The Bed You Make
Chapter 42, continued
One of the subtle changes to his life was the increased presence of music everywhere around him. His wife hummed beneath her breath during distracted moments, she closed her eyes and listened to some melody in her mind during times of stress. Even now her head dipped almost imperceptibly to the not-unpleasant local music whispering through the limousine's custom-made Bose speaker set.
"You are in a better mood." Stefan looked over at his wife. Her features were calm and devoid of expression. "I trust that I have managed to salvage this evening as you instructed?"
Dara shot Stefan a look that he had no trouble deciphering even in the near darkness of the car. " Philip ," Dara replied tartly, "managed to salvage the evening for me. He is an amazing chef and really pleasant company. "
Stefan silently acknowledged his cousin's part in improving his wife's mood. With ease, Philip had distracted a peeved Dara with a steady stream of saganaki, ouzo and bawdy stories about the legendary chefs with whom he'd apprenticed. " You ," Dara continued after a beat, "haven't begun to make amends for publicly allowing the Countess to disrespect me the way she did."
Stefan stared at Dara for several minutes before voicing his curiosity. "Exactly what am I to make amends for? I did nothing to encourage Jacqueline's behavior."
"You did nothing to dis -courage it, either. If I hadn't intervened when I did, she probably would have straddled you there in the restaurant." Dara's lips curled in disgust. "And then used her dead husband as an excuse for her actions!"
"I did not realize," Stefan observed, "that our marriage would facilitate such possessiveness in you."
Dara gave a very unladylike snort. "Don't flatter yourself, Stefan. This isn't about you. It's about me." She looked at him fully for the first time in several hours. Most of her evening had been spent totally ignoring him. "You know, you talk all the time about what you expect from me and this arrangement. I think I've done a pretty fair job of holding up my end of the deal. And up until tonight, I would have grudgingly said that you had done the same."
