Nye yawned on the pillow next to her and Mina angled her head back to try and look at him. “I thought you didn’t sleep,” she reminded him.
“I don’t. You’ve worn me out. Demanding woman.”
Mina huffed and faced back forward again. Ridiculous man. Nye’s body was warm against her back and the weight of his arm around her waist strangely comforting. She would just close her eyes for ten minutes, she told herself as her eyelids dropped down. Just ten minutes and she would get back up and see about those bathroom tiles.
13
When next she woke it was to the sound of raindrops on the windowpane. Persistent raindrops. Raindrops that must surely be hailstones, she thought as one pinged violently off the glass. Then she sat up, dislodging Nye’s sleepy embrace. Someone was throwing stones up at the window. Mina hesitated, then turned and shook her husband’s shoulder.
“Nye!” she said in a low urgent voice. “William Nye!” Once again, he was out cold. She raised her voice. “Nye, wake up!” She looked around vexedly as a shower of stones struck against the window this time. “For goodness’ sake!” Sliding out from under the blankets, she remembered belatedly she was nude. Clicking her tongue, Mina crept over to the chest of drawers where she had a spare nightgown and retrieved it. A loud ping from the window had her drawing in a sharp breath and hurrying over to draw back the curtains and fling the casement open.
“Stop that at once!” she hissed down to the dark courtyard below. “Just stop it!”
A single torch burned in the courtyard below and she could make out a few shadowy figures huddled round it. They looked to have scarves pulled over the lower parts of their faces.
“We need your man down here now,” a rough-sounding voice harangued her. “Send him down, woman.”
“I am trying to wake him,” Mina answered coldly. “Once I have roused him, I will be sure to send him down. Kindly refrain from throwing stones at my window.”
A grunt which she took to be of assent answered her and Mina slammed the window shut. Uncouth louts, she thought, pursing her lips. Bandying words with her at this time of night! Groping for the matches on the side, she soon struck a flame lighting the candle in her holder. Picking up her father’s watch, she found it to be half-past two in the morning. With a startled exclamation, she turned back to the bed and found Nye had not moved an inch.
Really, once he was asleep, he slept like the dead. She crossed to the bed once more and commenced shaking him like a dog with a rat. “Nye! Will Nye! Wake up this instant!” She was forced to bawl in his ear when nothing else made an impression.
His eyes flickered open at last. “Mina,” he murmured thickly. “Get back into bed.”
“I most certainly will not! There’s a bunch of ruffians in the courtyard below, demanding your immediate presence!”
His eyes which had been drifting shut again, re-opened. “The yard?” He struggled up onto one elbow. “What?”
Mina darted to the chair to gather up his discarded clothes. “They need you below.”
“Time is it?” Nye slurred, rubbing at his eyes. He drew his knees up and moved sluggishly to a seated position.
“An ungodly hour! It’s half-past two in the morning,” Mina hissed at him. “Your confederates seem to have no consideration for anyone but themselves!”
“Half-past two?” he repeated, seeming dumbstruck for a moment, then he swore under his breath and flung back the covers. She darted forward with his clothes and dumped them on the bed next to him. “Get back under the covers,” he told her as he stood up to dress. Mina hesitated, wanting to say something about the nefarious business he was clearly caught up in. As though guessing what was on her mind, he turned and scowled at her. “I won’t tell you twice,” he warned.
Mina bristled, but decided discretion was the better part of valor. She clambered back into the bed and turned her back to him as he pulled on his clothes, muttering under his breath ill-naturedly the whole while. When he stomped from the room taking the candle with him, she rolled onto her back and stared up at the ceiling. Well, that was that then. Her suspicions had not been the result of an overactive imagination. Her husband was in league with a smuggler’s gang.
She wrestled with the problem for the next hour and a half, waiting for him to return. Finally, she dropped off to sleep and when she woke again at seven, she was still alone in the bed. For some reason, that fact filled her with annoyance. So, he thought only to share a bed with her when he wanted that did, he? She seethed as she pulled on her clothes.
