The Duke’s Shotgun Wedding(26)
Chapter Eight
I thank you, Lady Jocelyn, for your warm greetings. Viscount Radcliffe and I are much honored to accept your invitation to Christmas dinner. I am so very thankful that Sebastian is happy to have us in his home, although I confess to being a bit surprised. But most pleasantly so, I assure you. I am looking forward to making your acquaintance.
Yours,
Margaret, Lady Radcliffe
Sebastian’s mother.
Jocelyn had blatantly disobeyed him and invited the woman to the Christmas gathering.
The rage that gripped him unnerved even Sebastian himself.
He read the note for the fifth time, still in disbelief. It had been by pure chance that he had stumbled upon it. He had seen the seal and recognized it as his mother’s lover’s seal. So he had opened it, despite its being addressed to Jocelyn. He could not believe the nerve of the woman.
He realized that he had been too soft on his wife, allowing her far too much latitude. Something had to be done.
He summoned her to his study, and sat down to wait.
She swept into his domain looking glorious as usual, and he girded himself against the desire that flooded through him. Her hair was upswept in the most severe fashion, but the tendrils that curled loosely over her forehead softened the effect. The purple tea gown she wore bared the creamy swell of her breasts and Sebastian itched to pull her into his lap and have his way with them.
“You summoned me, Your Grace?”
He could see the wariness in her eyes. Three days had passed since her declaration of love and he had ignored her completely, not even dining with her. He had needed the distance so he could think clearly. So he could come to peace with all he’d learned about his mother, and unravel why Jocelyn’s words would affect him so. And then this.
She did not understand the full extent of the trouble she was in.
He smiled, but not pleasantly. “Do you have something to tell me, Jocelyn?” He kept his voice deliberately bland, lest he bellow his rage.
“I do not, Sebastian.”
He surged to his feet and stalked around his desk to lean against it. “I detest liars. Have I not made myself clear on that regard?”
Puzzlement shadowed her face as she took two halting steps forward. “I have not lied to you, Sebastian.”
“Then how would you explain this, madam?” He pushed the note forward, and it fluttered to the ground.
She stooped to pick it up. “Oh!” She gasped as she read the contents. Sebastian blinked in disbelief when she had the nerve to smile broadly at him. “I was not sure if she would respond.”
He wondered if she was daft. “How is it that you fail to understand your precarious position…” he murmured softly. Then roared, “You defied me!”
Her body jumped, startled at his anger. “You gave me no choice,” she snapped. “I had no way of reaching you, Sebastian. There has been tension between us for ten bloody days. I have tried in so many ways to mend my thoughtless remark, to explain my feelings, but you have shut me out completely.”
“So you sought to manipulate me by inviting my mother after I have forbidden it?” he asked incredulously. “You have not comprehended your folly, madam. As you so indelicately pointed out, the last woman that tried to manipulate me is dead.”
“I did not try to manipulate you!” She clutched her hands and glared at him. “I wanted to provoke a reaction from you. And I succeeded. Your anger is better by far than the icy detachment you have thus far treated me to.”
“Do you believe so, madam?” he said with chilling softness. “You will retract your invitation, Jocelyn, and you will do so immediately.”
She glared at him mutinously. “I will not. If you will but hear me out—”
“There is nothing to hear, Jocelyn. Retract the invitation immediately.”
“I will not!”
He clenched his teeth, debating how to deal with this…this…flagrant insubordination. It wasn’t so much the invitation that infuriated him as her blatant, willful defiance of his orders. “Where have you been living, Jocelyn?”
“What do you mean?” She sent him a baffled glance.
“Where have you been residing for the past twenty years? Has it been in Lincolnshire, England?”
“I do not understand what your questions have to do with our discussion, but yes.”
“Let me educate you, then. You are my wife. Thus, my property. I am well within my rights to beat you if I so desire, or banish you from my sight. I am trying to understand how you thought you could so blatantly defy me and go unpunished. I believe the best punishment will be to banish you. To Devonshire. And it would be an injustice if I did not beat you first.”