Chapter Eight
“Would you like something to eat?” Corin’s mother asked from where she and Corin’s brother sat on the settee.
Candace finally turned from the window. There were a couple of servants who had already made good on Lord Erandon’s threat of removing the wheels from the carriages. The only carriage left with wheels on it was hers, which told her they planned to take her carriage back.
She was going to be stuck here for three months. Three very long months. How was she supposed to have an appetite at a time like this?
“I’m not hungry,” Candace finally told Corin’s mother.
Corin’s mother whispered something to her younger son before she rose to her feet and went over to her.
Candace considered bolting out of the room, but where would she go? She didn’t belong here. This wasn’t her estate. She was sorely out of place, and everyone knew it.
Corin’s mother offered her a sympathetic smile. “Being a lady, I can understand how difficult this is for you.”
“You were abducted and forced to spend three months in the country with your husband, too?” The words flew out of Candace’s mouth before she had time to restrain them. This wasn’t the poor lady’s fault. She hadn’t made the gentlemen drag her out here. She hadn’t even known Corin had gotten married until today. She cleared her throat. “Forgive me. It’s been a long ride, and I didn’t get much sleep.”
“It’s all right,” Corin’s mother assured her. “I’m sure if that had happened to me, I would be as upset as you are.” After a moment, she added, “You can call me Daphne.”
“All right, Daphne. You can call me Candace.” She studied the lady’s face. Daphne seemed to be sincere. She didn’t strike Candace as someone who would say something unless she meant it. “Did you have a father or a husband who insisted you do whatever he wanted regardless of what you thought about it?”
“No, I didn’t. I was fortunate in that regard.”
Oh. Candace sighed in disappointment. Daphne couldn’t understand what she was going through. She could sympathize, but she couldn’t understand it.
“Since you’re going to be here for three months, then we should make the best of it.” Daphne turned to the lad on the settee. “Reuben, come on over and meet your brother’s wife.”
The lad, who’d been watching them up to this point, got off the settee but didn’t take a step forward.
“Come on,” Daphne encouraged, waving for him to go to them. “Candace won’t bite you.”
He finally took a step toward them, his gaze going from Candace to his mother and then back again.
“Your mother’s right,” Candace decided to assure him since he seemed so timid. “I won’t hurt you.”
“Corin didn’t mention you,” Reuben said. “He didn’t say anything the whole time we were fishing.”
“Yes, well, your brother and I don’t have a love match,” Candace replied, even thought that was an understatement. Not only did she and Corin not have a love match, but they couldn’t stand to be in the same room with each other. She turned her attention back to Daphne. “Can’t you put a stop to the nonsense those gentlemen are doing? Surely, you can insist the servants put the wheels back on the carriages you have in your stables.” She gestured out the window so his mother could see the wheels the servants were tying to the top of her carriage.
Daphne clasped her hands together in a way that indicated she was about to say no but wasn’t sure how to do it.
“Corin doesn’t want this any more than I do,” Candace added. “Don’t you remember how upset he was?”
“Yes, I do remember. But I also know my son. He puts too much emphasis on material things. He thinks money will make him happy. I’m afraid he’s missing out on the better things in life.” She glanced at Reuben and put her arm around the lad’s shoulders. “Corin hasn’t been here in over a year. It’s been nice having him here. It was even nicer to see him go fishing with his brother.” She bit her lower lip and glanced out the window. “My son is not a bad gentleman. I know he can be stubborn, but he has a good heart. You seem like a nice lady. I have a good feeling about you. I would like you and Corin to stay here for the next three months. I think this plan could work.”
Candace was ready to say that it was ridiculous to base a decision on a feeling, but if she had been able to go with her own gut instinct when her brother arranged for her to marry Ian, she would have run off to her aunt’s cottage. Then she would have been spared a miserable marriage to him.
“It’s just three months,” Daphne continued, giving her a hopeful look. “If Corin is rude to you, I’ll say something. You don’t need to worry about me. I’m not one of those mothers who can’t see faults in her children. I do. I love them. They’re good children. But I know when they aren’t doing something right.”
“Mother’s telling you the truth,” Reuben said. “She tells me things I’m doing wrong all the time.”
“I wouldn’t say I do that all the time,” she said.
“It seems that way. This morning you told me I should sit up straight when I eat.”
Daphne let out a sigh that prompted Candace to chuckle. The exchange was just as one would expect it to go between a mother and her child.
Daphne turned her gaze back to Candace. “I know I’m asking a lot of you. You don’t know me or Reuben, and things between you and Corin are awkward. But I’ll do everything I can to make things comfortable for you while you’re here. Reuben will, too.” She glanced down at him. “Won’t you?”
“I will,” Reuben promised. “It’ll be nice to have someone else here. I get bored reading books all the time.”
“He gets sick easier than most children,” his mother added. “He spends most of his time indoors because of that.”