Embarrassingly, almost every item of clothing now made her think of Nye. Her corset made her remember he thought it too confining, her stockings too plain, her garters basic and unadorned. Dragging her hair back to pin at her nape, she stared at herself in the mirror. She was no dancing girl she thought bitterly. But she was a wife now. The tenderness between her legs reminded her that there could no longer be any question of annulment. Yesterday’s romp in the sheets had put paid to that. She was in truth and fact married to an out-and-out scoundrel and a lawbreaker.
She pinned her father’s watch chain to her bodice with an ugly cameo brooch that had belonged to her paternal grandmother. Apparently, it depicted her great grandfather’s profile. He had a Roman nose and a jutting chin and Mina only ever wore it when she was in a bad mood. She slipped the watch into the concealed pocket at her waist and surveyed the result. There, the very picture of respectability, she told herself in her dull black gown. For some reason she did not derive from that the satisfaction which she felt she ought.
She found Edna in the kitchen, who took one look at her and pulled out a chair for her at the kitchen table and poured her a cup of tea without once mentioning taking it in the parlor.
“Look like you’re in need of a strong cup of tea, Mrs Nye,” she said dourly.
“I am Edna,” Mina agreed. “But I’ll just take a quick wash in the scullery first.” She slipped through and gave herself a hurried wash. She’d need a bath later too, she thought with a grimace. “Church tomorrow,” she observed, raising her voice so Edna could hear her in the kitchen. “And when we get back, I shall help you with the Sunday lunches again.” She was surprised when Edna didn’t answer, and refastening her cuffs, she walked back through to the kitchen. “Edna?”
To her surprise, Nye was dominating the kitchen with his presence, leaning against the sink, a confrontational gleam in his eye. She started almost guiltily on sight of him, but quickly recovered herself, walking over to the kitchen table to take her seat there.
Edna sent her a pinched look of alarm, but Mina hastened to give her a bright smile of reassurance. “Nye and I have come to a new agreement about my duties,” she said in a pointed tone, then raised her cup to her lips and took a sip of slightly stewed tea. Setting it down again, she raised her eyes to find Nye’s narrowed at her.
“This morning,” she added firmly in a voice that carried. “I mean to scrub that bathroom upstairs until it’s gleaming. Then when I am done, I shall take a bath.”
Edna gulped the last of her tea, as though she could not get away from the tense atmosphere fast enough. “Yes, Mrs. Nye,” she said uncertainly. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll get back to stripping them beds.”
Mina nodded. “I have some laundry of my own to do this afternoon,” she said absently, thinking of her abused nightgown and the bedsheet with its telling smear of blood. She didn’t want anyone else’s hands scrubbing those clean.
At Edna’s hasty withdrawal, Nye walked over to the table. He stopped beside her and waited there until she lifted her eyes to meet his again.
“Seems I’ve forgotten the terms of our ‘agreement,’” he bit out. “Maybe you should remind me of them.”
“Very well,” she said determinedly. “Now our marriage stands proven both in terms of deed and fact, I shall pick up any household duties I see fit.”
He hissed out a breath. “Is that so?”
“It is,” she said, raising her teacup to
her lips again.
His gaze flickered a moment, then he shrugged. “Seems fair,” he said, immediately setting her on her guard.
“It does?” Her eyes darted to his suspiciously.
He nodded again thoughtfully. “You can lord it over household matters,” he said generously. “As I mean to be master where it counts most.”
“And where’s that?” Mina asked doggedly, though she already had a dim suspicion which direction he was heading in his thinking.
“In my bed,” he said richly.
“Your bed?” Mina huffed. “I don’t even know where that is.”
He snorted. “You’ve slept in it since our wedding night.”
Her mouth dropped open. “That’s your bedroom?”
He looked amused. “Who else’s?”
“But…” Her mind spun. “The bed didn’t even have any sheets on it!”
He shrugged again. “I told you, I don’t sleep.”
