Misleading The Marquis

3 - Gina Marie

"This is a felony!"

Gina Marie heard Bane's shouting through the door to the study as she sat just outside in a stiff backed wooden chair... awaiting her fate.

Her aunt and cousins sat on the setee staring at her and then the door in waves. Aunt Alivia was fanning herself and pressing her lips together in a thin line every time she looked at Gina Marie.

Francis was frowning, arms crossed angrily over his chest as he sprawled out lazily on the piece of furniture he monopolized. Then there was Georgina Marie, sitting perfect as any peach, her eyes glinting, her smile huge.

"I don't care what she told you - you are her guardian and I will find you responsible with the constibulary!" Bane barked in reply to whatever muffled thing Uncle Ernst had said. Gina Marie winced at the anger in the man's voice. 

She'd known when she began her plan that Brisbane would be the one most wounded by all of it. Foolishly She'd hoped he'd be so in love with the girl in the letters that he would be able to look past the confusion over identity.

This was not to be her fate.

Gina Marie hadn't seen him yet... though Georgina had wasted no time in telling her how horribly ugly and fearful a character he made at their front door.

Brisbane and her uncle had been closed up in the study for nearly a quarter of an hour, and She'd been waiting like a child called to the headmaster's office to hear of her fate. She clutched the copy of her marriage certificate that she carried in her pocket, hoping it would give her some kind of strength to draw from .

"Gina Marie," her uncle called darkly from the door way of the study, his thick eye brows bent inward so that they nearly touched.

Gina Marie jumped up, trying to read her uncle's face, but he was only angry. Taking her by the elbow he fairly threw her through the doorway and into the room, slamming the door closed behind him and leaving her alone with Brisbane.

"What game is this, girl?" he demanded, but he was turned towards the window, facing away.

Gina Marie felt her chin trimble, but she clutched her hands together and drew a deep breath to steady her voice.

"No game, my lord," she answered softly, "I thought you knew -"

"Don't!" he shouted, whirling to face her and Gina Marie laid eyes on her husband for the first time.

The scars on his face were the first thing that she noticed, long and white they stood out starkly against his dark beard.

Deep brown eyes pinned her where she stood, and in a moment she knew exactly why everyone feared him so.

"You intended to decieve me from the beginning - I want to know why," he ground out through gritted teeth as he took another step towards her.

Gina Marie quaked, but refused to back down or let him know how afraid she really was.

"You said you loved me - " Gina Marie said, using Louisa's rationale from this morning, "I thought it would not matter... that I am not..."

"That you're not Georgina Marie St. John?" he barked, no compassion in his face, "You lied to me, and I suspect your guardians in order to procure a marriage contract and as the party in question I would like to know why!"

Gina Marie jumped at the shouting, flinching ever so slightly where she stood. This was not the meeting She'd imagined when they'd written letters of love and tenderness only a few short months ago.

"I am Georgina Marie St. John," she was able to squeak the words out timidly, but only if she was staring at her boots while doing so, "I am just not the one you met at Langdon's three years ago."

"You and your uncle imagined this the best way to secure a wealthy husband?" Bane accused, pacing now, the heel of his boots clicking harshly against the worn stone floor, "You set out to make a fool of me, and now think that I will be somehow honor bound to keep you in comfort for the rest of your days?" he accused, but Gina Marie was not looking into his face at all now.

Instead, she was focusing on a specific ink stain on the rug. She'd put it there when she was seven, trying to draw with her mother's best stationary. Papa hadn't even been angry with her. They'd named it the Isle of Gina Marie and made up stories every now and again about the people who lived there.

Perhaps thinking of him at all had been a mistake in that moment, for then she began to consider what her life would be like had the Rose Fever not taken both her mother and father away from her seven years ago.

Papa would've sent her to University, and she would not have been standing in her own home being shouted down by someone who'd promised to love her in writing. Tears sprang to Gina Marie's eyes, unbidden but not unexpected.

"Don't think that tears will move me madam!" Brisbane roared, Gina Marie jumped and cried harder, looking up at him at last.

If a man had ever held the look of the beast, it was her husband in that moment. Rage and disgust gave him a snarling expression, but Gina Marie determined not to look away.

She recalled the letters detailing his feelings for her, that she was a light to him in darkness, a joy, a comfort.

And now she was liar, a betrayer and he Couldn't have been more certain of his disgust for her.

"What will you do?" Gina Marie asked, her voice warbly, her eyes set on Brisbane still.

Her question seemed to surprise him - and Gina Marie realized he hadn't decided just yet...

"I - well I -" he stumbled, staring back at her a little dumbfounded as he seemed to consider their predicament for the first time.

"Did you expect me to insist when it is clearly against your wishes?" Gina Marie hiccupped, swiping at the sticky mess the tears left on her face.

Sorrow was quickly being replaced with anger.

"We will have an annulment, of course!" Brisbane declared with a wave of his hand, trying to regain himself.

"Then see it done as quickly as you can, I beg you," Gina Marie responded, tucking a stray hair behind one ear as she spoke, "I trust you can find your way out," she added, stepping back to open the study door.

Brisbane stared at her, looking a little sheepish for the first time.