Chapter Twenty-Two

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

M any hours later, Gemma leaned back against the velvet squabs of the coach and sighed. She was on her way home from the Monroes’ ball. Alone. The remainder of the evening had been quite enjoyable, actually. Grovemont had left soon after their waltz had ended, and she couldn’t have been more pleased.

Oh, several of her friends and acquaintances had asked her if she’d missed him or how she felt about his return. She’d answered all of them with vague words that sounded somewhat pleasant. She might want to slap her husband’s arrogant, handsome face, but she had no intention of letting the ton know that.

Grovemont didn’t realize it, but she had been raised to keep family issues within the family. There was no chance she would tell other people their secrets, but she drew the line at pretending with him . If he wanted a wife who believed in false pretenses, he had married the wrong lady.

And, of course, he had married the wrong lady. It had been clear from the start. A divorce was the only option, really. She smiled to herself as she remembered how his face had flinched for just one moment when she’d mentioned the word. His infallible confidence had slipped just a notch. And that had been a delight to witness.

She’d surprised him. Good. All this time, he’d been in India thinking he was punishing her by staying away and refusing to write. Instead, all it had done was firm her resolve to end their marriage. The ensuing scandal would be awful for both their families, but he would live through it. He had no choice. Besides, a duke in need of a duchess and heir could always come back from a scandal. She would be the one to take the brunt of it. No man would want to marry her after she’d been ostensibly tossed over by Grovemont. Which meant she would never have a baby. The pain of that thought throbbed through her. It was the thing that saddened her the most. But baby or no, she was still determined to divorce him. That’s how desperately she wanted out of this marriage.

Her family wouldn’t like it, but they would accept it eventually. They loved her. If she explained to them how awful her husband had been to her, they would agree it was for the best. Eventually. She hoped.

When the coach pulled to a stop in front of her town house, a footman opened the door to the conveyance and pulled down the steps. Gemma alighted and made her way across the graveled path and to the steps leading up to the door.

Once inside, she gave her bonnet and pelisse to the butler, who smiled at her warmly.

“Good evening, Your Grace. Did you have a nice time tonight?”

She returned his warm smile. “I did, Warwick, thank you. How is your tooth?” Just yesterday, she’d seen the man grabbing at his jaw, and she’d given him a poultice to place on his sore tooth. He’d thanked her mightily.

“Doing much better now, Your Grace. Thank you again. Terribly kind of you.”

“I’m glad to hear that, Warwick. Remember to use the same recipe for five days in a row.”

“I will, Your Grace. I will.” He nodded.

She made her way across the marble foyer and ascended the staircase. When she got upstairs, she warily eyed the door to Grovemont’s room. Was he in there? Skulking about? Or had he gone back to his club? She could only hope he was gone. But no matter. What he did with his time had no bearing on her. She was going to sleep.

She pushed open the door to her room, expecting to see Anna waiting for her as usual. The maid liked to sit in the chair in the corner with her sewing. Instead, the room was pitch dark. Gemma frowned. Where was Anna?

Gemma fumbled around in the darkness, trying to pick out the path to her nightstand so she could light the flint. She’d barely taken three steps when a scratching sound caught her attention. Seconds later, a candle flared to life next to the bed.

She sucked in her breath.

It wasn’t Anna.

Grovemont was there, sitting in a Chippendale chair next to her nightstand with a snifter dangling from his fingers.

“Jesus, you scared me,” she exclaimed, pressing a hand to her chest.

“It’s after two,” came his dark voice.

“You know how long these things go.” Obviously, he’d dismissed Anna and decided to lurk around in the dark. Too bad. Gemma fully intended to ignore him. She went directly to her dressing room and shut the door. She would just have to undress as much as she could by herself and then call for Anna. Hopefully, he’d be gone by the time the maid arrived.

“What do you think you are doing?” came his voice from the other side of the dressing room door.

She rolled her eyes. “I’m preparing for bed.” She managed to unbutton the top few buttons behind her back. The bodice of her gown gaped away to show quite a bit of her décolletage .

“That’s not what I meant, and you know it,” he shot back.

She couldn’t help but smile. “Not really. Tell me what you meant then.”

