Judith Stacy – The One Month Marriage (страница 8)

“Well…” Brandon glanced at the two newspapers on the table. “You know I always eat breakfast alone, but well, if you’d like to it’s fine…this time.”

He rounded the table and pulled out a chair for her at the opposite end. For a few seconds she thought he was staring at her backside as she lowered herself into the seat, then dismissed the idea. Her imagination, surely.

A maid entered the room, greeted her and poured coffee as Brandon resumed his chair and his reading.

Another long moment passed in silence after the maid disappeared. The clock in the hallway ticked.

“I see you’re reading two newspapers?” Jana ventured.

Brandon looked up. “The Times and the Messenger,” he said and turned back to his reading.

Jana fiddled with her spoon. “I thought it would be nice if we hosted an informal supper.”

Brandon looked up again, a frown on his face. “A supper?”

“Yes, so that I can get reaquainted with—”

“You know I like the house quiet.”

Jana shifted in her chair. “Yes, but since I’ve been away, I thought a small supper would be a good way—”

Brandon pushed out of his chair, then folded and tucked both newspapers under his arm. “When I come home in the evenings after a busy, sometimes difficult day, I want things quiet. I don’t like suppers and that sort of thing, and you know it. I don’t know why you’d even suggest it.”

“But—”

“I’m going to the office.” Brandon stopped in the doorway. “I notified that decorator, the one who was here before, what’s-his-name, that you’re ready to resume work on the house.”

Jana’s eyes widened. “Mr. McDowell?”

“Whatever.” Brandon dismissed the name with a wave of his hand. “He’ll be here today.”

“But—”

Brandon walked away without another word, without listening, leaving Jana with a familiar knot of dismay coiling in her stomach.

After a moment, she went up to her room, fetched her hat and handbag, and left the house. At the corner of West Adams Boulevard and St. James Place, she boarded the trolley, paid her nickel fare and spent the day with her aunt.

She was at the house again that evening, well before the designated six o’clock hour. Not that it mattered. Jana passed the time in the one and only decent sitting room until shortly after seven when she ate supper alone, her only company an occasional servant and the ticking of the hallway clock. When Brandon arrived home just after eight, Jana was on her way upstairs.

She turned on the bottom step, watching as he gave Charles his bowler and satchel. After what must have been a long, trying day for him, Brandon still looked fresh…handsome.

Jana silently reprimanded herself for having the thought.

“I received a telephone call from Mr. McDowell today,” Brandon said to her.

“And good evening to you, too,” she countered.

He didn’t notice. “McDowell told me he came by the house but you weren’t here.”

“That’s correct.”

“I told you he was coming by.”

“I’m aware of that,” Jana said. “But, Brandon, I don’t like—”

“I expect things to get back to normal.”

“Back to the way they were?”

“Certainly,” Brandon told her.

Jana stood on the step a moment longer, gazing at him, fighting off a dozen storming emotions.

“You really have no idea at all why I left, do you,” she said. It was a statement, not a question, because she knew without a doubt that he was completely ignorant on the subject.

Brandon just stood there, staring, looking confused, as if trying to understand where her comment had come from, why she’d said it.

When he came up with no response, Jana knew she’d gotten her answer after all.

She turned her back on him and climbed the stairs.

Chapter Five

B randon slapped the papers down on his office desk. “Unacceptable.”

In the chair across from him, Noah Carmichael raised an eyebrow. “Frankly, Brandon, I thought you’d be in a little better mood, now that your wife is back.”

Brandon’s already grumpy disposition grew more foul. He glared at Noah and sat back in his chair. Outside the open window, noise from the traffic on Third and Broadway drifted in, a low hum that was at times soothing, other times irritating.

Today it was irritating. Like everything else in Brandon’s life.

“I take it your reunion isn’t going exactly as you’d planned,” Noah ventured.

“That’s for damn sure,” he grumbled. He sat up straighter in the chair. “Last night she accused me of having no idea why she left.”

“And do you?”

“Of course,” Brandon declared.

“You know because you asked her?”

“Well, no.” Brandon shoved out of his chair. “I don’t need to ask her. I already know.”

Noah eased back and folded his arms over his chest. “You’re even more brilliant than I suspected, Brandon, if you can know what’s in a woman’s mind.”

“It wasn’t hard to figure out,” Brandon insisted, striding toward the window.

“Did you talk to her about it?”

He glanced back. “Talk to her?”

“Yes, talk. Women like to talk.”

“Oh, hell…” Brandon stopped and huffed. “Since when did your six-month marriage make you an expert on women?”

“My wife is still in town,” Noah pointed out gently. “And still warming my bed.”

Heat slashed through Brandon at the thought—the very thought—of having Jana in bed again. Her warm, supple body. Her arms cradling him. Her legs entwined with his.

During their three months together, Jana had been receptive to their lovemaking, anxious, he’d thought, to share her bed with him. He couldn’t remember one single time—not once—that she’d not happily welcomed him.

And now, after fourteen very long months of separation, she insisted that they wait another month? Brandon didn’t understand it. Nor did he know how he’d endure it.

“You should talk to her,” Noah said.

A new flash of irritation came over Brandon as he realized he was once more standing at the window, staring out. He turned away quickly, shoving away the realization and the old feelings that came with it.

“It couldn’t hurt,” Noah offered, rising from his chair.

He didn’t disagree. Noah’s wife was, indeed, still home.

Brandon sighed heavily. “You’re probably right. I’ll talk to her.”

“Things will work out,” Noah said. “The important thing is that she’s home.”

Brandon’s belly clenched. No, the important thing was that she stayed.