her wedding day.
“Bit of a fast worker, eh?” Lord Jonathan Spenser greeted his nephew as he eyed Bella with twinkling blue eyes.
The bride and groom were welcoming their guests to the wedding breakfast following the service at St. George’s Church, which had seen Bella and Lysander irrevocably tied together in matrimony.
“Not that I blame you.” The older man slapped Lysander on the back. “If I were thirty years younger, I would have tried to marry you myself, my dear.” He bestowed that warm smile on Bella.
“I might have had some objection to that,” Lysander’s cousin, William, said sharply, having entered the flower-festooned reception salon at Landingham House behind his father.
His father eyed him teasingly. “If I were thirty years younger, you would not have been born to make such an objection.”
“You are being pedantic, Father.” William snapped his impatience as he shook Lysander by the hand. “Congratulations, coz.” He gave the back of Bella’s gloved hand a polite peck. “Welcome to the family, Isabella, such as it is.” He eyed her mockingly.
Bella continued to smile politely as father and son moved farther into the room to allow for the arrival of other guests. But inwardly, she felt uneasy after meeting William Spenser, to a degree she wished she could wipe his kiss from the back of her glove. There was something…not altogether nice about him. Certainly he was not at all like his cousin. But that was possibly because the two men had not grown up as cousins. They had not grown up together at all.
Her gaze sought out the man who had been the most influential in Lysander’s youth. His half brother, Sebastian Falkner. The duke was still sporting evidence of where Lysander had struck him, a slight yellowish bruising about the eyes and the bridge of his nose. Nor did he care for the dictates of Society in regard to public displays of affection as he unashamedly nuzzled the neck of his wife. From the flush on Tia’s cheeks, the words he was whispering to her were not for the ears of others.
Bella gave her bridegroom a sideways glance. Esther had understated Lysander’s appearance yesterday. He looked so magnificent in his perfectly tailored wedding finery, it made Bella’s heart beat faster just to look at him. His hair glistened the color of gold in the candlelight, a charming smile on his face as he greeted yet more guests.
Esther was upstairs asleep in her bed, having retired there immediately after they returned to Landingham House from the church. She was exhausted after the wedding.
Unfortunately, that left no one from Bella’s own family present.
She had absolutely no idea who half these people were. Almost all the guests were friends or family of Lysander and his parents. Lysander made all the appropriate introductions, of course, but there was not the remotest possibility Bella was going to remember half of them. She would have to learn to do so if she was to be— No, now that she was the wife of a marquis.
“Are you feeling unwell?”
It was an effort for her to concentrate, to focus on anything at all but the realization she was now Isabella Falkner, the Marchioness of Trent.
“You’ve gone very pale.” Lysander’s gaze roamed over her searchingly. “Perhaps this was too much for you after all. Delayed shock. The doctor warned me it might happen.”
“Did he?” The doctor had already left Esther’s bedchamber yesterday when Bella went to check on her sister before the seamstress arrived. Esther had been sleeping peacefully, her arm secured in the sling. Bella could only assume Lysander must have spoken to the doctor as the two men were leaving yesterday.
Lysander did not answer her as he turned to Angelique, standing on his other side. “Could you take over here for a while, Mother? Bella needs to go somewhere quiet to sit down and rest for a while, away from the noise and festivities.”
“Of course, darlings.” Angelique beamed at them both, obviously relieved the wedding had proceeded successfully. “Go to the library and have a few peaceful minutes alone together. I believe there is some of Edward’s brandy in there,” she added, her eyes twinkling.
“If we leave the room now with the excuse I am unwell, half the wedding guests will have their suspicions that I am expecting your child confirmed,” Bella protested, already noticing several ladies chatting behind their fans as Lysander escorted her from the crowded reception room.
“They can all go to the devil,” Lysander grated. “You are obviously in need of some time away from all the rush and bustle, and that is what you shall have.”
A part of Bella wished Lysander would not be kind to her. It only confused her. Yesterday, once the seamstress had left, she had decided she must accept the limitations of this marriage. That she would be the future mother of Lysander’s heirs, and that was all. It would be so much easier to accept that if Lysander would cease to be so considerate of her comfort.