She gave a derisive snort. “For someone who doesn’t sleep, I’ve never met anyone harder to rouse from slumber than you, Will Nye!”
Annoyingly, as soon as the words had left her mouth, she felt herself blush hotly, remembering the last time she had called him Will. The only time he had bade her call him it. Setting her cup down, she pushed the saucer away and made to stand. His hand on her shoulder prevented her.
“Stay there a minute,” he growled. “Unless you want me to drag you into the scullery.”
“The scullery?”
“Or maybe bend you over this table,” he said huskily.
Mina blinked. What? “Bend me over…” Her words trailed off as she noticed the stormy look on his face. Involuntarily, her gaze transferred to the scratched wooden surface. Surely he wasn’t serious?
Noticing the direction of her gaze, he growled, and half hauled her out of her chair. “You think I wouldn’t?”
“Of course, you wouldn’t!” she flung at him, but even she could hear an element of doubt had crept into her voice. “It would be vastly uncomfortable for us both, I imagine!” she added desperately striving for calm.
“No,” he disagreed in a low voice, turning her around and shoving her forward against the table. A big hand planted in the center of her back, pushing her down so she was leaning over the surface. “You’d be on your front, like this, and I.” He stepped up neatly behind her, caging her in from the back. “I’d be here, between your legs. Taking you from behind.” She felt the hard press of his body on the back of her legs and felt a surge of panic and something else.
She braced her palms against the tabletop. “Nye!” her voice rang out, shocked, with the tiniest hint of fear. It pulled him up short. “You’ll be master in the bedroom,” she said quickly. “But not here, please not here.”
He stepped back at once and Mina drew a quick steadying breath before she turned to face him. She couldn’t quite bring herself to meet his eyes. Suddenly, his hand was under chin, forcing her gaze up to meet his. He was silent a moment, as he gazed searchingly into her eyes.
“I came on too strong,” he said gruffly, releasing her chin and drawing her into his body. His hand shifted up and down her spine in a comforting gesture.
“Perhaps a little,” she agreed shakily.
“I sometimes forget,” he admitted exhaling. “How untried you are.” He paused. “It’s that bold mouth of yours. It leads me astray.”
“I lead you astray?”
“Yes, you.” He moved his head forward to rest his brow against hers for the briefest of moments.
Mina heaved a great sigh of relief when he turned abruptly on his heel and left the kitchen. She could only hope and pray that he never realized the fear she had felt was not of him, but of her own reaction to him.
14
Mina spent a good three hours scrubbing away at the porcelain tiles in the bathroom and was inordinately pleased when the black and white floor tiles shined up as well as the mingled green and patterned tiles on the wall.
She was exhausted by the time she turned her attention to the enormous roll top bath. Along the bottom lay a thick layer of dust and she could only guess that since the number of maids had so drastically reduced, no-one ever bothered to use it anymore as it would take an age to fill. Doubtless everyone simply used the smaller hip bath, as she had done also on that previous occasion.
Gritting her teeth, she finally turned to the pretty matching washstand and forced herself to finish the job. The palms of her hands felt raw from the abrasive suds and she was just swilling the last of the soapy water from the basin when the door squeaked open and Edna appeared with two buckets of steaming water.
“I’ve been boiling water for your bath,” she said, carrying them in.
“Oh Edna, you’re a treasure,” said Mina thankfully.
“You’ve made a lovely job in here, Mrs. Nye,” Edna responded looking around admiringly.
“Thank you. No, not in there,” Mina interrupted her when Edna made for the large bath. She pulled a face. “I can’t face the thought of how many journeys up and down the stairs that would take.”
Edna smiled grimly. “It’s a monster of a tub, and no mistake,” she agreed. “We all just tends to use this ‘un.” She emptied the buckets into the smaller hip bath.
“I’m not surprised.”
“I’ll fetch another two up and that ought to do it.”
“Are you sure, Edna? Did you finish stripping the rooms?”
“We only had two overnight guests last night,” Edna assured her before scurrying out.