“I want to meet more people,” he clarified. “I love Mother, but it’s nice to talk to others. It’ll be nice to get to know you, and if you stay, then my brother will.”
Candace glanced from the mother to the son, noting their hopeful expressions. She sighed. The battle had been lost. She couldn’t say no. Not to two people who seemed like they were very nice. And it wasn’t like she could divorce Corin. The best she could do was live a life apart from him. That meant she was bound to them.
Even if she and Corin would never live under the same roof once the three months were over, she might end up running into Daphne or Reuben in the future at a ball in London or some other social event. The encounter would be more pleasant if she could at least have an amiable relationship with them.
“All right, I’ll stay,” Candace said.
Though, to be fair, Candace probably didn’t really have a choice. Lord Erandon, Lord Worsley, and the Duke of Lambeth were determined to leave her here regardless of what she wanted. Daphne was only giving her the illusion of a choice. Which was actually a kindness. It proved that the lady was trying to make her happy. Candace could work with someone who was making the effort to please her.
Daphne smiled. “Thank you.” She paused and glanced back at the settee. “I know you said you’re not hungry, but would you at least have some tea and a crumpet? I’d feel better if you had something after your long journey here. Afterwards, we’ll arrange for the maids to get your bedchamber ready.”
Since there wasn’t anything else to do at the moment, Candace agreed and went to the settee so they could continue their conversation.
***
To say dinner that evening was tense would be a mild understatement. It was much worse than tense. It was downright torture for Corin.
Candace sat next to his mother, which happened to be across from him. Next to him was Reuben. If Reuben hadn’t been telling everyone about fishing earlier that day, the entire room would have remained silent.
Corin hadn’t spoken to his mother or his brother since he found out Candace was going to stay here for a very long and trying three months. He hadn’t had any time. His mother and brother had been holed up in the drawing room, talking to Candace in what seemed to be excited tones. He, meanwhile, had decided to go to his bedchamber and put his things where they belonged. Then, out of pure exhaustion, he took a nap. He hadn’t gotten much rest since leaving London, and all of the stress had finally caught up to him.
When he first woke up, he had hoped Candace’s arrival had been a terrible nightmare, but upon learning that Candace was getting settled into the bedchamber next to his, the reality of the situation sunk in. He double-checked the stables to make sure the wheels really were no longer on any of the carriages, and he found them all missing. So the whole thing was true. It wasn’t some awful dream. This was really happening. And he had no way of getting out of it.
“I want to go fishing again,” Reuben said, bringing his attention back to the dinner. “It was a lot of fun.”
“You can’t argue with the results,” his mother spoke up. “These fish are delicious.”
“Thank you,” Corin forced out, though he wasn’t in the mood to feel all that happy. In fact, he couldn’t even taste the flavor in the fish, and he knew full well Cook could season fish so they melted in one’s mouth.
“Will we go fishing again?” Reuben asked Corin.
“Of course, we will,” Corin replied.
It was the very few means of escape he had from Candace. He was going to take every opportunity he could to make sure they didn’t spend any more time together than they had to. So far, he estimated that he had to have breakfast and dinner with her. That required him to be around her twice a day. It was far more than he wanted, but twice a day was better than three times a day. Finding things to do that would ensure he wasn’t going to be near her was to his advantage.
“Can we fish tomorrow?” Reuben asked.
“We have enough fish for the next dinner,” Corin said. “Let’s go horseback riding tomorrow instead.”
Reuben’s eyes lit up. “I can’t wait to be back on Green.”
“Green is Corin’s favorite color,” Corin’s mother told Candace. “Reuben named the mare Green because of that.” Her eyes twinkled as she glanced at Reuben. “He adores his older brother.”
Corin held his tongue. Why did his mother have to talk to Candace? He had almost forgotten the lady was in the same room with them.
“I know it’s not a good name for a horse,” Reuben said, also turning his attention to Candace, thereby including her more into the conversation than Corin liked. “But I have trouble naming things. It’s hard. And when the mare was born, it was going to be my horse so I had to name it.”
“I think Green is a lovely name for a horse,” Candace replied before she took a sip of her wine. “I named one of mine Ruby when I was a girl. It was for the color red.”
Reuben’s eyes widened. “You did?”
Corin sighed but took another bite of his fish. He wished Reuben would not encourage her to keep talking, but he couldn’t blame the lad. He was only eight. He didn’t know how miserable Corin was.
Candace nodded. “She was a good horse. I learned to ride on her. She was gentle. Never once did she give me any troubles.”
“My horse is gentle, too,” Reuben said. “Maybe you can come with us tomorrow when we go riding. Then you can see her.”
Corin shot Reuben a pointed look and shook his head. No way. Under no circumstances was he going to be with her while he did one of his favorite activities.
Before he could put a stop to the plan, Candace replied, “I appreciate the offer, Reuben, but I would rather not interrupt the time you have with your brother. You two should enjoy each other’s company during my…my…” After a moment, she swallowed then added, “Trip out here.”