Her comfort and distraction.
Lord, would she ever be able to forget Lysander had said that?
She must, if they were to live together in any harmony at all.
Lysander took h
er in his arms as soon as the library door had closed behind them. “Are you really well, Bella?” His gaze roamed over her face once again. “You took a nasty tumble yesterday and… The lovemaking which followed should not have happened.”
“So you have said.” Bella pulled out of his arms.
Lysander frowned at the sharpness of her tone. “When did I… Bella, did I say something thoughtless yesterday to upset you?”
She crossed the room to stand beside the warming fire and look the flames. “What on earth makes you think that?”
He grimaced. “Perhaps the fact you have not been able to look me in the face since yesterday afternoon.”
“Do not be ridiculous,” she dismissed. “I looked at you in the church earlier when we spoke our vows to each other.”
Even then, Lysander had sensed her distance toward him in her eyes and the coolness of her tone. There had also been her sudden eagerness yesterday to cancel the wedding, using her sister’s injury as the excuse. After their lovemaking. “Was there something about my lovemaking yesterday which repulsed you?”
Bella’s cheeks became flushed. “Did it seem as if I was repulsed?”
“No, but… Was I too intimate too soon?”
Bella became hot all over every time she so much as thought of their lovemaking yesterday. Having Lysander’s mouth between her thighs. His lips against her nether lips. His tongue licking and caressing her there as he gave her that heady release.
It had been altogether too much and yet, at the same time, not enough.
She had felt Lysander’s arousal pressing against her as he made love to her, and had ached to have that hardness inside her. Taking her. Claiming her, as he had done with his lips and hands. Only to then learn he had been using that lovemaking as a distraction from the shock of the riding accident and Esther’s injury.
“No,” she assured him softly, once again unable to look at him, to say how she felt. What she had wanted. What she still wanted.
Lysander strode across the room to stand in front of her before lifting her chin so that she had no choice but to look directly into his handsome face. “I know I said or did something yesterday to upset you. To cause this distance between us. Damn it, how can I do anything about it, apologize, if I do not know what it was?” He eyed her with frustration.
This man had already done so much for her. He had saved her from her brother. He had married her, for goodness sake. What more did she want from him?
Greedily, she wanted it all!
Lysander’s respect.
His love.
Impossible, both of them. How could she possibly hope for Lysander to feel any respect for her when he knew of her behavior in the past? As for loving her… How could he ever love her when he was in love with another woman? His own sister-in-law, and a woman he could not have.
Bella shook her head, forcing herself to smile for Lysander’s benefit. “It is wedding nerves, I expect. Everything has happened so quickly, I am quite disorientated by it all. The wedding. Becoming your wife.”
Lysander’s hand dropped back to his side as he felt a sharp spear of possessiveness at hearing her describe herself that way. “As I wish there to be no secrets between us, I have to tell you this sometime, so I will do so now and get it out of the way. The person I wished to talk to yesterday afternoon was your brother.”
Her eyes widened in alarm. “And did you do so?”
He grimaced. “I questioned the grooms who had accompanied you on your ride first.”
“Why?”
“I needed to know if they had any further information on the accident yesterday. To know if it was an accident at all…”
“And was it?”
Lysander hated that look of anxiety on Bella’s face, wished he did not have to discuss this with her now. At the same time, he felt it was best to get this conversation out of the way so that they might enjoy the rest of their wedding day. And night…
“As you know, both grooms are newly hired for your own and Esther’s use. Neither of them recalled ever seeing the riderless horse before yesterday.”
“What happened to it after the accident?”
He sighed. “By the time the grooms had ascertained neither you nor Esther had been seriously injured, the horse was gone. Almost as if it had never been there at all.” He frowned.
“So it was not an accident that it charged toward us and then disappeared?”
“Probably not,” he replied cautiously. “We have already talked, you and I, as to whether or not Arthur might have been behind it.”
She visibly swallowed. “And was he?”
Lysander scowled. “He claims not. The cronies in his club also confirmed he was with them when the accident occurred. Which does not mean a great deal, because he could have hired someone else to do his dirty work for him. Except I am sure he was genuinely shocked by my accusation.” Having been so sure the other man was involved in some way, Lysander had come away from the club believing the opposite. Arthur Reynolds was vindictive and a bully, and would surely have proudly revealed his involvement in yesterday’s accident if he was responsible.
