Read Online Marigold Chain by Stella Riley - Free Book Online

shouldn’t have touched the brandy,’ recited Alex, preparing to
swallow the mixture. ‘Just tell me one thing; why did you sleep in
my bed?’
    Chloë watched
him tilt the mug to his mouth and grimace as he tasted its
bitterness. ‘But where else should I sleep? We are married.’
    The timing was
perfect. Caught with a mouthful of tisane, Alex spat, spluttered,
dropped the mug and began to cough. Chloë thumped him helpfully on
the back and then, when the choking subsided, passed him a
handkerchief.
    Alex mopped his
eyes and then sat quite still, turning the dampened linen
thoughtfully in his fingers. Finally, he said, ‘Would you repeat
that?’
    Chloë
experienced a pang of misgiving.
    ‘ I said
that we are married.’
    Looking up, his
eyes bloodshot but disconcertingly intense, Alex considered
her.
    ‘ Now
that,’ he remarked, ‘is news.’
    She met his
gaze stubbornly. ‘You’ve forgotten. I thought you would.’
    His mouth
curled unpleasantly. ‘You were right. I can’t, after all, be
expected to recall all my careless excursions into matrimony.’
    Just for a
second, with a lurch of her stomach, she almost believed him. Then
misgiving became irritation and she said, ‘Can we discuss this
sensibly?’
    ‘ I doubt
it.’
    ‘ Look,’
said Chloë crossly, ‘you could at least try to be helpful. I know it was a mistake. I
knew it at the time and I tried to stop you – but you would have it. And so here we are.
The question now is what we’re going to do about it.’
    Alex stared at
her. Then, on an explosion of breath and with less than his usual
grace, he got to his feet and extended a hand to her.
    ‘ Well for
God’s sake let’s begin by getting off the floor. My head is
pounding and my bones feel as though somebody’s taken a cudgel to
them. So if you want me to think, I’ll need a chair and a gallon of
water.’
    Accepting his
hand, Chloë rose and followed him to the table. Silently, she
poured water from the pitcher and put it in front of him before
sitting down. Alex drank, clutched his head for a moment and then
looked at her.
    ‘ My
recollections of last night are, to say the least of it, imperfect.
Remind me.’
    She looked back
at him, her hands clenched tight in her lap.
    ‘ James
Ashton is my step-brother and you must have won more than he could
afford to pay because he ended the night by staking me – or rather
my hand in marriage and my dowry.’
    Alex’s face
showed nothing. ‘Presumably my luck held or you wouldn’t be here.
What then?’
    ‘ Oh then
you insisted we be married immediately – so you climbed the
wisteria and sat on the Reverent Morland. He wasn’t happy. He said
we deserved each other.’
    Mr Deveril’s
sense of humour wasn’t working and the blue eyes frowned in an
effort of memory.
    ‘ Did I
force you to it?’ he asked bluntly.
    Chloë coloured
a little but her gaze did not waver. ‘No. Or not in the way I
suspect you mean it.’
    ‘ Well I
suppose that’s something. But why the hell did you do it? You can’t
have wanted to marry
me.’
    The flush
receded leaving her rather pale and her voice, when she spoke
again, held more than a trace of constraint.
    ‘ I let
James stake me because it was a chance to get away from him and
seemed the lesser of two evils. And no, of course I didn’t want to
marry you. I expected to stay in the house last night and throw
myself on the charity of friends this morning. I didn’t bargain for
you being so bull-headed or Freddy Iverson and your friend Mr
Fawsley encouraging you in your madness. I thought that you’d sober
up and regain your senses and that we could come to some
arrangement that didn’t involve marriage. But none of that
happened.’
    ‘ So I
gather. But still … you agreed to it.’ It was not a
question.
    Chloë hesitated
and decided that the best form of defence would be attack.
    ‘ Yes.
Well, marriage would be a necessary snag if you were to acquire my
dowry, wouldn’t it?’
    She