Reuben’s face fell. “Maybe some other time then.”
Candace tapped the edge of her glass. “You can introduce me to Green when your brother has something else to do. We could even go horseback riding some time if your mother doesn’t mind.”
“No, I don’t mind,” Corin’s mother said. “You’re my daughter-in-law. It’ll be nice for Reuben to get to know you.”
Corin hid his irritation by forcing about half a cup of pudding into his mouth in one swallow. Good heavens. He should have been prepared for this. His mother was excited about having Candace here. She’d often lamented that she’d had no daughter to talk to. A lady understands another lady more than a gentleman can, his mother would say. I love you and your brother, but sometimes I do wish you had a sister.
And now she had a daughter-in-law. Why didn’t he think of this when Anthony and the other two gentlemen dumped Candace off here? He would have fought harder to get them to take her back. Why did he just sit idly by while they ruined his life?
The answer was obvious. He was too soft. All of his life he let people do whatever they wanted. It was why he’d been nice for as long as he had with Celia. If he’d learned to say no right away, then he wouldn’t be in this predicament because Celia wouldn’t have had the ridiculous notion that he loved her. Like he could ever love a meddlesome and bossy lady like that!
He slammed the cup on the table. From this moment forward, people were going to take him seriously.
“Corin, is something wrong?” his mother asked.
Unaware the three had stopped conversing to stare at him, he straightened in his chair. He was ready to say no, that nothing was wrong. But then, wasn’t that what had gotten him into this trouble in the past? He had kept his thoughts to himself. Well, it was time to do something different. If he kept on doing the same things, nothing was ever going to change.
He cleared his throat. “Yes, something is wrong. I don’t want her here.” He glared at Candace. “It wasn’t my intention to marry her, and I certainly never would have brought her here.”
Candace’s expression darkened. “I didn’t ask to come here. There are many other things I’d rather be doing than sitting across from you right now.”
He snorted. “You didn’t prove that in the den at Lord Edon’s ball.”
She gasped and then leapt to her feet. She opened her mouth as if she might say something but then glanced at the others. With a huff, she shut her mouth and stormed out of the room.
A long silence hung in the air before his mother turned her attention to him. “Corin, that was terribly rude.”
“Rude. I’m being rude? For your information, your daughter-in-law assaulted me when I was half-dressed in the den. Her hands went to places they never should have.”
His mother gasped, jumped out of the chair, and covered Reuben’s ears. But it was too late to shelter him from what Corin had said since Reuben proceeded to ask, “What places shouldn’t she have touched?”
Corin’s mother’s face went bright red. “Don’t you dare answer that,” she told Corin before she pulled out Reuben’s chair. “Dinner is over. Go on and clean up.” She hurried Reuben over to the maid. Once the maid escorted Reuben out of the room, she returned to Corin and set her hands on her hips. “I don’t know what’s gotten into you, but I will not tolerate this kind of treatment of a guest in our home.”
“A guest?” Corin threw his napkin down on the table and rose to his feet. “She’s not a guest. I didn’t welcome her here.”
“That doesn’t matter. She’s still a guest. You need to be nice to her.”
“Nice to someone who attacked me? I didn’t lay a hand on her. She barged into the den, threw herself at me, and started trying to get into my underclothes. It was assault, Mother. She wanted to take away my innocence.”
He waited for her to absorb exactly what he’d just said, thinking that once she understood the seriousness of the situation, she would side with him.
But she didn’t side with him. She sided with Candace. “She wanted no such thing. Lady Erandon explained the whole thing in her missive. Didn’t Lord Erandon read it to you?”
“Lady Erandon is Anthony’s sister. I wrote to you about how manipulative she is. You can’t believe anything she says. Lord Erandon just happens to be under her spell.” He pointed his finger at her. “Mother, this is all about money. Now that I have a good amount of it, all the ladies were coming for me. Candace just happened to go about it in the most improper manner. She probably wanted me to get her with child so I’d be forced to marry her.”
“I don’t believe it.”
“You should. I’m your son. I have no reason to lie to you. She tried to deflower me.”
His mother paused for a moment and then rolled her eyes. “You should listen to yourself. Nothing you’re saying is logical.”
“You’ve been out in the country for so long that you don’t remember what it’s like in London. There are a lot of ladies who are willing to do anything to marry a wealthy gentleman.”
“I’ve heard enough. Unless you can have a reasonable conversation with me, I think you should retire to your bedchamber for the evening.”
He stared at her in disbelief. “You can’t tell me to go to my bedchamber like I’m a child. I’m a grown gentleman, and I have the title. This is my estate. I’ll go where I want and when I want.” Since she didn’t argue with him, he folded his napkin and then placed it on the plate. “I am done with this conversation, Mother. I’m going to my bedchamber to get some peace and quiet in this blasted place.”
Then, feeling he had sufficiently stood up for himself, he marched out of the room.