'Who? What?'

And then he was crunching his way across the broken soup plate, and scooping her up out of the chair and crushing her in a great bear hug.

'I am so sorry I was not there,' he said, cupping her face in his hands and looking down into her face earnestly. 'It was selfish of me to leave you. You should not have been all alone when you received such news. My poor, poor love.'

He smoothed back the hair which had inevitably escaped its pins at some point during the evening. In his eyes, she could read nothing now but concern.

And she felt suddenly very guilty.

She had a.s.sumed he would be angry, but when had he ever actually berated her for anything she had done since they had married?

'I smashed the vase,' she confessed. 'On purpose.'

'Don't blame you. Hideous bit of porcelain,' he said in between the kisses he was peppering her face with. 'Daresay you needed to smash some thing, get ting a letter like that. Especially after what my father put you through.'

'He told you about that?'

Monty nodded. 'I would never have left you alone, believe me-' he gripped her upper arms tightly '-if I had thought he would turn on you like that. But his att.i.tude towards you, that last night, convinced me he would take the very greatest care of you.'

Some thing inside her melted as she gazed up at him. He was the only person over the past few days to have under stood what made her act as she did. Or even be interested in what drove her. No wonder she loved him!

Stephen had asked her to be his ally, but only as a tool in his twisted quest for what he termed justice. He was fettered by what had happened twenty years ago.

And as for Nick, his mind was so fixed on the glittering career he believed was in his sights, that he had only seen her as a hindrance.

But Monty was here for her, right now.

She leaned into his chest and sobbed, 'I have been so miserable!'

'I know, I know,' he said, rocking her.

'My G.o.d,' muttered Stephen darkly. 'This is turning my stomach.'

Monty started, as though he had for got ten there was anyone else in the room. His face hardened.

'You will stay away from Midge from now on, do you hear me! How dare you take advantage of her distress to spirit her away!'

'No! No, Monty, that is not what happened.' She reached up and turned his face towards her own with the palms of her hands. 'If you must be angry with anyone, it should be with me. If not for Stephen's kindness, I do not know what the result of my folly might have been. He hired a carriage to bring me to London, at my my request. And then when Nick turned me from his door, he gave me a roof for the night-' request. And then when Nick turned me from his door, he gave me a roof for the night-'

'I could not believe it when I learned about that,' Monty interjected. 'He did not even make sure you had the means to get a cab. Anything might have happened to you...a defenceless woman, in a great city like this...'

'It was not so very far to walk to Stephen's house,' she pointed out. 'And once I got here, I knew I would be safe. Not that I was afraid. In fact, all I could think of was...'

'The one remaining brother who was within striking distance.' Monty's face cleared. 'I understand.'

'So you see, I did not deliberately disobey you. At least, not yesterday,' she added miserably. 'And even when Stephen first came to Shevington, I meant meant not to go near him, but...' not to go near him, but...'

'I know, I know, the twins told me he had tried to get you to speak to him before, and that you would not. I do not deserve such loyalty...'

Uttering an oath, Stephen picked up the decanter and made for the door.

'No, wait,' said Monty. 'It is we who should leave.' He tucked Midge in against his shoulder, and held out his hand. 'I apologize for misconstruing your intentions. Will you shake hands with me?'

Stephen eyed the out stretched hand with con tempt, then levelled a strange look at his dishevelled, tear-stained sister.

'You did not misconstrue my intentions. Give that girl enough rope, and she will hang herself.'

Midge flinched and paled, but then lifted her chin and said, 'Thank you for your hospitality, anyway. I know that you have no great love for me any more, but...' She trailed off, her eyes wounded and confused.

'It was fated-'

'Stuff and nonsense!' said Monty. 'From my reading of the situation, you deliberately chose the worst possible moment to come forward and make yourself known to a woman who would have welcomed you with open arms at any time! Do you know what I think?' he said, picking Midge up in his arms and striding towards the door. 'Stephen, I think you are Kit Hebden all over again.'

He paused in the doorway, to look back at the shambles Midge had managed to make of what he could see had once been a neat little dining room.

'I don't know who killed your father, but I would not be a bit surprised to learn that there were half a dozen decent men queuing up for the pleasure of despatching the scoundrel.' Their eyes met and held for a few tense seconds.

Then Monty nodded, seeing the Gypsy had understood his veiled threat, and strode into the hall, pausing by the p.r.o.ne body of the Indian man servant.

