Page 25 of A Perfect Gentleman

“She threatened to divorce me if I refused—apparently in America they all run about divorcing one another. She’s holding the scandal over me like a club. It’s coercion. She’s just like her father—controlling, deceitful. I know she has something else in mind. She’s plotting some devious plan.”

“Such as?”

“I don’t know! The other night, after Prescott told me Abigail knew nothing about what her father did, I began to believe him. Believe her. I thought I’d been unfair to her before. But then she got this message slipped beneath her door . . .” He described Abigail’s peculiar actions and his own investigation. “So the next night I followed her. That’s when she hit me—with this little cosh that she apparently carries about with her. She says a woman at some almshouse or other gave it to her for protection when she goes traipsing around the slums of New York. That’s another thing—she’s been giving the money I send her to this almshouse. It seems she doesn’t want anything from me.”

“I wouldn’t say that,” James murmured, taking a sip of his drink.

Graeme sent him a dark look. “Except for that.”

“Who was it Lady Montclair went to meet?”

“I don’t know. She refused to tell me. She was bloody secretive about it, and when I demanded to know what the devil she was up to and what she wanted from me, that’s when she said, ‘A baby.’ Why would that cause her to be creeping around dark streets and meeting people she won’t name? I know she must have something more in mind. Some scandal she’ll create to ruin the family.”

“How? What scandal?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t a devious mind—maybe you could figure it out.”

“Ooh, cousin!” James grinned. “A direct hit.”

“Sorry. I’m lashing out at everyone, it seems. Grandmother told me tonight I was acting like a bear.”

“Who wouldn’t if they had to live with the dowager countess?”

Graeme smiled faintly, then sighed. “Maybe Abigail just intends to have my child, then use him to punish me. Go back to New York and take him with her. Turn him against me. I don’t know.”

“Why?”

“That’s obvious—for revenge. I told you how harsh I was to her ten years ago. I didn’t think about it at the time; I was so furious, I wouldn’t have cared, frankly. But it wasn’t just that. It exposed her to ridicule, not just here but in her own society, as well. You recall the gossip—when she left, it made the split very public. She was humiliated.”

James shrugged. “She wouldn’t have been if she hadn’t taken off like a rabbit.”

“I doubt she looks at it like that.” Graeme sipped his drink, falling into silence.

“Graeme, I realize that you don’t want to dance to this woman’s tune . . .”

“I will not be coerced,” Graeme said fiercely, leaning forward. “I had to marry her, but I bloody well don’t have to sleep with her. She’s manipulative and . . . it’s damned cold and calculating, isn’t it? She has no interest in me; she just wants a baby.”

“Women always want babies, Graeme. It’s God’s little favor to men.”

Graeme made a disgusted noise. “Can’t you see? It isn’t just sex.”

“No? What is it?”

“It’s not as if she’s any woman, someone I can see a few times and leave with a diamond necklace. She’s my wife. To sleep with her, to have a child with her—that’s an intimacy I don’t want to share with Abigail. It’s a betrayal. . . .”

“Of Laura Hinsdale? Good Lord, Graeme . . .”

“I know you think I’m a romantic ass, but—”

“You are a romantic ass. Miss Hinsdale is a pretty girl, but she could not be that remarkable. One woman is much like another, I find.”

“You don’t understand. You’ve never been in love.”

“No, thank God.” James sighed, causing the mastiff to raise his head and look worriedly at him. James gave Dem a reassuring pat. “I will accept that you still pine for the fetching Miss Hinsdale even though you haven’t touched her in ten years—have you?”

“I didn’t touch her then. I wouldn’t have compromised her. And I certainly haven’t done so since.”

“Of course not. But, for pity’s sake, be sensible. You must have an heir unless you want to leave everything to your second cousin once removed or whatever Randall is.”