Not have a child? Of course they would have a child. Many children. Sons with her keen intelligence and beautiful daughters with their mother's hair. "What are you saying?"
Letting go of his arms, she turned toward the window. He stared at her profile and listened to her flat-voiced words. "I cannot have a child with you. I refuse to have a child with you. The only way to ensure that I don't is to cease being a wife to you. Naturally, I do not expect you to live with such an untenable arrangement. I realize the importance of an heir to a man in your position." She raised her chin a notch, but her voice fell to a shaky whisper. "I therefore wish to end our marriage."
He froze, unable to comprehend her words for a full minute. Finally, he found his voice.
"Such drastic measures are not necessary, Elizabeth."
"I'm afraid they are. I cannot ask you to accept a wife who will not share your bed."
His hands fisted at his sides, but he managed to keep his voice calm. "There is no reason for me to accept a wife who will not share my bed. There are ways to prevent pregnancy-if that is ultimately what we decide to do."
"You are not listening to me, Austin. I have already decided. I will not risk becoming pregnant."
"I promise you we can find a way-"
"You cannot possibly hope to keep such a promise for a lifetime? She turned to look at him and the cold determination in her eyes chilled him. "Why can you not simply accept my decision?"
A bark of disbelief erupted from him. "Simply accept that you want to end our marriage? I'm stunned that you would even consider such a thing… giving up like this. Surely our marriage means more to you than that."
"We both know you married me only because you believed you had to."
"And we both know that nothing could have forced me to marry you had I not wanted to." Closing the distance between them, he gently took her by the shoulders. "Elizabeth. It doesn't matter why we married. What matters is how we feel about each other and what we make of our life together. We can make this marriage strong enough to survive anything."
"But surely you want to have children."
"Yes. I do. Very much." He gazed at her steadily. "With you."
She inhaled sharply. "I'm sorry. I cannot. I will not."
Silence stretched between them. He tried to reconcile this coldly resolute, distant woman with his warm, loving Elizabeth, and could not. Forcing words through his tight throat, he said "I understand you're upset about this vision, but you can't let it destroy what we have together. I won't allow it." He cupped her face between his palms. "I love you, Elizabeth. I love you. And I won't let you go."
Every drop of color seeped from her face. He searched her eyes, and for an instant stark, raw pain emanated from their depths. She turned away from him, and it appeared as if she were choking back tears. But when she faced him again, her expression had hardened. Grim determination replaced the pain and she pulled away from him.
"I'm sorry, Austin. Your love isn't enough."
Those words slapped him right in the heart. Left him bleeding. God Almighty, if he'd been able to draw a deep enough breath, he would have laughed at the irony of this. After waiting a lifetime to give a woman his love, she'd tossed it aside like an unwanted trinket. Your love isn't enough.
"Even if you are willing to live with such an arrangement," she continued in that same flat voice, "I am not. I want children in my life."
He somehow found his voice. "You just said you didn't."
"No. I said I cannot have children with you.. . but I could with someone else. It was my child with you who died."
Everything inside him went rigid. Surely he'd heard her incorrectly. "Elizabeth, you don't know what you're saying. You cannot possibly mean-"
"I know exactly what I'm saying." Lifting her chin a notch, she regarded him with uncharacteristic coolness. "While I fancied being a duchess, I never dreamed that the title would cost me having children. It's not a price I'm willing to pay."
"What the hell are you talking about?" he bit out. "You had no wish to become a duchess."
She raised her brows. "I'm not a fool, Austin. What woman wouldn't want to be a duchess?"
Her words settled on him like a blanket of ice, freezing him to the bone. He didn't want to believe what she was saying, but she was clearly serious.
He was stunned. Numb. Bringing his hand to his chest, he rubbed where his heart should be. And felt nothing. All his newfound hopes and dreams slipped away, blowing like ashes in the wind. She didn't love him. Didn't want him. Didn't want his children. Or their marriage. She wanted to share her life with someone else… anyone else. Just not him.
The numbness suddenly fled and warring emotions pummeled him. Disillusionment. Anger. And a hurt that cut so deep he felt sliced in two. Jesus. What a fool I've been.
He forced himself to push the hurt aside, to concentrate on the anger, letting it pump through him, heating his frozen veins.
"I believe I'm beginning to understand" he said in a voice so raw he barely recognized it. "In spite of your protestations to the contrary, you actually had designs on gaining a title. Now you wish to end our marriage, seemingly out of concern for me, but in truth you want to be free to marry someone else so you can bear children. His children."
Her face paled at his tone, but her gaze remained steady on his. "Yes. I want our marriage annulled."
Fury and gut-wrenching hurt collided in him, rocking his foundation. God damn it, what a superb actress his wife was! Her concern, her caring… it was all a facade. All this time he'd thought her sincere and trustworthy, innocent and guileless, and most laughable of all, unselfish. She was no better than the fortune-hunting females who had dogged his heels for years. He could not believe she had the nerve, the gall, to stand in front of him and claim she wanted to end their marriage for his happiness when what she really wanted was another husband for herself.
But what fueled his rage to the boiling point was the thought of her with another man. That image filled him with such violence, he nearly choked. Yet he welcomed the rage, for without it, the raw hurt would simply overwhelm him.
"Look at me," he ordered in a voice that dripped ice.
When she continued to stare toward the window, he grabbed her chin and forced her head around. "Look at me, damn it." She met his gaze with a cool detachment that infuriated him. There was nothing in her expression to indicate she was the woman he'd made love with only hours ago. How had she hidden this side of herself from him? How the hell had she fooled him so completely? It took every ounce of restraint he possessed not to shake her.
"You missed your calling, my dear. You could have been superb on the stage. You certainly had me convinced that you were all things good and decent. But clearly you are nothing more than a common schemer and accomplished liar. Your refusal to be a proper wife to me is certainly ample grounds for me to rid myself of you." He dropped her chin as if she'd scorched him.
Her face turned to chalk. "You'll agree to an annulment?"
"No, Elizabeth. I shall demand an annulment-as soon as I've ascertained that you are not already carrying my child. For the next two months you shall reside at my estate just outside London. That should be sufficient time to determine if you are pregnant or not."