Page 101 of An Inconvenient Vow

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The row had been furious. At least on his half, it had been. It was only after he had finished thoroughly berating her that he noticed she seemed a little off-color. “Why are you so quiet?” he bit out, abandoning his tirade all at once.

“I have not slept well this past two nights,” she answered, lifting a hand to her brow.

Jeffree felt an uncomfortable pang in the vicinity of his chest. Had she not? Neither had he. “Well, what do you expect?” he demanded crossly. “Squeezing yourself into that narrow cot in the back bedroom. Why must you always be so damnably stubborn?”

“It is my nature, I suppose,” she answered wearily. “Are you going somewhere?”

“Flyford Parvell,” he answered in clipped tones. “I have business there this day.”

“Oh.” It was just one word, but for some reason, it sounded oddly forlorn.

“Where were you anyway?” he asked sullenly returning to the subject of his original displeasure.

She only hesitated for the briefest instant before making reply. “I met my sister for an early morning walk.”

“A sensible woman would have informed her servants of the fact,” he responded cuttingly. “And not sent her husband fruitlessly scouring the place for her.” When Sabina only nodded in mute agreement, he realized something was definitely amiss. “What ails you?” he asked.

“Nothing; my health is always excellent.”

Then why do you sound so listless and look so wan?Jeffree wanted to ask but bit his tongue. “You should not have risen so early if you got no sleep,” he heard himself respond abruptly. “Why do you not return to bed for a couple of hours?” His solicitude embarrassed him, but in truth, she barely seemed to notice it.

Sabina made a dismissive gesture with her hand. “I would not sleep now; besides, I am perfectly well. Do not fuss.”

Fuss? Jeffree was incensed. He never fussed. Still, something held him back from telling her as such. “Do you want me to tarry a while? We could break our fast together.” Hot color crept into his cheeks at these placating words, but his darting glance told him his wife had not even noticed his uncharacteristic behavior.

She was twisting her hands together and pacing now before the window. “What?” She turned to face him with surprise. “Oh… no. I am not hungry. Do not delay setting out on my account.”

Jeffree bit back his instinctive retort. To add insult to injury, she had not even asked his purpose in riding out to Flyford Parvell! He brooded on the matter for the whole of the ride there. Since Sabina had been in residence once more to her old home, he had been relegated to a position of insignificance in her life, he thought wrathfully.

What he ought to do was leave her to stew in her rural obscurity. Then she would realize her mistake. Or would she? More than likely, she would forget about him altogether. It was no surprise that he was in quite a bad mood by the time he reached his destination of the little coastal town.

His errand proved a fruitless endeavor for Hendry had already been and gone.

“I meant to send him away with a flea in his ear,” James Gordon admitted. “But he seemed so hard-pressed that I ended up lending him my second-best mare and what little money I had to hand.” He shrugged. “Some inheritance he’d wangled had come to naught and he reckoned he might have the law on his heels.”

“The law?” Jeffree repeated sharply. “Did he say why?”

Gordon shook his head. “There’s always some reason with Alf,” he admitted wearily. “He was ranting something about being done out of his rights, but he never has had a clear view of right and wrong and that’s the truth.”

“Was he alone or did he have company?”

Gordon shook his head. “When he’s broke, I’m the only friend stands true to him, and he’s known that this past ten years. And that’s only for old time’s sake. If my Polly knew I’d given him money again, well…” He shook his head. “She’d raise me a rare scolding.”

“Did he make mention of anyone named Ellis? Leland Ellis? Think man.”

Gordon frowned. “I don’t think so… Leastways, I’m not sure. That’s a funny sort of name and he did mention as how some fine gentleman with a funny name had tried to cheat him at cards, now I comes to think of it.”

Jeffree narrowed his gaze for he knew Leland’s play to be not over-scrupulous. He would not put cheating at cards past him. “Did he say what happened to this person who cheated him?”

“Said he broke his head and left him in a ditch,” Gordon answered promptly. “But he’s always talked big has Alfred. He’s never been a one for fighting, so if he did, he got someone else to do it for him. He had a couple of nasty brutes in his employ a while back, but they certainly wasn’t with him on this visit.”

Jeffree had not stayed above a half-hour before deciding the fellow had nothing else useful to tell him. He would need to be careful when telling Charles what he had learned. Hearing his son and heir might have been “left in a ditch” would not sound reassuring. Jeffree headed back to Ganford with no clearer idea of Leland’s location than when he had left.

On top of that, he had still not figured out how to make his own wife fall in love with him. It was galling that his own declaration had led nowhere, but on the whole, he did not think this current stratagem was working. Abandoning her at Morecotte, to realize the error of her ways, was failing miserably. He had felt closer to her when they were on the road. Mayhap that was just physical closeness, but he did not care. He was miserable without her.

Probably, she did not love him, maybe she never would. Still, that did not mean he could not have her constant companionship. That was only her duty, after all. He was her husband. In two days’ time, he needed to leave for Caer Lyoness and the Royal Summer Tournament. Sabina’s rightful place was by his side at such an event, admiring his knightly prowess. She was damned well going to attend, whether she wanted to or not. He would brook no argument, and so he would tell her on his return to Morecotte.