“It’s still his room,” Gretchen insisted. “You ought to at least wait until he’s home and ask him if you can go in there.”
Kitty let out a sigh and whispered, “Do you think he’s going to ask me for permission when he wants to try for an heir? He hasn’t given me a choice in anything so far. And what I want to do is a lot less intrusive than what he’ll do to me.”
Gretchen winced. “I don’t suppose there’s any harm in getting some books. As you said, it’s just books. It’s not like you’re asking me to let you spend time alone with a gentleman who isn’t your husband.”
Glad she’d found a way to reason with Gretchen, she hurried out of the room, excited to find out if there was anything in there that might appeal to Teddy. In her haste, she didn’t bother looking back to see if Gretchen was right behind her until she was in the library. She glanced back and realized the doorway was empty.
Gretchen arrived a couple seconds later, her hand over her heart. “I’m not young enough for all of this running.”
Kitty chuckled. “I’ll try not to run next time. I just couldn’t wait to get in here.” As she recalled, there were so many books in the room that one could spend hours browsing through them. “This is going to be fun. It’ll be like searching for treasure.”
“I can’t recall a time I saw more books in a single room.”
“Which is what will make this an adventure.” She approached the nearest group of shelves. “We need to start in an area where Aaron hasn’t read anything lately. I’m going to assume the books he reads now aren’t nearly as enjoyable as the ones he read as a child.”
“Do you consider your husband to be boring?”
“Well, I admit the ridiculous way he’s handling our marriage is more frustrating than boring, but I can’t see how he’s friends with Lilly’s husband. Roger knows how to laugh and enjoy life.” Before Gretchen got the wrong idea, she added, “I hold no secret affection for Roger. I barely know him. I only exchange pleasantries when he happens to be in the room when I visit her.”
“For what it’s worth, I believe you,” Gretchen replied.
Kitty blinked in surprise. “You do?”
“I’ve been with you for a while now, and you’re nothing like the ladies I’ve had to chaperone who were tempted to sneak off with a gentleman.”
Though Gretchen didn’t add it, Kitty suspected Gretchen included her wayward sister to that list.
“I have a feeling that once your husband confirms you are carrying his child, my services will no longer be required,” Gretchen continued.
“I don’t know. With the way Aaron’s been acting, I assume you’ll need to watch over me until I’m too old to conceive.”
“Certainly, that isn’t the case. He can’t be that unreasonable.”
Kitty’s eyebrows rose in a silent challenge.
“No one can be that unreasonable,” Gretchen insisted.
“If we were talking about anyone else, I’d say you were right.”
Even for all his faults, Kitty’s brother hadn’t restricted her freedoms like Aaron had. Yes, he had forced her into marriage, and that was wrong in itself, but she hadn’t been forced to be with a chaperone who spent every second of the day with her and had to check to see if she had her lady’s time yet. What Aaron was doing was unreasonable, and it didn’t allow her a moment of privacy.
Kitty turned her attention back to the books. She wagered that Aaron’s childhood books were on the lower shelves, so she shifted her attention there.
Gretchen walked to another section of the library and began her own search.
An hour later, both were able to find four books that Gretchen thought Teddy would enjoy, and they hadn’t even searched the entire library. Kitty was delighted at their findings. She hadn’t read any of the books. Two were a collection of fables. Gretchen thought it would be best to start with one of those books since they had an assortment of short stories that might hold his attention better.
“And,” Gretchen added, “if the story isn’t all that interesting, at least it’ll be short.”
“Let’s go over to your home and read one of them today,” Kitty said.
“By the time we do that and come back, it’ll be past time for you to get ready for dinner. It’s best that we wait until tomorrow.”
Kitty didn’t hide her disappointment. “But I was looking forward to reading to him, and I’m intrigued to find out what Aaron read when he was a child. My hope is that he wasn’t always stuffy.”
