Second Best Wife by Isobel Chace Page A

it very long ago?'
    'I'm afraid it was. Europe had a long, long way to go in those days.'
    Georgina made a face. 'I'm suitably chastened,' she said. 'Does it give you a good feeling to be treading in such august footsteps with your own project?'
    He flushed absurdly, looking young and eager. 'It does, but I hadn't expected you to understand something like that. You're a much more complicated person than I thought!'
    'Perhaps we all are,' she suggested. 'I mean, I don't think I know you very well either. I thought I did, but we're strangers really, aren't we? First impressions aren't always the most accurate after all. How I hated you that day!'
    He laughed. 'It showed!' he said. 'You've been trying to hate me
    ever since, haven't you?'
    'Not more than you despised me. And I still hate you! I hate you every moment of every day!'
    He slowed the car, his eyes flicking to her face and back to the road. 'Who are you trying to convince, yourself or me?'
    She clenched her fists and found one of them covered by his own, much larger hand. 'I don't know what you mean,' she declared. 'I don't have to convince anyone about that! Ask anyone!'
    'Funnily enough, I did. I asked my mother.' His eyes flicked over her face again, noting the strain beneath her hardly won composure. 'Did you know she prefers you to your sister any day?'
    'Yes.'
    'Ah, but did you know why?'
    She shook her head, not trusting herself to speak.
    'She thinks you have courage. I hope you're not going to prove her wrong by continuing to insist you hate me, because you don't, do you, little Georgie? She doesn't think you ever have.'
    Georgina chewed frantically on her lower lip. 'I don't like you!' she managed at last.
    'Liking is a very pale emotion. It doesn't warm the blood —as I can warm yours any time I choose. That's something else!'
    Georgina lifted her chin. 'Any attractive man could do the same! It doesn't mean anything. I don't think it's anything to congratulate yourself about. It — it doesn't make me like you any more!'
    'Nevertheless,' he said with a smile she could only think would have done justice to the Bad Baron in a pantomime, 'it gives me a great deal of pleasure to know I have you at my mercy—'
    She trembled. Was it possible he knew of the strange excitement that burned inside her whenever he came near? If he did, she would have to make it equally clear to him that she was ashamed of all such emotions. But how to do it?
    'You're making far too much of very little! What makes you think I shall ever change my mind about you? I'll fight you to the last ditch! Just because you took me by surprise and —and kissed me, and I didn't say anything, it didn't mean I liked it!' She took a deep breath, preparing to hurry on with her castigations of his behaviour, but he seemed totally unperturbed. The hand that was covering hers patted her lightly on the knee.
    'Took you by surprise? My dear girl, husbands are usually expected to kiss their wives. Indeed, the complaint is usually that they don't do it often enough!'
    'In the normal way.' She cast him a glowering look. 'Ours isn't a normal marriage! Do you think I want to be kissed by someone who is obviously wishing I were somebody else? You should have put up more of a fight for Jennifer. Haven't you always thought of her as a nice, biddable girl? Well then, why didn't you make her change her mind about Duncan? She would have done if you'd pressed hard enough.'
    His lips twitched. 'Somehow I prefer greater enthusiasm in my wife — '
    'Then you shouldn't have married me!'
    He grinned. 'But I did marry you, my dear, and now I'm looking forward to the rewards of having done so.'
    She swallowed the lump in her throat, making a supreme effort to keep her voice light and airy. 'What makes you think I shall be any more loyal than Jennifer?' she taunted him. 'We are sisters, after all! And I'm not at all in love with you!'
    His hand closed over hers, his fingers as hard as steel bands. 'Try it and see what