Her Secondhand Groom(102)
“It was,” she said.
He wrapped his arms around her, and he pulled her close. “Now, will you go away with me?”
“I can’t,” she said, ice chilling her veins.
“Can’t?”
She broke eye contact. How could she possibly say what she was thinking? Obviously now that she knew he’d read her note, she couldn’t lie to herself anymore and say the reason she hadn’t gone back to Briar Creek was because he’d barred the door to her. They both knew his careless words alone wouldn’t have really kept her away. But how could she tell him the truth, that even if she―
“I think I know what will change your mind,” Drake said, stealing her from her thoughts. He reached into his breast pocket and pulled out that bundle of papers he’d shown her downstairs.
Her heart thudded to a stop. The annulment papers? Why was he bringing those out? “Are we going to burn those?” she asked, ignoring his curious look at her quivering voice.
“No. Why would we burn them?”
“Because I’m not going to be your mistress,” she blurted.
He chuckled. “Good. But I didn’t ask you to be.”
“Well, good,” she returned, crossing her arms. She looked around the room, grinding her teeth as her insufferable husband unfolded those blasted papers. “Would you just put those away already? I’m not signing them.”
“Once again, I didn’t ask you to sign them.” He handed them to her. “Just read them.”
She snatched the papers from his grasp, and peered down at them. Her breath caught. “Am I reading what I think I’m reading?”
“I believe so, but if you want me to take you back to London to visit Mr. Nills again, I can.”
She was too enamored with the lines on the page to respond to his humorless jest. Her eyes scanned over the endless description of the direction, followed by Drake’s full name, then two signatures, Drake’s and Mr. Sayas’.
“Anything to say?” Drake asked when she flipped the page.
“I had no idea your Christian name was Kirkpatrick.”
He scowled. “That’s the only thing on that paper you found of interest?”
She looked up. “I thought it was a rather fascinating fact,” she said without a hint of emotion in her voice. “I wondered how Lord Sinclair and Emma got the K for Jack from Patrick. Now I know.”
He rolled his eyes. “Yes, now the mystery has been solved. Kirkpatrick was my mother’s maiden name. I have never been called such, and usually say or write K Patrick whenever necessary. But that old codger, Mr. Sayas, wouldn’t sell me that cottage unless I signed it with my legal name.”
“Well, I hope you have many years of happiness there,” Juliet said flatly.
He frowned. “What’s wrong, Juliet? Isn’t that cottage what you always wanted?”
“Yes. But I’ll not be packed away and visited when you’re struck by an urge for female company,” she said coldly, trying in vain to mask the hurt. She’d thought now that they’d both confessed their love, he’d take her back with him to Briar Creek, not pack her off to some nearby cottage to wait for him to visit with the intention of slaking his urges.
“Now, who’s being presumptuous?” he teased, stepping closer to her. He took her stiff arms and wrapped them around his neck. “I’m not suggesting any such thing. But if that’s what you’d like...”
“No.” She tried to pull her arms off of him.
He wouldn’t let her. “Then what do you want?”
“To go to Briar Creek.”
“You don’t want to live in that cottage?”
Did she need to brain the man? “No.”
“What if your family was there?”
“My family?”
He nodded. “Yes. Your family.”
“You mean my parents and siblings?” she asked, even more confused.
“No. Your family as in your husband and daughters?”
“You mean?”
He reached up and swept a few tendrils of hair from her forehead. “Your husband and your daughters will be there to help fill your home with all the love and laughter you could ever want.”
“But you’re Lord Drakely; you have to live at Briar Creek.”
“I don’t have to. Nor do I want to. Briar Creek is just a house, a cold, impersonal structure where an endless number of beds and haunting memories reside, not a home. I may not have realized it until recently, but as long as we stay at Briar Creek, we’ll never be a true family. And that’s what I want more than anything, Juliet. I want you, me, and our girls to be a family.”