The Sherbrooke Bride - Catherine Coulter [101]
“I know it isn’t proper to speak like this, Tony, but I have no one else. I was a fool. I told him that I loved him. I couldn’t help it, it just came out of my mouth. He told me that all I feel, that all he feels is just lust. He said that love is nonsense and that the notion of a spiritual joining makes him physically ill.”
“He really said that?”
“Not exactly. I am simply making the words fit his feelings more precisely. Actually what he said was worse—more insulting, more cynical.”
“But now he is your husband and I swear to you, Alex, where a man finds pleasure, other pleasures usually follow, if the man and woman are at all reasonable. You love Douglas. Half the battle is won. More than half, for he goes crazy whenever he touches you. You will see. The soirée is tomorrow night. Melissande and I will leave the next day. You won’t have to worry about my lovely witch any longer. Besides, I do believe that Douglas is already beginning to wonder how he would have dealt with her.”
“I can’t believe she allows you to call her Mellie.”
“I dislike the name immensely. Mellie, bah! It sounds like an overweight girl with spots on her face. However, it is important that she bend to me completely. If I wish to call her pug, why then, she must accept it since it comes from me, her husband, her master.”
Alexandra could but stare at him. “You are terrifying, Tony.”
He grinned down at her. “No, not really. As much as I love your sister, I will not allow her to have the upper hand. Ah, I believe I see your errant husband striding this way. Normally a man will pause—just a moment, you understand—to look at the Greek statues, but not Douglas. He looks fit to kill. This should be interesting. Should you like me to draw him off?”
“No, he would challenge you to a duel or assault you right here.” She shook her head. “Then I should have to attack you again, Tony.”
“Very true. Ah, we are saved. Here is Melissande, carrying her watercolors. Now she is pausing to look at the statues and not with an eye to painting them either, I vow. She and Douglas are now met up and speaking. He must control his bile. He must be charming, no matter he wants to kill you. Yes, he appears to have stopped gnashing his teeth. You know, Alex, I have an idea, a thoroughly reprehensible idea.”
She looked at him and understood and quickly said, “Oh no, Tony. It wouldn’t work, it wouldn’t—”
Douglas and Melissande came around a thick yew bush to see Tony on his knees in front of Alexandra, his arms around her, kissing her hair.
Douglas froze.
Melissande jerked back as if she’d been struck. She threw her watercolors to the ground, and yelling like a banshee, ran to the couple, grabbed Tony’s hair and yanked with all her might. He fell onto his back, grinned up at her, only Melissande wasn’t looking at him, but at her sister.
“You miserable husband stealer!” she yelled and threw herself on Alexandra, knocking her over backward. “How dare you, Alex! You have a husband, and you have the nerve to try to take mine!” She yanked at Alexandra’s hair.
“Stop it! For God’s sake—”
Douglas grabbed Melissande and picked her up, shoving her toward Tony, who caught her and held her arms to her sides. “I’ll make her bald, I’ll make her two inches shorter!”
“Hush, Mellie, hush now.”
Melissande turned on her husband and yelled not an inch from his nose, “Don’t call me that horrid name! What were you doing, kissing her hair? I have a beautiful hair, if you want to kiss hair, you will kiss mine! You faithless lout, I’ll pull out all her hair and then you’ll—Don’t you dare try to kiss me now, you miserable clod!”
Douglas heard the yelling behind him, but he didn’t move. He dropped to his haunches in front of his wife. She was shaking her head, as if to see if it were still on her shoulders. She was filthy, her face streaked with dirt, her eyes watering.
“Are you all right?”
“No, my scalp is on fire. I hadn’t realized Melissande was so strong.”
“It serves you right.”
“Yes, quite probably, it does.”
“I fancy it didn’t occur to Tony that she would attack you.