Read Online My Naughty Minette by Annabel Joseph - Free Book Online Page A

London in the morning.”
    “We’re going to London in the morning? No one informed me.”
    “I’m taking my mother to London,” he said. “You’ll be staying here at Barrymore Park. My father is very ill, you see, and his physician is in London. I won’t be able to spend much time with you until he’s through this latest spell, so it’s better if you stay here in Oxfordshire, near your brother and Josephine. If you like you can even stay at Warren Manor. I leave that up to you.”
    Be pleasant. Be amiable. Even if your composure is about to break.
“Why would I stay at Warren Manor now that we’re married?” she asked.
    “My father is very sick and the London household is in upheaval at the moment.”
    His expression was closed, inscrutable. She didn’t understand why he distanced himself from her, even within his house. He’d put her in the far wing, and now he intended to journey hours away from her and stay there for some indeterminate amount of time. “I’m sorry your father is ill,” she said. “Perhaps I might come and help.”
    “You’re not coming.”
    Now he had said that very rudely, almost in the tone of a scold. “But I should really like to come,” she said.
    “And I would really like you to go to bed, so I can finish what I need to finish.”
    “But it’s our wedding night.” Her anguished voice rang out in the silence of the library. The tall shelves seemed to tower over her like bleak, dark wraiths. “A groom is supposed to go to bed with the bride on her wedding night. He’s supposed to kiss and romance her, and hold her in his arms.”
    “And there are supposed to be swans and flowers and music. I know. But we’ve already established that our marriage is not the conventional sort.” His fingers tightened on his pen. “I’m sorry, Minette. You’re charming and sweet, but I’m not of a mind to bed you. Not tonight.”
    “When?”
    “Later,” he said evasively. “I have things to do in London, as I’ve told you.” He looked back down at his letter and began to write. Minette realized she’d crumpled great handfuls of her silk robe in her fists. She let it go and smoothed the fabric.
    “Do you think you can be rid of me so easily?” she said. “Warren will bring me to London if I ask him.”
    “I wouldn’t do that. You’ll be happier staying here.”
    “Living on my own in this cavernous manor? For how long?”
    “Until things settle down.”
    “And what if I don’t agree with this ‘living apart’ plan?”
    He threw his pen down on the desk. “It’s not up for discussion.” His voice sounded taut, like the crack of a whip. “Will you go to bed as I asked, or will you stay here and continue to argue with me?”
    “I’m going to stay and continue to argue with you,” she said. “I’m going to whine and nag until you agree that I must accompany you to London.”
    “Then you’ll be whining and nagging a long while, for I’ve made my decision.”
    He picked up his pen and hunched back over the desk. He was in waistcoat and shirtsleeves, his handsome gray wedding coat strewn carelessly over a nearby chair. She went over to twitch at it, and straighten the folds lest it wrinkle.
    “What are you doing?” he asked after a moment.
    “I’m seeing to your coat, in the absence of your valet. I bet you’ll be taking
him
with you to London.”
    “Yes.”
    “But not your wife.”
    He looked up at her with a dark expression. “I’m going to lose my temper in a moment. I don’t want to, but I will if you keep this up.”
    It was really a very scary look he gave her, but if she capitulated now, he’d go away and leave her in this vast, lonely house for God knew how long. “I wish you would put down your correspondence and listen to me for a moment. It’s only that I believe, after many years of reading romantic novels, that there’s a certain way married couples ought to go on. Of course, as a man, you’ve never read a romantic story. Let me tell