Malia Martin (24 page)

“But …”

“You will come straight home, Prudence.” He turned and stared out a window at the street, keeping his hands clasped behind his back.

Pru drew herself up and clenched her fists. “I must have time for myself.”

“Of course, in the mornings you may sew, read …” James waved his hand in the air without turning around. “Anything you wish that will occupy your time.”

“That is not what I meant.”

James turned quickly on his heel and pinned her with a look his enemies had probably backed down from often. “I know what you meant, Prudence. That part of your life is over now. I will not accept any criminal behavior from my wife.”

“But you do not understand, James.” Prudence braved her husband’s fierce demeanor and went to stand close to him. “Without me, Gravesly will fall to another. Even before I left, the Marley brothers from Pevensey were seen at Harker’s. The Marleys are horrible men, James. They kill anyone who gets in their way.”

James took a deep breath and held it for a moment. Prudence said a little prayer that she would be able to crack through the man’s stubbornness on this subject.

“Gravesly was there hundreds of years before you got there, dear wife, and it shall be there hundreds of years after you leave this earth. Shocking, but true, the world does not revolve around you.”

Prudence could only stare at the man, her jaw slack.

James crossed the small expanse between them and lifted her chin with his finger. “You are now Mrs. James Ashley, and will act as I want you to act. We will be a superior couple without a trace of scandal to our name. That means, Prudence, that you are no longer to associate yourself with the Wolf or Gravesly, and especially I will not tolerate any clandestine dealings in untaxed goods.”

“And to hell with Mrs. Witherspoon and the Sawyer children.”

“You will learn to school your tongue and your temperament, Mrs. Ashley,” he continued without acknowledging her statement. “I do not want to hear loud voices or bad language; nor do I enjoy arguing.”

“Is this a monastery or a house?”

James did not even flinch. “I will visit you every night until we conceive an heir.”

“How exciting,” she said, and shoved his hand away from her face.

He folded his arms across his chest and continued as if she had not said anything. “You will be completely faithful to me until you have birthed me two boys and at least one girl.”

“A girl?” Pru ignored James’s other ridiculous statements for a moment. “Why do you want a girl?”

“My grandson will be a lord.”

“Oh.” Prudence nodded. “Enlighten me, dear husband. I thought you did not trust the peerage, but now you say you want to marry your daughter into their circles? I do not understand.”

“Our daughter will marry an earl or a duke, no less.”

What a stubborn, horrible man. Pru narrowed her eyes on her new husband. “You are quite the dictator, are you not? I am sure this must have been how you acted with the men on your ship, but I was never privy to this side of your personality. You must excuse my chagrin.”

“I shall treat you with respect, Mrs. Ashley, and I expect the same in return. Please do not speak to me with such insolence.”

Prudence felt like screaming; instead, she drew in a deep breath. “Mrs. Ashley,” she said quietly. “I am Mrs. Ashley.” She laughed dully.

“Yes,” James said, his voice like ice. “So sorry it doesn’t quite meet your standards,
Lady
Farnsworth.”

Pru shook her head. “Nothing would meet my standards, James. Don’t you understand? I wouldn’t want to be the wife of a duke, or the wife of the king for that matter. I want to be me, and I want to be worth something for myself. And I had that, dammit!”

She stepped closer to her husband, frustrated because his face showed no comprehension of what she was saying. “I am the Wolf. I took care of my cubs, I took care of people, I meant something, I was important. And it was me. It wasn’t my husband, it wasn’t because I was the daughter of a peer or the wife of a peer. It was me!” Pru thumped her chest with a closed fist. “Me, the Wolf. I had my own name, and my own reason for being on this earth. And it was good.”

Her husband frowned, and she hated him in that moment. What she had just said was something she had kept to herself completely. She had just told this man her reason for being, and he frowned.

“I do not want to be married, James. I did it to save the people that I promised to help, but I most definitely did not want to be married again, or ever. I never wanted to take another man’s name.”

“But you have,” James said.

“Yes, as a last resort, but does it mean that I have to give up everything that I am?”

They now stood with their toes nearly touching. Prudence glared up at her husband, and he returned the look with a steely stare. “I fear that you don’t understand, dear. I have a signed confession from your dearest Clifton in my possession.”

“You wouldn’t.”

“You know that I would.”

Silence thundered in the large room. And then Prudence shook her head. “Why?” she asked quietly.

James looked away from her.

“All of this.” Pru gestured about her at James’s huge den. “It is all about what you told me on the way to Brighton, is it not?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Is this about finding your place, James?” Pru asked. “Will the demise of Gravesly be what it finally takes for you to enjoy London? Will taking away everything I live for make it possible for you to be happy, finally?”

Her husband turned his gaze back to her. “Do not speak of what you do not understand,” he said distinctly. And then he left her.

Her hand shook as she smoothed it along the banister that led up the grand stairwell in the middle of James Ashley’s home. Prudence had thought that they were entering a palace as the gates to Ashley House had swung open. The coach, which had arrived at Chesley House to transport them to London, had been quite a shock as well. The only thing it lacked to be fit for the king was a crest on the door.

