Lucy opened the door to the office at the Foundation to see Oliver and Mary jump apart guiltily. A frown forming on her face, she raised her eyebrows in question.
‘Good morning,’ Mary said, a little too cheerily.
‘What are you doing here?’ Lucy asked her husband bluntly. He’d been gone before her this morning and she’d found herself both disappointed and relieved. After their kiss and following truce the night before, she had slept uneasily and still didn’t quite know how she felt about Oliver’s intentions to find some way for them to become intimate without any resulting pregnancies.
‘A little bit of business,’ he said vaguely.
‘Business—what business?’
‘Why don’t I fetch you a cup of tea, dear?’ Mary said, sidling towards the door.
Normally the older woman was adept at dealing with confrontation, but right now she looked as though she’d rather be anywhere else but here.
‘Stay,’ Lucy said, taking a step to the side and effectively blocking the only exit from the room. ‘I want to know what you were discussing.’
‘I needed Mary’s help with something,’ Oliver said, giving a little cough of embarrassment before he spoke.
Lucy felt her cheeks flooding with heat. Surely he hadn’t asked Mary, her closest friend and the woman she respected most in the world, about their intimacy dilemma?
He must have seen the expression on her face so quickly pressed on.
‘We need to take a little trip,’ he said, looking her squarely in the eye. ‘And I know how important the work you do for the Foundation is.’
‘We’d be lost without you,’ Mary agreed.
She had a horrible feeling she wasn’t going to like the next words.
‘To try to compensate for taking you away for a few days, perhaps a week or two, I thought I would offer some other form of support to the Foundation to help things keep ticking over while you’re absent.’
‘Other support?’
‘Money,’ he said bluntly.
‘You’re paying Mary off?’
‘Nothing like that, my dear,’ Mary rushed to interject.
‘It’s just a little donation so you can rest assured that the Foundation won’t struggle in your absence.’
‘We can hire a teacher to cover the classes you normally take,’ Mary said, an optimistic smile on her face.
‘And the accounts?’
‘You can bring them with you,’ Oliver said. ‘No point being idle throughout the journey.’
‘There would be some money left over,’ Mary added. ‘Enough to make repairs on the worst of the rooms.’
‘Would you excuse us for a moment, Mary? I’d like to have a word with my husband.’
The older woman scurried out of the room in relief.
‘What do you think you’re doing?’ Lucy hissed. ‘You can’t just come here and bribe Mary to let me go.’
‘You’re always so melodramatic.’ Oliver sighed.
‘And you’re trying to control me, exactly what you promised you would never do.’
‘I have merely tried to smooth the way for you taking a break for two weeks. I didn’t want Mary to feel the strain of your absence.’
It all sounded so reasonable when he said it, but the anger was roaring inside Lucy and there was no way to dampen it now.
‘You haven’t even mentioned this trip to me. Does it even exist? Or is it just a way to prise me away from the Foundation? To make Mary see money is more useful than me?’ Her voice was rising now, but Lucy couldn’t rein it in, no matter who might be listening outside.
‘It is a trip you are not going to like,’ Oliver said with a sigh, ‘so I thought I would organise the details first. That way you would have less time to dwell on our destination.’
‘Where do you want me to go?’
‘Brighton.’
‘No.’
‘Lucy, I know it won’t necessarily be a pleasant trip, but I made a promise to your father.’
‘Then you go. I’m staying here.’
‘That’s not an option. I promised him when I found you I’d bring you to visit, and I’m not going to break a promise.’
‘I’m not going.’
‘The Foundation will be fine without you for a couple of weeks, then you can just take up where you left off when you get back.’
‘But there will be a new teacher for my classes…’ she reminded him.
‘Which can only be a good thing. More teachers mean a better education for the children.’
‘Don’t pretend there is a selfless motive here, Oliver,’ she said. ‘You could have donated money at any point. Instead you do it now when you need something in return.’
