Chapter 27

CHAPTER 27

" W hat did you speak to my uncle about?" Phillip demanded the moment Marina returned to the carriage after seeing Olivia inside.

"Yes, Phillip, I did enjoy my night at the ball. Overall, it was a fun and pleasant experience, and I am glad that we got to attend at last," she remarked bitterly, staring out of the window.

"He told me directly that he would not be attending when I inquired last I wrote him, Marina, or I would have not gone, nor would I have permitted you to go?"

"Permitted me?" Marina's voice was full of venom as she turned to meet his gaze. "Perhaps you are confused about what marriage means, Phillip, but I am not your prisoner . If I wish to attend a ball, I will attend it whether you forbid me or not."

"You are avoiding the question. What did you speak of? Did you explicitly plan to meet there, thinking that I would not notice?"

"You cannot be serious!"

"But I am! It is quite convenient that the two of you met one another just as you and I parted ways. Now answer the question I have asked twice already. I will not take kindly to asking it a third time."

Marina stared at her husband, aghast. He had not threatened her before. Drawn hard lines in the sand, yes. Raised his voice, yes. But this? She recoiled, pressing her back against the carriage wall.

"He said that I looked unwell and asked about my sister's marriage prospects."

"Your sister's marriage prospects?" Phillip furrowed his brow, deeply confused.

"I was equally appalled by the question," Marina continued, "so I stood up to leave, and that was when you came upon us. You are a foolish man, Phillip Hayward."

"How so?"

"You act on your impulses after jumping to swift conclusions. You sit here speaking to me in such a vile way when it is I who should be most cross with you!"

"Me? What could I have done to make you cross now, Marina? It is as though each time I turn my back, you find another reason to think ill of me. I have half a mind to return to Paris and leave you here, alone. Perhaps then you will find it in your heart to be happy."

Marina gasped, taken aback by his words, but she did not back down. "Who was it that you were speaking to tonight?"

"Aside from you and your sister?"

"Yes. Other than me and my sister."

Phillip hesitated for only a split second before answering, but the pause was enough to tell Marina that what he said next was deliberately obtuse. "I cannot know who or what you mean."

He could have said all of the cruel things in the world to her, and none of it would have pained her in the same way that this now did. Her eyes darkened, and she quietly turned her head to the side, no longer wishing to look at him. His refusal to answer her was as good to Marina as a confession—whether the woman he spoke to at the ball was someone he was having an affair with or not, that he would put Marina in a position to be scrutinized and then deny it to her face was enough to convince her that he was not, in fact, the man she had hoped to find out he was.