“If you do not reveal mine, I promise to keep yours.”
Lady Tabitha sipped her tea, and Matthew considered her in silence for a long moment. It was not his place to ask, but he was dreadfully curious. He told himself that it was only right that he knew some details about Lady Tabitha’s unique situation. After all, they were to be wed.
“Did you love him?” Matthew asked.
“Who?”
“The gentleman who you were found with,” he clarified. “You must have been fond of him and trusted him greatly to let him take you into a darkened room unaccompanied.”
Lady Tabitha slowly nodded. She placed aside her cup of tea and clasped her hands in her lap. “I was fond of him. I thought that he might someday marry me.”
“Did you arrange to be caught, hoping to ensnare him?”
Her horrified expression answered the question well enough.
“I have seen such happen,” Matthew explained. “I noticed that you did not wed him, which means that he refused to be honourable. I imagine it was quite a betrayal.”
“It was, but that was not …” Lady Tabitha trailed off. “That was not the worst of it.”
“What was?”
“We were found by one of his drunken friends,” Lady Tabitha said, “and he—he assumed that this gentleman would be alone and in the company of a different woman. He called out her name.”
“Ah.”
“And my suitor could not explain why his friend would assume that he was in the company of any woman except me. I assume that he was either unfaithful or else lied about how I was the only woman he ever loved.”
Matthew frowned. “Sometimes, men do exaggerate when they say such sweet things to their lovers.”
Lady Tabitha nodded. “I know. But it is less conceivable why he would call another woman’s name. Is it not?”
Matthew inwardly winced and nodded his agreement. “I am sorry that he dishonoured you in such a way.”
“You do not blame me for being alone with him?” Lady Tabitha asked.
“No. You are young,” he replied. “Most of the ton has a few youthful indiscretions. It is only a matter of whether or not they are caught in their indiscretions.”
“That is kind of you to say.”
She looked vulnerable again, shy even. Matthew’s gaze lingered on her right shoulder. She was such an elegant and slight creature. Everything about her was soft and smooth, begging to be touched by his palms and caressed by his fingertips. Matthew forced down the lump that rose in his throat. He thought of Rosemary and how his hands had traced along her slender body.
She had always responded to his touch with great enthusiasm. When he cupped her breasts, she arched into him, bidding him to touch her more firmly. As Matthew had spread her legs and trailed kisses along the insides of her thighs, Rosemary had always groaned and rocked her hips upwards, desperate and eager for him to kiss her everywhere.
He looked at Lady Tabitha. She was not like Rosemary. With her straight, black hair and dark eyes, Rosemary had always been what the ton called an exotic beauty, but Lady Tabitha was so pale and conventionally lovely. An English rose if there ever was one. He wondered if she would react with as much eagerness, and the thought of taking her to bed daily filled him with a pulse of energy.
“But it is done,” Lady Tabitha said. “I am ready for us now. I foresee us having a long and fruitful marriage.”
Fruitful, indeed. “Agreed.”
A sharp splinter of guilt lodged in his chest, making it difficult to breathe. Rosemary would want him to be faithful to her. She would never want him to give up hope on her, and although Matthew recognized the wisdom of this decision, agreeing to marry Lady Tabitha still felt like an insult to Rosemary.
Worse, even thinking of Rosemary did nothing to lessen his burning need for this young woman. He needed to produce an heir, necessitating participation in the marriage bed. Matthew felt as though that would have been harmless.
If it had just been a duty, delivered without any emotion or interest, Matthew might not have felt as guilty as he did. Most regrettably, he was a passionate creature, and the more he looked at Lady Tabitha, the more he relished their eventual coupling.
And more than a little of that anticipation came not from his desire to have an heir but to have this woman beneath him, her moans heavy in the air as he left her sharp tongue at a loss for words.
Chapter 7