She thought she saw a flicker of amusement on Gretchen’s face before the lady cleared her throat. “Tomorrow will come soon enough. Besides, Hattie will be making dinner when we get there. They eat earlier than we do in this townhouse. After that, Teddy prefers to play with his toys. The best time to read a story is earlier in the day.”
“Since you put it that way, I’ll wait until tomorrow.” She opened one of the books and read the table of contents.
“You can always read some of those stories now. You don’t have to wait until we’re at my residence.”
She was right. Kitty didn’t have to wait. She could read them now. “Do you want to read any of these books?”
“Reading something meant for children might be a pleasant way to spend the next couple of hours.”
“Which book do you want?”
“I’ll take the one that isn’t a collection of short stories.”
Kitty gave her one of the books. Though Gretchen didn’t come out and say it, Kitty suspected that the lady was looking forward to finding out what was in the book she picked. Kitty found this encouraging. Gretchen was much too serious. After meeting Hattie and Teddy, Kitty could understand why, but still, it would do Gretchen some good to take her mind off of her burdens for a while. Thinking that reading would give Gretchen a nice escape from her responsibilities, Kitty led the way back to the drawing room.
***
A few days passed and Aaron spent that time trying to decide when he should try for the heir. Though his body might be ready to do it, his mind wasn’t. Up until his marriage, the process of getting an heir had been theoretical. He hadn’t attached any real thought to it. It was just something that had to be done. Except now, it wasn’t as simple as he’d expected it to be.
He couldn’t make himself just go to her bed and get things over with. He might be able to do it if she wasn’t so unreasonable. They didn’t get along in the slightest. They couldn’t even manage a casual acquaintance.
He hadn’t deluded himself into thinking his marriage would offer any form of companionship. He knew full well the only purpose of marriage was to get the heir. But he had figured the lady he chose would just quietly sit in the corner of a room somewhere and wait until the heir was born before he sent her off to another townhouse—or, preferably, another country—where he wouldn’t have anything to do with her again. Then he would be allowed to live the rest of his days in peace with his son.
That wasn’t too much to ask, was it? Every titled gentleman had to worry that he’d pass on his title to a child that wasn’t his. It was his right to make sure his wife gave him a son that was really his. He would have been careless if he hadn’t hired Miss Britcher to make sure Kitty wouldn’t run off to a lover. The moment he married Kitty, she became his investment. And what gentleman didn’t protect his investment?
One morning after he ate another meal in silence with Kitty and their chaperones, Aaron went to his library and poured himself a drink. This was the first time he ever had brandy before the afternoon. He had no idea the pressure to try for an heir would be so great. The longer he waited, the harder it was going to be, but he just couldn’t bring himself to do it, even if his body nagged at him to at least try.
He poured himself another glass of brandy. It wasn’t fair that Kitty was nice to look at. If her temperament would match her face, then they’d never argue. She’d just do what he wanted, and all would be well. She’d sit in the corner of a room and wait until she had his child
like she was supposed to.
He carried his drink to the library, doing his best to ignore Mr. Stonewall, and browsed the titles of his books. What he needed was a distraction. He needed something other than the heir to think about, even if it was for a few hours.
He took a sip of the brandy while he searched for something—anything—that he was in the mood to read. After ten minutes, he groaned and plopped down in the chair behind his desk. Then, in an uncharacteristic fashion, he put his feet on the desk, leaned back in the chair, and closed his eyes.
“Are you feeling ill, my lord?” Mr. Stonewall asked.
Aaron opened one eye and saw that his chaperone was watching him from the window.
Aaron closed his eye. “I’m fine,” he mumbled.
“You don’t look fine.”
“I’m not ill. I’m just irritated.”
“About what?”
Aaron let out a loud sigh and drank the rest of his brandy. “Do you really have to be in the same room with me when I’m in this townhouse? You can see there are no ladies hiding in here.”
Before Mr. Stonewall could answer, a knock came at the door. Since Aaron had left the door partly open, he looked over and saw that it was Miss Britcher.