'Your father had a beautiful wife,' he said, looking down at Midge, who had put her arms round his neck, 'who loved him, but he was so cruel that he drove her into the arms of another man. He had friends,' he said, looking at Stephen again, 'who admired his intellect, but he despised them, and went out of his way to do them down. Hal told me you used to play together as children. But now, you do all that is within your power to plague him and his family. It has to stop, Hebden, do you hear me?'

Stephen grasped the neck of the decanter a little more tightly. 'It is not as straight for ward as that. I have a destiny to fulfil. My mother's dying words were-'

'Oh, not that ludicrous Gypsy curse again! Life is hard enough without bringing that kind of thing into it! Stop using it as an excuse, man! You could have reconciled with your sister any time. You chose chose to embrace your solitary bitterness...' to embrace your solitary bitterness...'

'No,' Stephen breathed between clenched teeth. His eyes were fixed on Midge's face, not Monty's as he said, 'I have tried tried to tread a different path. But whenever I do...' He shook his head. 'I cannot escape my destiny.' to tread a different path. But whenever I do...' He shook his head. 'I cannot escape my destiny.'

With a last contemptuous snort, Monty turned on his heel, stepped over the un conscious Indian, and carried Midge out of the house.

Chapter Thirteen

Midge had been practically swooning with admiration at the masterful way Monty had marched in and dealt with Stephen.

It was only once he'd settled her on the seat of his carriage and climbed in beside her that all her in securities regarding her place in his life came swarming back.

When he put his arm round her shoulders, she stiffened and turned her head away.

'What is it, Midge? Some thing still bothering you?'

'Well, yes, as a matter of fact,' she snapped. 'It may seem like a small detail to you, but I would-' she clenched her fists and lifted her chin '-I would rather stay with Stephen than reside in your house while you trawl the streets for a mistress!'

'Trawl the streets for a...' He crossed to the seat opposite her, and took her fists in his hands. 'Midge, I thought you knew I came to London to see if there was anything I could do, as a civilian, to join the struggle against Bonaparte. We talked about it...'

'Yes! And then you talked to your father about setting up a mistress or two as a reward for getting me pregnant!'

'Oh, my G.o.d. Is that what he told you? I only heard the part about you at tempting to seduce the grooms the minute my back was turned.' He ran his thumbs over her clenched fists soothingly. 'As if that was not bad enough. No wonder you ran out on me.'

'Are you at tempting to deny it?'

'Emphatically,' he declared.

She looked up at him, eyes narrowed with suspicion.

'You did not even say goodbye,' she accused him. 'The minute you could go, you just went. Without a backward look!'

'I came to bid you farewell,' he countered. 'But you were being terribly sick. And I felt-'

'Disgusted!' she spat.

He shook his head. 'Guilty. It is my child you are carrying. I am the one who made you ill. I did not know how to face you. What to say. I am so sorry for leaving you the way I did. For leaving you at all.'

He looked so contrite, she wondered if he might be telling the truth. 'If what your father told me was not true, where did he get such a horrible idea from?'

He looked more shame faced than ever, which re doubled her wariness.

'Midge, please understand that all I was doing was trying to avoid a confrontation. If I had told the old man the real reason I was so intent on coming to London, he would most probably have flown into one of his rages. Well, now that you have been on the receiving end of one of them, you will perhaps more readily understand why I gave up arguing with him years ago. I confess, I just let him a.s.sume what he wanted about my reasons for saying I was coming to town. But believe me, I have no intention of setting up a mistress. When,' he continued with a rueful smile, 'would I have the energy to mount one, whilst I am married to such a handful as you?'

He had made the feeble attempt to tease her into a more cheerful frame of mind because he could not bear to see those tears that were running silently down her cheeks. Especially since Rick had told him she never cried.

So he was appalled when she looked as though he had just mortally wounded her.

'Don't mock me,' she gasped, as though it hurt her to breath. 'I know you have never taken me seriously, I know I am a figure of fun to you, and that you only married me because you were completely sure you could never fall in love with me, but-'

'What! Not fall in love with you? Where on earth did you get such a crazy notion?'

'Y-your father,' she sobbed. 'He said...'

He could tell what the old devil must have said, or she would not keep on crying like this. With an oath, he drew her across the coach and onto his lap, where he held her tight.

