Page 50 of A Necessary Wife

Milo raised a brow. “Then I suggest you join her there.”

“But it would be impolite to leave someone so beautiful alone.”

Amelia struggled to be free of his arms. “He was telling me of my new home.”

“He’s never been there,” Milo told her.

“Well, that is not exactly true. The late Lady Chatham sheltered me many a night on my way through Devon. Such a generous hostess.”

Milo’s hands curled into fists at his sides.

Dunstan’s smile grew smug and then he reached for Amelia’s hand. “Well, my dear, I’m afraid I must leave you in your husband’s capable hands tonight. I look forward to meeting you some other time.”

Milo ground his teeth as Amelia wished him good night. He was too angry for speech. Dunstan had been another of his wife’s lovers, and right under his very nose, too. And now it seemed he’d set his wicked sights on Amelia.

Dunstan strode off, but not upstairs.

Amelia faced him. “Chatham, I am so sorry. I had no idea.”

“Stay away from him,” he growled. “He’s but one thing on his mind. Just like the rest.”

“Well, obviously I will. He’s a man.”

Milo grasped her arm. “I will not allow my wife to betray me again.”

Amelia stared at him. “Do you think I would? With him?”

He pulled her closer. “It’s happened before.”

“Not by me,” she whispered, trying to free herself. “Let me go.”

“No.”

“Chatham, release me,” she hissed. “I’ve done nothing wrong and you are causing people to stare at us.”

“Let them look and see my hands on my own wife,” he growled. “I have the right to touch you.”

She sniffed the air between them and wrinkled her nose. “Not like this. This isn’t you.”

Suddenly, Jessica stood beside them, and Samuel, too. Samuel peeled Milo’s hands off Amelia’s arm and drew him away. “You need some air, brother.”

“Yes, do take him outside for air,” she murmured. “Perhaps once his head clears, he will remember how to be a good husband.”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Amelia emerged from her bedchamber a little after six the next morning after a sleepless night, exhausted but keen to escape the tangled bedsheets. She’d been alone all of last night, and she assumed her husband had slept elsewhere due to his overindulgences of the night before.

Their argument had been utterly ridiculous, and she didn’t know what to do to prove her loyalty. Like everyone else she’d ever known, he had believed the worst of her when there was absolutely no cause—not in this case.

Dunstan had been a harmless pest last night. Amelia done her best to ignore his sly comments disparaging Milo and had constantly turned their conversation to expressing her admiration for his wife. The woman was a saint to put up with his wandering eye.

But now that she was a married woman, she was apparently considered fair game to all men of any age. The arrogance of any man thinking she’d betray Chatham after only a few days of marriage astounded her.

She was not like the first Lady Chatham. She would never betray her marriage or believe the flirtations of any man? Amelia disbelieved all compliments on principal and always would, so they were bound to fail.

It was Chatham who was becoming dear to her in his own way, but it seemed that under the influence of spirits, he was only a heartbeat away from thinking the worst of her. Had he been looking for any excuse to think the worst of her all this time?

She closed the door on their bedchamber and headed downstairs as fast and as quietly as she could, then fled outdoors to be alone with her thoughts.