Page 39 of Brazen Rogue
Which she did, much to the near ruination of her family.
"Do not be so dramatic, Bellamy. You were always one to worry about what others thought ... well, you certainly were after you married me." She inspected her gown for a moment. "I suppose I did like to live life as I pleased, and fucking other men pleased me very well. Do you know," she said, chuckling. "I do not even know if Alice is yours. How funny is that?"
A cold chill ran down his spine and he fought not to cast up his accounts. To think his precious Alice was not his was impossible. She had his family traits. He would not allow her to taunt him with such heinous imaginings.
"You lie to hurt me for reasons I will never understand, but even if that were not the case, she is my daughter. I raised and loved her when you would not. She is mine, even in the unlikely chance that she does not share my blood."
She shrugged, leaning toward the window to glance over the Mayfair streets. "I do hope Miss Hall is not so very glum. I know she wanted to marry you all those years ago. Such a shame it was not her in the room that night, but instead me. Your life would have been so much less complicated had you not been so gullible and, should I say, cock hard for the little chit from Grafton."
It took all of Bellamy's strength to remain where he was and not strangle his wife. She was so cruel and had become even more caustic since she had left England. Not that she was ever very nice. She had set out to get what she wanted, access to his money and the security of his title, and that was all. Everyone else be damned.
"Do not mention Miss Hall's name in my presence. You do not have the right to speak of her. Not here or anywhere else in the world. Do I make myself clear?"
She chuckled. "I suppose I should make plans to return to the Lake District. As boring as it is way up there, but still, that is my home, and I'm the lady of the house."
His stomach churned at the thought of such truth, and he swallowed, fighting the urge to cast up his accounts. "You are not the lady of the house, nor have you ever wished to be."
"Ah, but I am," she said, interrupting him. "And I shall take up my place in society, and there is nothing you can do about it." She studied him, a smirk across her lips. He studied her and noted the heavy paste upon her face that gave her complexion a healthier glow than it truly had.
Was she ill? Had she caught some disease while abroad? Or had her hard lifestyle merely caught up with her?
"Do not forget, my lord, that you dislike scandal, and if you make trouble for me or deny me my right as your wife, hazards will impact our darling daughter." She pouted, and he had never seen anything more false. "And we would not like that, now would we?" she said, turning back to look out onto the streets, laughing at nothing he saw that was amusing.
The woman was mad.
But worse, what would he do? What could he do?
He ran a hand through his hair, his mind frantically thinking. The night had started so well, with so much promise and celebration. How could happiness yet again be ripped from him and Reign?
God damn it all to hell. What was he going to do?
Reign paced about her bedroom, forcing herself to take deep, calming breaths. She swiped at her cheeks, hating that her eyes would not stop leaking.
"Reign, please come and sit and have tea with me. It will make you feel better," Julia said, her voice pleading and comforting, but nothing she could say or do would make the situation any better.
Lady Lupton-Gage was still alive, and she had just been betrothed publicly to his lordship before all theton. If rumors of her working as a governess were not bad enough, now she would be known as a scarlet woman.
"People will think that I knew her ladyship was alive and that I chose to betroth myself to Lord Lupton-Gage. I'm ruined, Julia. You ought to send me away right now. I don't know where. I have nowhere to go." She slumped onto the settee beside Julia and stared at the fire.
The truth of her situation crashed down on her. "I do not even have a home. And although I came into some funds, they are not enough without employment. I shall have to find work elsewhere and quickly. Or book passage to America and leave and hope I find work as soon as I reach the new world."
"You are not going anywhere, even if I have to make you my companion to stop you from panicking. Until then, you are my best friend staying with me for the Season and had the unfortunate luck to betroth yourself to a man all of us thought widowed for several years."
Reign rubbed her brow. An annoying ache that she knew would soon turn into a headache. Her stomach churned, and she swallowed hard the lump in her throat that made composure difficult.
The urge to scream, to declare everything was unfair in her life bore against her, but she resisted. There was little point. Nothing could change the fact that the marchioness was alive and well and had been living abroad all these years under the assumption she was not.
Why the Marchioness of Lupton-Gage had wanted to live under such a ruse was beyond her, but as true as it was that she sat before her oldest friend, her ladyship was right at this minute sharing a house with the man she loved.
"Her ladyship seems to win, no matter what. I cannot believe it is true. Not again, Julia."
Julia reached out and clasped her hand, her brow furrowed in concern. "Lord Lupton-Gage will make it right. I'm sure of it," Julia said, but even to Reign's ears, her friend's declaration rang false.
There was nothing that could be done. They were married. Having lived apart or not, she was back, very much alive and ready to be the marchioness once again from all accounts.
"Bellamy will not do anything to harm his daughter's future. He will tolerate the marchioness, and I shall go home. If I could go home." Reign fumbled in her gown to find her handkerchief and, unable to find one, wiped her nose on the back of her hand, bedamning etiquette.
"I'm in love with him, Julia. Whatever am I going to do?" she asked her friend, the world she had thought was hers to take crumbling around her.