Assuming Kitty was with her, he hesitated to tell her to come in, but if she had to tell him something, then he had a duty to let her. He gestured for her to enter and straightened up in the chair. He was surprised when he saw that she was alone.
“Where is my wife?” Aaron asked as he set the glass on the desk.
“She’s in the drawing room,” Miss Britcher replied as she approached his desk with the same grim expression on her face that she always had. “I have one of the maids watching her while I’m gone.”
Oh. In that case, she might have to tell him something that was serious. He glanced at Mr. Stonewall.
“I can’t leave, my lord,” Mr. Stonewall said. “It would be inappropriate for you to be with Miss Britcher.”
When he realized Mr. Stonewall was determined to stay in the room, he sat back in the chair. “All right, stay here.” He turned his attention to Miss Britcher. “What do you have to tell me?”
Miss Britcher opened her mouth to speak but then went to the door and shut it.
Aaron’s eyebrows furrowed. Why did he get the feeling he wasn’t going to like this?
She returned to him and straightened her shoulders. “Lady Northton doesn’t know I’m here.”
“Then it’s a good thing I stayed to protect Lord Northton’s virtue,” Mr. Stonewall said, not hiding his amusement.
Aaron thought he actually saw the lady’s lips curl up ever so slightly, but then she was frowning in the next instant, so he couldn’t be sure.
She cleared her throat. “I wished to ask how long you expect me to be Lady Northton’s chaperone.”
“I hadn’t thought about it,” Aaron replied after a moment. “I can’t let her go to another townhouse until she gives me a healthy heir, and there’s no telling how long that will happen.”
“I assumed that I would leave when she conceives,” Miss Britcher said.
“Even if she conceives, there’s no guarantee the child will be a boy. She might have a girl.” Heaven help him, but Kitty might end up with nothing but girls. He hadn’t bothered to consider that scenario before. What a dreadful thing it would be if he had to keep her here for years and years while he tried for an heir.
“So you plan for me to stay here indefinitely?” Miss Britcher asked.
“You’ll have to. I need to make sure the son she has is mine.”
She paused then said, “I’ve been with your wife for a while now, and she’s done nothing that causes me to believe she needs a chaperone. I’ve watched sixteen ladies in all, and in that time, I’ve gotten good at detecting which ladies are likely to cause trouble and which ones aren’t. Lady Northton has done nothing to make me suspect she’ll do anything inappropriate. My services won’t be required once she conceives. In fact, I’d even go so far as to say that they’re not even needed now. She leads a quiet and respectable life.”
He stared at her in disbelief. When he hired her, she was a stern lady. He’d found her intimidating, and he figured if he found her that way, then Kitty wouldn’t dare defy her. But as it turned out, Kitty had somehow managed to fool the lady into thinking she didn’t need a chaperone.
Aaron stood up and put his hands on his hips. “What kind of madness is this?”
“Madness?”
“Of all the ladies I interviewed, I didn’t think you’d be capable of being bewitched.”
She blinked in surprise. “Bewitched?”
“Yes. It’s like my wife has put you under some kind of spell. That’s the only reason I can explain the nonsense you’re speaking.”
“Nonsense?”
“Miss Britcher, I hired you because you impressed me. I figured you would remain steadfast no matter what, and I thought you’d be able to withstand the subtle lies my wife would utter in order to get her way.” He pointed to Mr. Stonewall. “She already has him under her spell. He does everything she tells him to. Please, Miss Britcher, don’t be the same way.”
“I’m not under anyone’s spell,” Mr. Stonewall spoke up.
“You are under her spell,” Aaron said. “You do everything she wants.”
“She’s my employer,” he replied. “My job is to do what she wants. When you tell the cook to make a meal, you expect him to do it. If the cook doesn’t make exactly what you want, you’ll fire him. If I don’t follow your wife’s orders, I’ll be out of a job.”
