face both delicate and vivid with her stormy eyes and soft lips, and he suddenly saw her as she’d looked in the garden at Standish House, her enchanting face turned up to the night sky. As they’d discussed the stars there had been a softness about her, an elusive gentleness that was as fragile and vulnerable as the delicate flowers that surrounded her. She was still that same young woman, completely female, sensual and she was his wife. He had made love to her, but he did not possess her, for the sweet, wild essence of her still belonged to her.
She was not a conventional woman. She was young, naïve and vulnerable and could not be blamed for rebelling against the restrictions which held her. She was not submissive or pliant and was unwilling to be moulded to the whims of others. The fury within him lessened and, as he looked down into her glorious eyes, his stomach clenched at the thought of hurting her.
‘For the time I have been away you have had more freedom than most, Beatrice, and now I have returned I would like to see your defiant heart more involved with household affairs.’
She accepted his words coldly, her head high, her cheeks flushed. ‘Anyone would think you married me for my domestic accomplishments, when we both know different. It may have escaped your notice, but I haven’t had a great deal of experience with being a wife. So if you have finished reprimanding me, my lord, I have a matter of my own to raise with you.’
‘I know.’ Satisfied that she was adequately chastened, Julius perched his hip on the edge of the desk and folded his arms across his chest.
‘You cannot mean to sell Larkhill,’ she said, unable to keep the desperation from her voice. ‘Julius, you can’t.’
‘I don’t need Larkhill. It means nothing to me.’
‘But it does to me,’ she flared with a sudden impassioned flourish, her eyes blurred with tears. ‘It means everything to me. You know that. Why do you have to change things? Why are you doing this? Why do you have to hurt me? Is it to punish me for manipulating you into marriage? If so, then would you please find some other way of doing it instead of selling Larkhill.’
‘I have already decided,’ he said firmly. ‘The matter is settled. As soon as I have a copy of Mr Sinclair’s valuation, the Larkhill estate will be put on the market. I am hoping for a quick sale.’
For a moment Beatrice’s mind could not adjust itself to the fact that he really was going to go through with it. How could he do that? How could she live and never see Larkhill again? At least at Standish House she had still been able to see the fields, the tall trees, the low, wet meadows, the quiet places only she knew about. Resentment of Julius burned in her heart.
When she spoke her voice was low and trembling with contempt. ‘What a cold, unfeeling blackguard you are, Julius Chadwick. This is nothing short of tyranny. You are enjoying every minute of what I am going through. Because of what I did, you will naturally want to torment me as much as possible to pay me back. Little did I think when I named the forfeit after beating you in that race that you would do this to me.’
‘Then you should have had more sense. You should have foreseen that I might call your bluff.’
‘Well, I didn’t. Why didn’t you tell me at the start you might do this? Why let it go so far? Don’t you see it was a way out for you? When you asked me to back down I would have done so at once and disappeared out of your life for ever.’
‘Perhaps I didn’t want you to disappear, Beatrice. You intrigued me. I had just returned to England after a long absence and I realised that to continue the line I must have heirs, and to have heirs I needed a wife. I was considering searching for some high-bred débutante. I hadn’t started looking and then you came along with your outrageous challenge. The moment I laid eyes on you I knew you were different. I am not just referring to your beauty—I’ve known beautiful women before and quite frankly they bored me to tears. I had no intention of selling Larkhill when I met you. It is a valuable property. The land yields well. I would have