Read Online Wife Errant by Joan Smith - Free Book Online Page B

told him about her mother’s outburst the night before. “So if she is a little distracted, one can hardly blame her. She still loves him very much, you see.”
    “I have always thought love matches ought to be outlawed. Whichever of the loving couple recovers his sanity first, pitches the other into misery.”He waited, fully expecting a lively argument on the merits of true love.
    “I daresay the first weeks of rapture would be delightful, but until some way is found for both to become sane simultaneously, it is a poor bargain,”she agreed.
    “You would limit the rapture to weeks?”he asked, surprised, but ready to shift ground for conversation’s sake.
    “Perhaps months,”she said reflectively.
    “I personally know a man who has been happily married for two years,”he said.
    “He must have married a saint.”
    “On the contrary; his wife did.”
    “Poor lady. How can she be happy with a saint? One feels instinctively sinners would be more amusing.”She had a passing memory of Saint Jerome. “Have you seen your cousin today?”
    “No, did your mama say anything about him?”
    “Nothing that suggested the affair is over. She is attending a play with him this evening.”
    “It will be the last outing. He mentioned the play yesterday. Romeo Coates is to perform one of his vivisections on Shakespeare.”
    She looked blank. “What do you mean?”
    “Never mind, Tess. It is a joke.”
    “Oh,”she said, but was not interested enough to pursue it. “Mama will be twice as blue when Lord James jilts her, too. I am almost sorry I had you speak to him, except that she really does not care for him in the least, and it would be a pity if she broke his heart.”
    “It is a case of cream-pot love, Tess. As to bringing our ‘affair’to a halt, I think you should reconsider. Your intention was to awaken your mother to her duties. It seems you are having some success. If your parents are not to get together, it is more important than ever that Mrs. Marchant behave with propriety. The daughters of a broken marriage are already under a cloud. Throw in a giddy mama, and the better class of gent will stay away in droves.”
    “But if Papa continues acting the lecher ... ?”
    He shrugged. “Society does not expect much propriety from men. It is the ladies who are saddled with the burden of behaving themselves. You and Dulcie will take your moral coloring from your mother. In fact, society looks with a peculiarly sympathetic eye on such ladies. Being wronged by men recommends them to the more devout sort. If you frequented London, you would realize Byron’s wife is in the process of canonization since she had to throw him out.”
    “One wonders how she could have the heart for it, he is so handsome and romantic,”Tess said in a dreamy way.
    Revel was amazed that she admired Byron. He would have thought her taste in men more demanding, and intimated something of the sort. “I daresay it is the feminine folly of wanting to tame a rake that incites you to passion.”
    “Tame Lord Byron? Surely you jest! Propriety would be the ruination of a man like that. His indiscretions are the most interesting thing about him. I nearly gave up on him when he married Miss Milbankes.”
    “One wonders why she ever married him, if what she wanted was an archbishop, but there you are. A perfect scientific example of opposites attracting—and the rapture of a love match dissipating within weeks.”He glanced from the window as he spoke, then gave a startled jerk.
    Tess looked to see what had caught his attention and saw Esmée Gardener. At the same moment, she recognized the lady’s partner. “It is Papa!”she squealed. “With that horrid woman. Oh, I am sorry, Revel. I forgot she used to be your friend.”
    “She is still my friend,”he said curtly. “We parted amicably.”
    “Let us follow them and see where they are going.”She pulled the check string and the carriage drew to a stop, but Lord Revel did not budge an