Page 151 of His Forsaken Bride

“I could ask you the same thing,” he said stripping off his gauntlets.

“I – well – I’m going home,” she said rather defiantly, and lifted her chin.

“Home?”

“To Sitchmarsh.”

“That’s not your home, Fenella. Not anymore.” That seemed to rather take the wind from out of her sails. He discarded his gloves too, and looked at her. “I want talk to you.”

She nodded, wrapping her arms around her body. “I can’t do that while your teeth are chattering,” he said nodding toward the bed. “Get back under the covers.”

She shook her head. “No, I want to be standing when you-.” She broke off, biting her lip.

“When I what?”

“When you tell me,” she said softly.

Oswald frowned at her, then turned and snagged a chair dragging it over to the fireplace. “How about we both sit?” he suggested.

Fen seemed to sag. “Very well,” she said reaching for another chair, but he had already set one down for her. She sat down and he noticed how dull her eyes were, and red-rimmed. And puffy. She’d been crying. His brother had not been wrong.

“It seems I’ve given you a false impression somewhere along the line,” he said carefully.

Fen stiffened. He saw her fingers convulse in her lap. She still wore her rings, he noticed. She’d left the other jewelry laid out on their bed. Seeing his rings still on her fingers calmed him a little. Godsdamnit, Mason was right. He was a possessive bastard after all.

“I understand,” said Fen in a listless voice. “I understand perfectly. No-one could blame you.”

“I don’t think you do understand, Fen,” he answered truthfully. “If you did, you wouldn’t be sat here in an inn on the road to Sitchmarsh. You’d be back in our bed, where you damn well belong.” He broke off as his voice rose, and took a steadying breath. “Your pardon, I didn’t mean to raise my voice at you again.”

Fen sat up a little straighter. “Where I belong?” she echoed. “But – I thought…”

“Did you? Did you really?” His tone was harsher than he’d intended, but for some reason he was finding it hard to regulate it. His eyes pored over her. “I don’t think you thought this through at all! Otherwise you wouldn’t be putting your husband to the trouble of a two-hour ride to come and find you, after he’d already spent four hours in the saddle this day.”

Fen eyes flickered. “But I didn’t think you would come to get me,” she said simply. “In fact,” she took a deep breath. “I thought you would be relieved to find me gone.”

Oswald felt winded. “How? How could you think that, Fen?” he demanded. Her eyes filled with tears. “I told you,” he insisted. “That you were precious to me, Fenella.”

Fen caught her breath. “Yes, you did,” she agreed in a choked voice. “But then you said I was nothing but an inconvenience.”

That halted his indignation. Shit. “You heard that?” He shook his head. “I was just letting off steam, Fenella. I didn’t mean a word of it.”

“You said I was an untrustworthy wife,” she said in a wobbly voice. “And that – “

“Please Fen – don’t,” he said unevenly. “That wasn’t intended for your ears. And even as I uttered those foolish words, I knew in my heart they were nothing but a falsehood.”

She swallowed and dragged a hand across her eyes. “No, you were right,” she said huskily. “And what’s more, you don’t even know the half of it.”

“I was not right, I was not even close,” he said firmly. “My darling Fen-”

“No, please don’t!” she flung out an arm in appeal. “Please don’t be kind. It is better to be honest. We can’t carry on as we have been. With me taking misstep after misstep and causing a disgrace to your name-”

He was up and out of his chair, “Darling Fen,” he said in concern, kneeling down beside her. “Please stop crying. You’re upsetting yourself over nothing.”

“No I’m not,” she sobbed. “And when you know what else has happened since you’ve been gone, you’re going to-”

“I’m going to take you back home with me anyway,” said Oswald firmly. “And just to be clear, your home is wherever the hell I happen to be. No, that’s enough,” he said catching hold of her hands. “You need to know there’s nothing you can possibly have done that is going to make me not want you.”

She shook her head violently. “You don’t know-”