Page 103 of An Inconvenient Vow

“No, I do not,” he replied testily. “I have not the faintest idea what you are speaking of.”

“Before!” she yelled. “When you called me madam and—”

“I still call you madam.”

“Yes, on occasion you do, but not all the time as you once did.”

“Is that all?”

“No, that is not all!”

He crossed his arms. “What then?”

“When you… when you did not give a damn about me and thought I was plain and impudent and not fit to even clean your shoes!”

Jeffree looked winded by her words. “I still think you’re impudent,” he managed at last.

“What about the rest?” she challenged.

He opened his mouth but whatever he had been about to say, it seemed he could not bring himself to do it. Instead, he gave a slight shake of his head and tried again. “Because,” he blustered hotly, “you told me to find other ways to show you… how I feel!” he ended frustratedly. When she looked blank, he started again, taking a deep breath. “You said I should show you proof of my regard in how I treat you outside of the bedchamber,” he reminded her tightly. “That is what I have been trying to do.”

“Oh.” Sabina felt deflated. She had told him that. She gave an exasperated huff and plunked her hands on her hips. “Well, forget about that for now. I do not want you making a spectacle of me in front of the palace and all the courtiers with your attentions.”

He was practically grinding his teeth at this point. “What do you mean?”

“I want you to be the old Sir Jeffree and largely ignore me.”

He gave a harsh laugh. “When exactly did I ever do that?”

“At the Bishop’s Palace,” she responded quickly.

“The Bishop’s—?”

“When I was there with my aunt.”

He was silent a moment as her meaning sank in. “I was not even aware of your existence at that point!” he all but roared.

“Exactly. I see you have finally taken my meaning.”

Once again, Jeffree seemed to find difficulty in drawing breath. “That is what you want?” he demanded furiously as soon as he had regained it. “My indifference?”

Sabina’s chin rose. “It is,” she said flatly. “Indeed, I am convinced it is the only way that I can get through this ordeal.”

Jeffree was clearly fuming at this request, and he could not hide it over the next hour as he snapped and snarled at her in front of his cousin’s servant. This was not indifference, Sabina thought with misgiving. It was more like blazing resentment and fury. Oh dear, now she had gone too far the other way. At this rate, everyone would think he hated her.

She had her bath and tarried over it, for every moment in the tub meant she was not spending it in the banqueting hall being stared at by all and sundry. Forty minutes later, they descended the spiral stone staircase together and Sabina smoothed the brown linen skirts of her most unbecoming dress. She had teamed it up with a matching brown veil over the top of her head, though the one pinned under her chin was still the usual crisp white. For a minute, pausing before the mirror, her vanity had rebelled.

I cannot do this, she had thought, gazing at her reflection, a light sweat breaking out on her top lip. It was too warm in this castle on this summer eve, and though no beauty, she had never thought herself outright ugly before. Tonight, she thought, she danced perilously close on the edge of it.

Oh gods, she thought, as they paused on the threshold of the banqueting chamber. Why could he not just have left her in peace at Morecotte? She did not want to be paraded before all these fine folk as Sir Jeffree’s bride!

Was it purely her imagination or did conversation indeed halt as they stepped into the large, cavernous hall? Sabina gazed straight ahead. That was one of the best features of her heavy wimple. It restricted both her view of others and their view of her.

“Jeffree!” startled accents rang out before an exquisitely dressed courtier appeared before them. “I thought I would see you here, well met cousin.”

“Hugo,” Jeffree responded without enthusiasm. Sabina remembered Jeffree had said his cousin was frivolous.

An elegant bow was presented to Sabina. She bobbed a perfunctory curtsey in return. “Lady Sabina,” Hugo greeted her cautiously. “It is good to see you again. I—er—did not anticipate Jeffree would bring you to court.”