Bella nodded. “If Arthur says he was not involved, then I believe him.” It had not been her experience in the past that her brother had ever bothered to lie about any of his misdeeds. “I do not suppose he asked as to Esther’s or my own welfare?”
Lysander’s mouth thinned. “No.”
“Then he was not involved,” she assured him. “If he was, he would have wanted to know all the gory details, even reveled in them,” she acknowledged heavily. “Perhaps it really was an accident?”
“Perhaps.” But Lysander did not sound convinced of the fact. “Bella, I am new to this betrothal and husband business, which means I will make mistakes. Mistakes I will possibly not know I have made if you do not tell me,” he cajoled.
She looked back at the flames. “And I have assured you, you have done nothing.”
A frown creased his brow. “I asked that there be no lies between us, Bella.”
She drew in a ragged breath, knowing she was being unfair to Lysander. That he had already given her so much, the least she could give him was honesty. “I was a little…hurt yesterday when you told Angelique you had made love to me in order to comfort and distract me from dwelling on thoughts of the accident.”
“I said that? Yes, I did say that,” he realized heavily. “But only so that my mother would leave off talking about the subject of your nakedness and spare you further embarrassment. Bella.” He lightly grasped her upper arms. “Our lovemaking yesterday went well beyond any expectations I might have had.”
She blinked. “It did?”
“God, yes.” He took her in his arms. “Can you not feel how much I desire you?”
She could, yes, and her own body was already warming in response to the heady delight of having Lysander’s engorged cock pressed against her.
He smiled. “Bella, I have thought of nothing else all day but taking you back to bed. This time with no interruptions. In fact,” he added hopefully, “what is your opinion of the two of us slipping quietly away now to Trent House and, as my mother put it so succinctly yesterday, finish what we started?”
“Angelique will be most displeased at our disappearance.”
“It will not be the first time.”
“Our guests…”
“Are for the main part my parents’ guests.”
“Your father mentioned that the Prince Regent, having arranged our special license for us, might drop in to offer us his good wishes too later this evening.”
“Prinny has a passion for my mother,” Lysander dismissed dryly. “I doubt he will even notice our absence.”
“Would it not be shocking for us to leave our own wedding breakfast before it has even begun?” She voiced her last lingering doubt as to the wisdom of his suggestion.
“Very.”
Bella looked at him wonderingly. “You do not care.”
“I do not care,” Ly
sander repeated dismissively.
It felt so long since Bella had the freedom to do anything in the least impulsive. In this case, wickedly impulsive, when Lysander had made it clear the reason the two of them were leaving was to make love again. Completely this time.
Her heart leapt at the thought of that. “Then that is what we shall do.”
Lysander chuckled as he took in the excited glow in Bella’s eyes and the mischievous smile curving her lips. Lips which he had wanted to taste again for what seemed like forever but was in fact only twenty-four hours.
Their lovemaking yesterday had been a revelation to him. Bella had been a revelation to him. She had seemed a little shy at first and yet also utterly responsive to his every outrageous kiss and caress. Shyness was not at all what he might have expected from a woman who admitted to having had previous lovers.
Lysander readily admitted those responses had delighted him and made him crave more of it. Of her.
And then he had made light of the situation to his mother!
He was a fool for having done so, and had obviously hurt Bella in the process. No wonder Bella had become suddenly skittish, and had even gone so far as to mention canceling the wedding.
He took her hand tightly in his own as he chuckled. “We will have to be very stealthy to escape the eagle-eyed notice of my mother.”
“Perhaps we should not… Your mother will— Umph.” Bella’s hesitant words came to an abrupt halt as Lysander kissed her.
Hard.
Deeply.
Possessively.
Lysander held her dazed gaze captive when he finally raised his head. “Now will you come home with me?”
“Yes.”
This woman belonged to him, was his wife, and it was Lysander’s intention to do everything in his power to reassure her of that the moment they reached Trent House.
Chapter 10
Seduced by a Marquis (Regency Unlaced 8) Page 9