'Please, don't cry, love. And please put everything he told you out of your mind. It was all a pack of lies! I am sorry my way of dealing with my father has hurt you. I would never intentionally hurt you. And as for not taking you seriously, that is simply not true. You are the light of my life.'

'You say that now, but you would not take me to London with you, would you? Because you feared I would embarra.s.s you!'

'What? How could you think that?'

'What other reason could there be, for not taking me with you, if it was not so that you could search freely for a mistress?'

'Because I cannot keep my hands off you, of course,' he replied.

She frowned up at him in complete bewilderment. With a sigh, he explained, 'The doctor said we must cease from having marital relations, now that you are with child. Your mother's problems in that department are apparently very well-known. First they thought she was barren, and then she had miscarriages. Dr Cottee said you may be at risk, too. I had not wanted to alarm you by telling you what he said,' he grimaced, shaking his head. 'G.o.d, I seem to have made all the wrong choices where you are concerned.'

When she flinched, he knew she had misinterpreted his last statement.

'Oh, no. Not that. Not in marrying you. That is the only thing I do seem to have done right, lately.'

There was a lurch and a blast of cold air, and they both looked up in bewilderment to see one of Monty's footmen holding open the carriage door.

Rather than letting go of her, Monty at tempted to clamber out of the carriage with Midge still held tightly in his arms.

'What are you doing?' she squealed. 'Put me down!'

'Not a chance,' he growled, once he had got both feet planted firmly on the pavement. 'I am not-' he planted a swift kiss on her parted lips -'going to let go of you until I absolutely have to. Have you no idea of what it did to me, when I thought I'd lost you?' His arms tightened convulsively round her. 'I imagined you lying hurt some where, unable to get home...' he grated, as he mounted the steps to the front door.

'I thought I'd lost you too-' she nodded, clasping him tighter round the neck as she saw exactly why he needed to maintain this physical contact '-to a mistress.'

'It is bad enough,' he panted as he climbed the stairs, 'that I am going to have to leave you alone once we get to your bedroom.'

'I don't see why,' Midge objected. 'It seems perfectly ridiculous to suppose that making love with you might harm the baby. After all, my mother had her affair while she was pregnant. And my father apparently saw nothing amiss with that.'

Monty came to an abrupt halt on the landing. Then he said, slowly, 'I have never had a very high opinion of Dr Cottee.'

And Midge finally stopped crying. The angry flush faded from her cheeks. The corners of her mouth lifted a little. She shifted her position, experimentally. Monty's breathing grew laboured. His eyes darkened.

And Midge smiled in very feminine satisfaction as she saw the truth.

'You want me?' She smiled. 'And only me? Even though...'

He saw another wave of doubts go washing through her.

'Even though what?' he prompted. 'Come on, out with it, so I can crush whatever maggot it is you've got in your head now.'

He strode through with her into the bedroom, and gently laid her down. She pouted up at him as he moved away, but he shook his head, holding up his hands in a gesture of surrender.

'I cannot see you lying there, and not want to ravish you within an inch of your life. And apart from the fact Dr Cottee has warned me that would be an utterly selfish and possibly disastrous thing to do, I need you to talk to me.'

He seized a ladder-backed chair, reversed it and sat down with his arms crossed along the top, his chin resting on his hands, as though he was using it to shield himself from her irresistible allure. Midge could not help putting her power over him to the test. She wriggled a little and stretched her arms over her head, noting with pure satisfaction the way his eyes darkened and his breathing hitched in his throat.

'Stop that, you little tease,' he growled. 'It is not fair.' Then he frowned. 'Or perhaps it is. Perhaps you need to punish me, just a little, for the hurt you have endured on my account.'

'No!' she sat bolt upright, immediately contrite. 'I would never hurt you, not purposely!'

'No.' He smiled fondly. 'I knew that. Even when the twins told me you had run off with your fancy man, I knew you could never be so cruel. Even-' and his face fell abruptly '-even though you loved him...'

'Him? You mean Stephen?'

'No. That other fellow,' he said grimly. 'The one you were dreaming about, that night on Lady Carteret's terrace. The one your family made you give up, so that you could marry me. And look what a rotten husband I proved to be!' He ran his fingers through his hair.

'You thought I had run off with another man! Oh, no!' It was her turn to look guilty now. 'Oh, Monty, you never had any cause to be jealous. It was always you. There has never been anyone else.'

'But you were drifting about with that dreamy look in your eyes. And you loathed me...'