“You said you want a divorce .” His voice was low, accusatory.

She wrenched open the door. She was fully prepared to say it to his face. “I do want a divorce.”

His gaze dropped momentarily to her bodice just before he gave her a long-suffering stare. “ Why do you want a divorce?”

She couldn’t stop her humorless laugh. “Are you quite serious?”

“Humor me.”

“Fine. I want a divorce because you are an ass, and I have no intention of living the rest of my life under your thumb with your ridiculous rules and your broody temper.”

“I didn’t send you to Cumberland.”

Her brows shot up. “Do you expect my thanks? You did something much worse than send me to Cumberland. First, you made lov—” She shook her head. That part didn’t matter. “You refused to listen to me when I told you I did not trap you into marriage. You’re a presumptuous, holier-than-thou, pompous bastard, and I don’t want to be married to you.”

He blinked at her strangely as if surprised by what she’d said and trying to determine if she was telling the truth. She rolled her eyes. Of course, he would think she was still being deceitful. He was such an ass.

“You did trick me into marriage,” he finally replied evenly.

She pressed her palms together and spoke as if she were addressing a small child. “No, you see. That is where you are wrong. I understand why you may have thought I tricked you into marriage, but you never even gave me a chance to explain. If you had, you would know I was trying to help my friends that night by convincing Lady Mary to leave them alone. Contrary to your arrogance, the entire world does not revolve around you .”

He shook his head. “That story makes no sense. How would you finding me in the study affect Mary and the wallflowers?”

Gemma folded her arms over her chest. “Oh, now you want to know what happened that night?”

“As I said…humor me,” he ground out.

“Fine. Mary dared me to ask you to dance. I went searching for you. It was impetuous of me and ill-advised—believe me when I say I know that now—but it was not ill-intended, and I certainly wasn’t trying to force you to marry me . In fact, after Mama told me that we would have to marry, I cast up my accounts if you want to know the truth.”

He frowned at her, scowling. Clearly, he didn’t believe that either.

“I did,” she continued, completely indignant now. “Right there in the bowl in my bedchamber. What reason would I have to lie about that ?”

His only answer was more skeptical staring.

“But, of course, you’re not going to believe me because you’re so supercilious you honestly believe that I was scheming to get you to marry me. Did you ever stop to consider that I didn’t want to marry you either? And while I won’t say there aren’t ladies out there capable of such trickery, I don’t happen to be one of them. Lady Mary is, by the by. No doubt you’d be happier with her right now, ordering her about and acting put upon. But I have no use for it. And I have no intention of staying with you.” By the time she finished, Gemma’s chest was heaving and her cheeks were hot. Her forehead had even begun to sweat. But she’d said it. Everything she’d been waiting to say to him and then some. And it felt good. Quite good.

Grovemont took a maddeningly slow sip from his glass. “A divorce is out of the question.”

Gemma reached around her neck to remove her diamond necklace. She’d been prepared for his refusals. And she was prepared with her own strategy. Ignoring them. “I’ve thought about it a lot, and we can do this one of two ways. You can say the marriage was never consummated, or?—”

“That’s not true,” he ground out.

She gave him a long-suffering look before taking a deep breath. “You know that and I know that, but no one else does.”

“A divorce is out of the question,” he repeated.

“As I was saying…you can either say the marriage was never consummated, or I am willing to admit to criminal conversation.”

He surged to his feet and slammed his glass to the tabletop beside him. “Y ou cuckolded me ?”

She plunked her hands to her hips. “No. I have not, you pompous ass. Contrary to what you think of me, I am not the sort who would cuckold my husband; however, I am the sort who would allow everyone to think I did if it gets me what I want.”

His eyes narrowed on her. “And that is?”

“To never see you again.”

Blue fire leaped in his eyes as he stared at her and a muscle ticked in his jaw. Not so indifferent now, Your Grace ?

She moved toward the bed and pulled the bell to summon Anna. “I’ll give you a day or two to think about it. Now, I’m certain you know how to see yourself out.”

With that, she flounced back into the dressing room and shut the door.

A sly smile popped to her lips. Oh, how she’d enjoyed seeing his face when she told him he had two choices. How did he like being ordered about?