“So you’re willing to admit my wife is deceptive?”
Mr. Stonewall’s expression went grim. “No, my lord. She is not the one in this townhouse who concerns me. You are.”
Aaron couldn’t believe what he was hearing! “You’ve been with me this entire time. All I do is read books, visit White’s, and talk to a friend. If someone were to sum up my life, that would be all there is to it. I don’t engage in any dalliances, and though I’ve been accused of it, I don’t look at a lady with lust. There was no need to go into all of that nonsense of telling me where to look whenever I’m around a lady. I’m not the one who has the desire to engage in matters of the flesh.”
“If that were true, you wouldn’t accuse your wife of being a seductress,” Mr. Stonewall replied.
“I accuse her of being a seductress because all ladies are seductresses. It’s in their nature.”
“That’s not true.”
“Yes, it is!” Aaron slammed his hand on the desk in irritation. “Stop telling me what is and what isn’t true. I’m a grown gentleman. I’m not a young lad who needs to be told how to think.”
“So you are determined to be miserable?”
“How can I be anything but miserable now that I have to worry about a wife who needs to be watched every moment of the day so she doesn’t have someone else’s child?” He glanced between Mrs. Britcher and Mr. Stonewall. “Do you think I enjoy having to pay a chaperone to make sure my wife behaves herself? Well, I don’t. I’d rather go back to being an unmarried gentleman, but that’s not possible. Whether I like it or not, I’m stuck in this marriage, and since I’m stuck, the rest of you are stuck, too.”
Aaron took a deep breath and slowly released it. Only Kitty could get him so upset that he was beginning to shake. He had to calm his nerves. He straightened his waistcoat, grabbed his glass, and went to his decanter to pour himself another drink. She was going to be the death of him. His mother had driven his father to an early grave, and Kitty was going to do the same to him.
“Well,” Mrs. Britcher began after a long moment of silence while Aaron drank his brandy, “I think there’s nothing else for me to say. I’ll return to Lady Northton.”
Aaron waited until she was gone before he rubbed his eyes. He knew marriage was going to be difficult, but he’d underestimated just how clever and sneaky his wife would be. At least his mother left clues that alerted his father to w
hat she was doing. If someone as astute as Mrs. Britcher could be fooled into believing Kitty was an innocent lady, then she’d most likely let her guard down. If she did that, Kitty could get away with anything.
He poured another glass of brandy. If he wasn’t careful, he was going to become reliant on alcohol to get through the day, and if there was one thing he didn’t want to be, it was a gentleman who lost his wits to strong drink. He put the lid back on the decanter, set aside the glass, and returned to the desk.
He was going to get a reprieve from all of his frustrations if it was the last thing he did. He picked up a book at random from one of the shelves and returned to his chair. Determined to ignore Mr. Stonewall, who insisted on watching him, he forced himself to read the words in front of him. Finally, after twenty agonizing minutes, he was able to escape into the book.
Chapter Fourteen
Kitty turned the page of the book she was reading and continued the charming tale of the little girl who wanted to find a magical kingdom. She had no idea Aaron had such entertaining books in his library. The book was old. The hard cover had faded with time, and the pages were worn. Someone had read this collection of short stories, and they’d read it often. She just couldn’t imagine Aaron ever enjoying something this delightful. This had to be something his father or another relative read.
She glanced up at Teddy who sat across from her in the small parlor. Gretchen and Hattie sat on either side of him. Teddy was leaning forward and listening to every word she read.
With a smile, Kitty turned her attention back to the book. “‘Louisa spied the garden through the tall iron fence. She wished she could get in and see what was behind the rows of flowers and tall bushes that obscured her view of the center. Perhaps there was a magical kingdom full of assorted candies that would tickle any child’s fancy. Or, perhaps, there might be a fairy waiting to grant wishes. There were many things that could be in the center of the garden, but she wasn’t going to know what it was unless she got past the gate.’”
A Deceptive Wager Page 11