“Come in, Jane,” he said, his voice level enough after his earlier shouting. “How do you like your rooms?”
“They’re lovely.” She finally met his eyes. “Somerton is a beautiful manor.”
“A bit chilly in winter.”
She realized she was clutching her robe tightly about her, but it was not from cold. She felt hot and embarrassed to be so close to him, this veritable stranger she’d married. They were alone together in his bedroom, while he wore only a robe and perhaps…nothing else?
“Thank you for the night clothes,” she said, trying not to betray her unease. “They make me feel like a princess.”
He ran his eyes over her. “I see you haven’t managed to drag them through any mud puddles yet.”
Her cheeks flamed at his laconic remark. He was handsome, yes, but frightening as well. He was so dark, so very masculine without his starched coats and shirts and cravats to make him civilized. She could see hair on his chest, and his pulse beating at his neck.
He is just a man, she told herself. This is how men look in their bedrooms, half-undressed.
She cast a glance about, trying to calm her unfettered thoughts. His room seemed suitably grand and imposing for the lord of the manor, with dark furnishings, a pair of sturdy chairs upholstered in dark blue velvet, and a massive, canopied bed. In fact, his bed was a match to hers, down to the cushioned footboard with the handily placed step stool, although he surely wouldn’t need one with his height. Oh, staring at his bed did not calm her nerves. Nor did the pressure of his disapproving gaze…
“I can’t apologize enough for what happened earlier,” she said, facing him in the center of his high-ceilinged chamber. “I suppose I didn’t make the best first impression before your household staff.”
He sighed. “It’s not about first impressions. It’s what almost happened to you. I nearly had to write to your family with news of your demise.”
“That would have been awful so soon in our marriage, wouldn’t it? We both would have seemed rather careless.”
He sighed again, even harder. This discussion was not going well.
“You’re right to be angry,” she said. “I wasn’t thinking properly when I barged into that stall.”
“You didn’t tell me you had a pet snake. I thought you had a dog or something.”
He was not as angry as she feared. Rather, he seemed unhappy. Brooding.
“I do enjoy dogs,” she said. “We could get one or two if you liked. Well, as long as we kept them away from my other animals.”
“Jane.”
He was extremely unhappy. He cut off her attempt at cheerful banter with a frown and walked to stand before her with his arms crossed upon his chest.
“I wish I could let this pass without some reckoning,” he began. “I tried to dress for bed, indeed, to go to bed and conduct this discussion in the morning, but I cannot do it. You have exhibited behavior I cannot abide in a wife.”
Her whole body tensed in shock, and her heart pounded. “You will leave me already?”
“Leave you? No, we’re married now, for better or worse. At the same time, I find you bring flaws to this marriage which must be corrected. You did not tell me, for instance, that you kept wild animals for pets, to include an exotic snake that looks like a devil’s novelty.”
“It is an albino snake,” she murmured. “A natural, if rare, mutation in pythons.”
His dire look silenced her. “You hid it from me because you knew I would object.”
“Perhaps, my lord, but only because I love my pets and I was afraid you’d tell me not to bring them, or decide not to marry me because I had them at all.”
“Such honesty would have been appreciated before now.”
She winced inwardly. “Would you have decided not to marry me?”
He thought a minute, then shook his head. “No, I still would have married you. I was forewarned about your intense attraction to nature. Your misstep was being secretive, hiding things from me that I had a right to know. Furthermore, in the stable just now, you ignored my warnings, ignored me. Did you not hear me shouting at you to come out of Gallant’s stall?”
“But Mr. Cuddles was in there—”
“Did you hear me? I shouted very loudly.”
He was close to shouting now.
“I did hear you,” she said in her softest remorseful tone. “However—”
“There are no howevers. You cannot put your life in danger for the sake of a reptile, albino or no. Your behavior was reckless and unladylike, and witnessed by a dozen of my stable staff, who are surely wondering why…”
Why I married someone like you.
He didn’t say it, perhaps because he saw the tears welling in her eyes. Even so, she knew what he meant to say, so those tears spilled over onto her cheeks. “I’m sorry things have started so badly. I wish…” I wish I were more like my mother, or my sister, or any proper lady. “I wish I had not displeased you so.”
“I believe I must punish you, Jane, if we’re to move past this unfortunate beginning. I must know you won’t behave so rashly again.”
She wiped away a tear. “Oh, no. Of course I won’t. I feel very badly.”
“Come here to me, now.”
She quailed at his stern manner. How awful, to be punished the second day of their marriage.
“Please, my lord, I’m so sorry.”
He took her hand and drew her resisting form closer. “I’m sure you are. A sound spanking will provide the needed correction for your actions, and allow me to work through some of this…”
She stared at him. “This what?”
“Agitation,” he said, his gaze holding hers. “Perhaps it’s a good thing for you to learn early on what will happen when your behavior falls short of my expectations.”
Before she could fully process his intention, he drew her toward one of the blue velvet chairs. Oh no. He meant to spank her over his knee, and though she wasn’t experienced in corporal chastisement, she was sure his giant hands would hurt like anything.
“Please, my lord,” she said, dragging her feet. “I will try to do better. I’ll be more honest. I’ll be more careful around your horses, and not do anything else to endanger my life.”
“I will teach you to do better. I’d be shirking my husbandly duties if I did not.”
She glanced wildly about, trying to think of a way to avoid what was to come.
“I don’t want you to spank me,” she said, tears flowing anew. “I am embarrassed. Ashamed.”
He appeared sympathetic, but unmoved. “As this is your first punishment within our marriage, I will not be heavy handed. You’ll be spanked hard enough to pay penance for your misbehavior, no more.” His eyes held hers, deeply amber, and so sincere. “That’s the point of marital discipline, obviously. A spanking for any infraction will, over time, change your behavior.”
“Marital discipline?” she echoed, her voice cracking. “But I can try to change it now! I will try. I will be more thoughtful. Less reckless.”
“I believe you will once you have experienced the resultant penalty.”
His tone was so immovable, so firm. His gaze was patient, but his stance brooked no resistance. Of course, husbands had the right to discipline their wives as needed, but to do so on the second day of their marriage? Here she was, dressed in his lovely gift of a gown…