‘I don’t need anything, Lucy,’ he said calmly, his eyes turning hard and his mouth forming a thin line. ‘You’re my wife, remember. I could forbid you from ever coming to this place again. I’m not going to, because I know how much it means to you, but I could. The donation is to make it easier for you to leave for a couple of weeks. It has no bearing on your involvement here in the future.’
‘I’m still not going to Brighton,’ she said.
‘We leave tomorrow. I’ll instruct your maid to pack your bags.’
He leaned in and kissed her gently on the cheek before she could pull away.
‘I’m not going,’ she called after him as he left.
Sinking down into a wooden chair, Lucy rested her head in her hands. She’d dealt with so much this past year. How was it she couldn’t seem to deal with her own husband?
‘Are you unwell?’ Mary asked from the doorway a couple of minutes later.
‘What did he say, Mary?’ Lucy asked. ‘Is this really just about a trip away or is it the start of prising me away from here for good?’
‘You worry too much, my dear,’ Mary said, coming into the room and patting her hand. ‘He’s a good man, and it is clear he cares for you.’
Lucy snorted and Mary gave her an admonishing look.
‘Just because he doesn’t kowtow to your wishes doesn’t mean he doesn’t care for you.’
‘He’s trying to organise my life.’
‘With this donation he’s trying to make up for taking you away from something you love. I don’t think he has an ulterior motive. He just wants to ease your guilt about leaving us in the only way he can.’
‘That’s a very trusting way to look at it.’
‘Not all people are bad. And I think your husband truly cares for you.’
Lucy thought of the way he looked at her, the escorts to the Foundation, how he took time out of his schedule to accommodate hers. Just as she was softening a little towards him she rallied. It didn’t make up for his attempting to take her to Brighton to visit her father.
‘He wants me to visit my father,’ she said miserably.
‘Does he know how sour your relationship is?’
Lucy shrugged. She hadn’t divulged much about her family when they were first married so she supposed he only knew the public face of the De Pointe family.
‘Perhaps you should tell him. You can’t expect him to anticipate your needs and wants if you never communicate with him.’
It was true, as little as she wanted to admit her friend was right.
‘I can’t tell him about William,’ she said, feeling the tears rush to her eyes as she thought of her brother.
‘Why not?’
‘I just can’t.’
She’d kept her brother secret for so long it wouldn’t feel right talking about him, even now.
‘Well, then, go along with his plan, let him see how cruel your father is for himself and then it’s likely you’ll never have to visit again.’
‘Why do you have to be so level-headed?’ Lucy grumbled.
‘I like him,’ Mary said after a moment.
‘My father? You’ve never met him.’
‘Your husband. He’s different from most of the titled ladies and gentlemen I’ve met.’
In her work fundraising for the Foundation, Mary had encountered much of the ton. Although they had a few steadfast patrons who were generous and kind, most of the upper classes were too self-interested to get involved with a charity like theirs.
‘I think it’s because he wasn’t raised expecting to inherit the title.’
‘Could be, or it could just be him. You should give him a chance to show you what marriage to him could be like.’
‘You’re sounding more and more like his advocate,’ Lucy grumbled.
‘I just want you to be happy, my dear, and I think if you let him your husband could make you happy.’
She thought of the uncontrollable desire she’d felt for him on the occasions they’d kissed and the easy companionship they shared when she let herself relax around him. Perhaps Mary was right, but she just didn’t seem to be able to lower her defences when Oliver was around. It might be habit, a way to protect herself from further heartbreak, but she just couldn’t seem to let him closer.
‘Go on this trip, enjoy your husband’s company and let him see why you don’t wish to ever see your father again. Your place here will always be waiting for you. I need all the help I can get.’
‘Thank you, Mary,’ Lucy said, getting up and embracing the older woman. ‘I’m sorry I said what I did.’
She regretted accusing Mary of accepting a bribe from Oliver—once again she’d spoken rashly in anger. It was a trait she couldn’t seem to break.