‘If you were not a woman, my sweet, you would hardly be sharing my bed.’
‘Don’t be annoying on purpose, Drew,’ Tyballis objected, sitting up straighter. ‘You know you’re very rude about women sometimes, as if we’re all as foolish as hens, or as scheming as your horrid Marrotts and Woodvilles. I just mean, I don’t want you to keep me here out of pity.’
He sighed and his arms tightened around her. ‘My own beloved, do you think my feelings so capricious that I might declare my love one day, and regret it the next? I’m not so changeful, my dear. But you should know your own freedoms, and make your own choices. I offer little except my body and my heart. You have options now, and must consider them.’
She wriggled away again and stood staring down at him, flushed and increasingly angry. ‘It’s very considerate of you to be so blunt, Drew,’ she said, a little breathless. ‘But I’ve never asked you for anything and telling me what you won’t give, isn’t – nice – or even – appropriate.’ Then she turned her back on him in a hurry as she continued talking. ‘I never meant to become a whore, but perhaps I am now, so who cares! But you don’t have to shout it at me.’
Andrew sat for a moment in startled silence. Then he stood and once again came behind her, his arms turning her forcibly, embracing her without possibility of escape. ‘You will listen to me carefully,’ he told her, ‘before answering. But listen to my words, not to your suspicions, and then reply to what I have said, not to what you think I have implied.’ She nodded into his velvets, and he said, ‘A whore is a woman who sells something she has every right to barter – as does a haberdasher, a potter or a baker. But you have not sold yourself to me – or to any man. Why take a title you think shameful, when it has no bearing on your life?’
Her words were muffled by his doublet. ‘They used to call me it, Borin and Margery. But I never was. Now sometimes I think I am.’
He sat again, drawing her down with him. ‘Truly, my sweet, a loving mistress is no whore. Do you also find the title of mistress demeaning? If so, you’re free to leave, and I’ll give whatever will make your new life comfortable. But I’ve no wish for you to leave, and I’ll do what I can to keep you, which is why I persist now. Before knowing you, I’ve spoken to no woman of love, not even my mother. That may mean little to you, but to me it encompasses mountains.’ He lifted her chin, tipping her face up from his velvets to look at him. ‘Apart from marriage, what else do you want of me, my love?’
She blinked away the tears. ‘Trust.’
‘Ah.’ He laughed. ‘Very well. Let us say I trust you. Implicitly.’
‘And stop talking about marriage. I haven’t asked for it. I hated being married. It makes you sound conceited – are you such a great prize? So, stop thinking I must think this – or want that – just because I’m female. I’m me. Just me, not every other woman in the country. I’m not looking for suitors, and I don’t want my house back. Perhaps I could sell it. And there certainly aren’t any other men like you. So, why should I be merely one of an identical pack?’
‘An impossible question. As the first woman I have ever loved, I already consider you unique, my sweet.’
She took a deep breath. ‘But if you do – love me – and trust me – then why don’t you tell me something about yourself?’
‘To know me, you need to know my past?’
‘It’s about trust, and friendship,’ she said. ‘You know everything about me. You’ve never even told me what Borin said when you asked him about me, but I can guess. And now you’ve been talking to Rob Webb. He’s known me all my life, and at least he likes me. But he still arrested me. Yet if I ask one little question about you, you act as though I’m trying to steal your purse.’
‘My purse would matter less. Take it.’
‘I don’t want your horrid money.’ She was affronted. ‘And now my pies are burning. So you can just go away.’
He tightened his grip. ‘My dearest, your pies are doubtless barely warm. I’ve been cooking in these kitchens for some years and I know exactly how long everything takes to heat. Besides, I’ve no intention of letting you go just yet.’ He spoke softly to the wisps of hair around her ears, where the condensation was dampening her curls. ‘You smell of hard work, wood smoke and baking,’ he murmured, ‘which is strangely alluring. So, utterly seduced as usual, I shall satisfy your curiosity if I must, and try to sooth whatever insults you think you’ve suffered.’ He kissed her eyes as he often did, smoothing the tip of his tongue along her lashes. ‘It seems you dislike being the subject of discussion during your absence,’ he continued. ‘But Webb simply informed me you’ve been mistreated all your life; how your parents were respectable people but too busy to have much time for you, how they drowned without leaving you properly protected and how your neighbours immediately took advantage. Webb claims he objected to Blessop’s improper behaviour at the time but was too young to help. Indeed, it was your husband’s subsequent threats which evidently inspired Webb to become a man of some property and thence a constable. You see, the wretched creature talked about himself, too, and at some length, which was shockingly tedious. I was, however, persistently polite. I wanted information, of course. But not about you, my love. About Throckmorton.’
‘Oh.’ Tyballis sniffed, struggling to free one hand and wipe her nose.
Andrew handed her his kerchief. ‘As for the questions I asked your charming husband, they were considerably more to the point,’ he added. ‘And although I prefer not to go into details, his answers were precisely as you might imagine.’
She nodded, fisting the handkerchief. ‘I can guess. He said I was barren, a whore, couldn’t cook or darn to save my life, and – wasn’t even pretty. He thought I was skinny, which of course I am. But I can cook, and my darning isn’t too bad either.’
‘I’m delighted to hear it,’ Andrew laughed. ‘That will naturally make so much difference. However, it was not what Borin said at all.’
‘Really?’
‘One or two highly personal remarks would hardly be appropriate to repeat,’ Andrew murmured. ‘Perhaps another time, though perhaps not. However, he did inform me that you were the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. And that he couldn’t believe his luck when he claimed you as his wife.’
Tyballis stared at him. ‘I don’t believe you. Borin despised me.’
‘I first became acquainted with your Mister Blessop some years back,’ Andrew told her. ‘I found his lack of intelligence an irritating handicap, even though I made frequent use of his muscle power. As a messenger, he could be, let us say, alarmingly convincing, a useful tool in my line of work. Eventually, having no more patience with him, I passed him on to Throckmorton. When I discovered you, I was utterly bemused. You were not what I would have expected as Borin Blessop’s wife. And it was for your sake that I began to extricate him from Newgate and prove his innocence. I knew him entirely innocent, of course, since I knew the real culprit. And I believed you might need your husband, whatever his quality.’
She was charmed, and finally smiled. ‘That was kind. Though it meant me going to gaol instead. But then, you got me out, too. You’re a surprising person, my love. Will you tell me more about yourself? Just a little?’
‘Had you not previously thought me capable of kindness?’
‘Oh, almost continuously.’ She gazed hopefully at him. ‘So will you?’
‘That beseeching expression is quite impossible to deny.’ He chuckled softly. ‘So, what must I tell you, my sweet?’