In fact, a crest was the only thing missing from the gates in front of Ashley House to make it a ducal mansion. The servants running about the place did not wear a certain color or livery proclaiming them a part of a peer’s household either. They all wore black.

It all rather reminded her of a funeral, really.

Prudence sighed as she went to her room. It all seemed like a strange dream. Captain Ashley, her Captain Ashley, had turned into a stranger with hard eyes and a commanding manner.

She had entertained thoughts of softening him as they made their way to London. She was sure he had not meant everything he had said in Gravesly.

The man knew the people of Gravesly, had played with the children. He had made love to her and touched her. He could not stay angry and hurt forever.

Then he had handed over his list of rules like the captain of a ship handing orders to his first mate. And she did not know this man that was her husband at all. Of course, it was not as if she had really ever known Captain Ashley.

Perhaps the need to think she knew him, especially after the incredible night they had shared, had made her blind to the fact that this man was a stranger to her.

She was terribly afraid, also, that this new side of Captain Ashley could stay very angry and hurt for a long time.

“Lady Pru.”

Prudence glanced up at the familiar face of Clifton and felt an incredible urge to cry. She stopped in the hall and sighed instead.

“Oh, dear, Clifton, what have I done?”

“You did what you thought you had to,” he said softly.

“Yes, well, now I need to do something to fix it all.”

Clifton cocked his head toward the door to her apartments. Prudence nodded and led the way into her sitting room, closing the door behind her.

“He holds you with threats that he will turn me in to the magistrate,” Clifton said quietly. “I think you should call his bluff.”

“I fear it is not a bluff.”

“Then so be it.”

“No!” Prudence shook her head. She turned away to pace the length of the room that was bigger than the kitchens at Chesley House. “No, I will not do that, Clifton.”

“The Marley brothers will take over Gravesly, Lady Pru. And they will act fast with you gone.”

“Then we shall act faster.”

Clifton did not answer, and she knew exactly what he was thinking. Their actions were very much curtailed at the moment. She was now forced into a role that made her slightly nauseous: attending balls and routs and riding in the park. The grand lady of Ashley House.

“Mr. Watson,” she said suddenly, snapping her fingers. Prudence whirled around. “I can find Mr. Watson.”

Clifton’s brows were bunched together over his nose. He was obviously unhappy with Pru’s new plan. But Prudence was very used to that.

“The man probably moves in the same circles that James wants to be a part of. I shall find him. He will help us, Clifton, for his interests are at stake as well.”

“And what do you plan to do, Lady Pru? Walk up to every man of the
ton
and ask them if they helped start a smuggling ring in Gravesly?”

Prudence frowned at her butler. “I do not appreciate your sarcasm, Clifton.”

The man rolled his eyes. “I do not like this at all. I am going to turn myself in.”

“Don’t you dare, Clifton Rhodes. I will never forgive you.”

Clifton’s barrel chest rose and fell on a silent sigh. He turned away from her, shaking his head. “I will give you a week.”

“Excuse me?” she asked.

“One week.” He went to the door without looking at her. “If you haven’t found Mr. Watson, I will turn myself in and Captain Ashley will have nothing to threaten you with. You will be able to go back to Gravesly.” Clifton opened the door quietly and closed it behind him without even glancing at her once.

Prudence blinked at the closed door for a moment, wondering if the entire world had just turned upside down. The honorable Captain Ashley was truly the devil, and her dutiful servant was giving her ultimatums. What would happen next?

With a sigh, Prudence dropped into a chair and stared at her hands. They shook, still. She clasped them together and closed her eyes.

There had been a moment, a small moment in time the morning after their wedding that Pru had thought that all would be well.

Never in her life had she touched another human being as she had her husband. And though she harbored secrets, she had naively believed that something special had passed between them, something that did not happen for most people.

It certainly had never happened for her with Baron Farnsworth.

So she had thought they would be able to get through the problems that lay ahead. She had thought that she would, perhaps, enjoy taking this man’s name for her own.

Now she realized that was complete poppycock. “It was lust,” she said into the silent room. “That was all. He is not what I thought.”

Prudence swallowed the sobs that rushed up her throat with that pronouncement.

Still, though she said it out loud, Pru could not quite make herself believe it entirely. She had always been a very good judge of character, and she definitely prided herself on a sharp mind.

She could not have been so wrong about Captain Ashley.

He was hurt. Of course he was.

But surely he of all people must understand that there were obligations one had to uphold when one was in charge of the destinies of others.

Surely, he must understand. He
would
understand.

Prudence leaned forward and propped her forehead in her hands. She missed Gravesly terribly, and it had been only two days since she’d left. And she was afraid, so very afraid, that her little town would never be the same again.

A tear slipped unbidden down her cheek. She rarely cried, but she knew that sometimes it was a good way to clear her mind of fear and pain.

And so she stood up quickly, went into her bedroom, and threw herself facedown onto her bed. Muffling her cries with a huge down pillow, Prudence sobbed her way through the afternoon.

Of course, she did not give in to complete despair. She knew that when she finished, she would feel much better and be ready to face the
ton
and find Mr. Watson.