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He took Calliope by the elbow and led her out of the room.
“You refuse my money and my help,” Calliope muttered angrily. “You left me last night and didn’t sleep at home until the early hours of the morning. You come back with scratches and reeking like some sort of vanilla perfume. Where have you been?”
He stood with her in the drawing room, glaring at her. “Where I have been has nothing to do with you. You made it clear you will not let me bed you, so why do you care if I bed someone else?”
“Because you stood before a man of God and you gave me your vow,” she spat.
He glared at her, feeling his bruised chest heaving in need of air. “There were no other women, Calliope. Nor will there be.”
She kept staring at him. “Then where have you been?”
He couldn’t tell her. He didn’t even tell his sisters how he earned coin in a way that was so ridiculous and completely humiliating for a peer. How low could he fall?
No, he wouldn’t tell Calliope. She’d never look at him the same way again.
“Like I said, there are things I have to do to provide for my sisters. For you.”
She chuckled. “You don’t need to provide for me. I can provide for you. Let me help.”
Let her help? Or rather, sink deeper into his humiliation. “Your brother made sure I am not allowed to touch your dowry.”
“You will not be breaking that agreement if I give it freely, and not just to you. To your sisters. To my new family.”
His chest tightened with an impulse to agree, to let her in. To lean on her. He had been alone for so long in this, it was hard to imagine a life where he wouldn’t need to do it anymore.
But no. The only thing he had left was his pride.
“I am going to get that information to you today,” he said, more coldly than he’d like. “And once I do, I will bed you.”
Her eyes widened.
“Hermes is ready, Your Grace,” said Joshua, appearing in the doorway.
“Thank you,” he said and turned back to Calliope.
“Are you going to the Admiralty?” she asked.
“Yes. I am.”
She marched to the door. “I’ll come with you.”
Not this again. It was still dangerous for her. “No. You’re to stay here.”
“But Nathaniel—”
He turned and strode out the door.
Twenty minutes later, he dismounted, only to see a well-dressed lady with auburn hair under her bonnet descend from a carriage with the Grandhampton coat of arms.
His wife.
14
God almighty.
Striding across the expansive square in front of the Admiralty, he glared at Calliope hurrying towards the entrance from the opposite corner, matching his pace and determination. All the while, his fists rhythmically clenched and unclenched.
“Calliope,” he rasped when she was less than twenty feet away from him. “I told you to stay at home.”