By the time Mina climbed into her tub she wasn’t fit to do much more than soak, though she just about mustered the energy to wash her hair before the water turned cold.
She spent a quiet afternoon in the parlor, letting her hair dry before the fire with a bunch of mending at her feet. She had mended the tears in her skirt from her cliff mishap and was just darning the heel of a stocking when she heard the hurried knock on the door.
“Come in,” she called.
The door opened and Edna came in bearing a tray with a piece of roast beef. “The master’s taking supper with you this evening,” she said briskly, setting it down before hurrying on the dining table before disappearing again to re-enter with a bowl of roast parsnips and another of green beans.
“Oh?” Mina glanced at her watch and found it was already six o’clock. “I had not realized it was so late,” she said, climbing to her feet. “Is there anything I can do?”
Edna set the vegetables down and shook her head. “He’ll be delayed a minute or two,” she said. “Only he’s just had someone deliver a telegram from the receiving office in St Ives.”
“I see,” said Mina, taking a seat at the table. She wondered if she should carve, or if Nye would consider that his province. Edna fetched in a bottle of red wine and a beautiful cut glass carafe to decant it into. Mina exclaimed over this and examined its etchings. “This is lovely.”
Edna shot her an enigmatic look. “Seems he’s got a few things out of storage since your wedding, Mrs. Nye.”
Mina felt herself flush. She didn’t care to remember that awful ceremony. Had Edna been there that night in the church to witness her humiliation? She bit her lip, somewhat disconcerted at the idea. Edna bustled back in with a bowl of mashed potatoes and a gravy boat.
“If you don’t mind, Mrs. Nye, I’ll be going up to my room after this. I’ve some embroidery I’d like to finish for my aunt’s birthday—”
“Of course, Edna,” Mina interrupted her. “I can clear away after our meal.”
“Oh no, Mrs. Nye!” said Edna, sounding shocked. “You just leave it on the side for me to deal with in the morning.”
“We’re off to church first thing in the morning,” Mina reminded her. “I can certainly wash up afterwards.”
Edna looked pleased and left the room with a hurried ‘goodnight’. Mina guessed she was making herself scarce before Nye appeared. She sat a moment twiddling her thumbs, before deciding to go ahead and carve
the meat. When she had done that, she uncorked the wine and poured it into the pretty carafe.
She had just laid her napkin down in her lap when Nye strode into the room with a heavy frown on his face and a piece of paper still in his hand. He stared at the table a moment blankly as though he’d forgotten he was even taking a meal. Then with a small start, he sat down opposite Mina and cleared his throat.
“Not bad news, I hope,” Mina said, nodding to the telegram he still held.
His brooding expression became more marked. “It’s a damnable nuisance,” he growled.
Mina’s thoughts flew to smuggling, but surely their operation would not be so brazen as to send wires publicly.
With a quick shake of his head, Nye stood up and reached for the roast beef dish, first placing some on Mina’s plate and then his own. “It’s about a fight to be held next week,” he explained grudgingly. “The venue’s fallen through and they want to have it here.”
Mina spooned some mash onto her plate. “You hold them here fairly regularly, do you not?” she asked with a raised brow.
“No more than once a month,” Nye answered tersely. “Usually less. We’ve never had two in one calendar month!”
“I see.” She set the bowl down and reached for the green beans. “Would it inconvenience you greatly?”
Nye gave her a disconcertingly straight look. “It means a house full of strangers,” he said bluntly. “Coming from all directions.”
“I see.”
He gave a short mirthless laugh. “I doubt you do somehow.”
“Doubtless it will mean a good deal of work for Edna,” Mina said mildly. “Making up all the bedrooms again for use.”
He grimaced. “Aye.”
“Well,” said Mina cautiously as she reached for the gravy boat. “I could always help—”
“You’re to stay out of the way, Mina,” he said angrily, slamming his hand down on the table and making her jump.
A Bride for the Prizefighter: A Victorian Romance Page 19