by Rebecca King
“I am just trying to help,” Norman sighed.
“Really. By getting rid of her?” Ryan thundered.
“Don’t you think it is important to find out if the chit loves you back? Do you really want a wife who wants you for your title and wealth rather than your heart? Can you really live with a woman you know can’t and won’t return your love?”
“You have no idea what Sian feels,” Ryan snorted.
“That’s my point. Neither do you.”
“But I am not likely to bloody find out now that you have told her that she doesn’t belong here. Did you not stop to think? Did you not stop to ask yourself why you should feel the need to warn her away from here? It isn’t even your sodding house. How could you do that Norman? How could you go and let her believe that she isn’t good enough to live here?”
“Because she isn’t?” Norman sighed.
Ryan leaned forward and grabbed Norman by the cravat. “Don’t you dare ever let me hear you say that again.”
“Really. Well, you have to hear it from someone,” Norman countered, not budging an inch.
“I don’t care what you think. I don’t care what the whole damned world thinks. I love her, and we will be happy together.”
“So, you will fight for her then,” Norman murmured conversationally. “But you don’t have the courage to tell her you love her.”
“You don’t know what you are talking about,” Ryan hissed, shoving him roughly backward when he abruptly released him.
“I know she has been here for over a week. I know you have been alone with her on several occasions. I know you will have taken advantage of that to make your affections known, physically at least, by kissing her. It is just a shame you don’t have the courage to tell her how much you worship her. Do it, Ryan. Do it before you lose that woman to Cedrick, to her father’s machinations, to her cousin, Sophia. You and I both know that they aren’t likely to come back with Arthur behaving the way he is.”
“But you still had to go and ruin my relationship with her. We were doing so well. She was starting to see me as a man, not a titled lord.”
“I know. But I also know that she adores you too,” Norman mused with a grin.
Ryan threw him a glare. Rather than leave, as he wanted to do, he glared at his friend. “Has she told you?”
“Not in so many words,” Norman mused. “But if she didn’t care about you, your home, your family name, your reputation, she would have stayed. Leaving protects you as much as her, Ryan. Remember that. It has to mean something, doesn’t it?”
Ryan blinked and stared after Norman, who had already nudged his horse into a canter. When he disappeared, Ryan charged after him, not least because somewhere at the end of his journey was Sian, and it was more important than ever now that he reach her.
As he rode through the countryside, Ryan contemplated the powerful dream that had plagued him of late whereby he raced through the fields after her only to lose her to another. Had it been a warning of events yet to come? He couldn’t help but look about the fields he raced through in search of familiar landscapes. He was horrified that the nightmare might become real and was enough to warn him that Norman was right to have done what he did. He had proven a very valid point. If Sian had stayed regardless of what Norman had said, her motives would be considerably more selfish than he would have liked. The fact that she retreated and was prepared to shun an offer of a carriage to walk the several miles to the coaching tavern in town was enough to tell Ryan that she was determined to do what was right. He was equally determined not to allow her to leave and so nudged his horse that little bit faster.
It took far too long to reach the ticket off. By the time he reached it, Sian had already been and gone, having purchased four tickets to leave on the next coach due to depart at seven o’clock the following morning.
“Well, she isn’t going to take that coach,” Ryan growled. He slammed his fists onto his hips and studied the bustling coaching yard while he tried to decide what to do.
“We know they haven’t already started back. Maybe they are doing a bit of shopping while they are in town? They think they have a long journey tomorrow,” Norman replied.
“Well, let’s go and have a wander around and see if we can find them. They have to be around here somewhere.”
“It isn’t hard to miss four ladies, is it?” Norman asked.
Together, the men wandered out into the street and began their search of the busy market town.
“Oh, hello.” Lucinda dipped into a curtsey when Ryan whirled around.
He immediately huffed a sigh of relief and grinned at the young girl but was rewarded with a somewhat cautious look that was far from friendly.
“Lucinda, I have told you not to leave the shop without me,” Mabel chided as she too left the haberdashery. She slammed to a stop when she realised Lucinda was not alone. “Sir.”
“Why all this formality?” Ryan chided but dutifully bowed in acknowledgement of Mabel’s curtsey.
“We are in public, sir,” Mabel warned.
“We know our station,” Lucinda added, and scowled deeply when Martha nudged her roughly in the back.
“I take it Sian told you then,” Ryan sighed.
“That we have outstayed our welcome?” This time, Lucinda side-stepped just in time to avoid Martha’s sharp elbow. She glared at her elder sister but refused to be silenced. “We are leaving first thing tomorrow.”
“It has been very kind of Lord Carson to accommodate us thus far, but I am sure he wants his house back,” Mabel announced briskly.
“No. I most definitely do not want my house back. Do you not think I get a little bored there by myself? There is just me in that eighteen-bedroom mansion. It gets a little lonely. It has been a pleasure having you stay with me because I have had someone to talk to.” Ryan smiled encouragingly at Lucinda, but the young girl looked positively miserable. “I apologise for Norman giving you the wrong idea. He was just checking something.”
“Whether we know our place?” Lucinda asked helpfully.
“Lucinda, will you hush?” Mabel hissed.
“No. Not that.” Ryan studied the women before him.
For the first time since he had met them, he sensed a divide between them that he struggled to know how to remove again. It saddened him because before the fire, only last night, they had all been so happy sharing such a loving contentment that it had been humbling to be a part of it. Now, he wasn’t, and that saddened him.
I want more evenings before the fire like that, with Sian, her family, and whatever children we might have.
A vivid image hovered tauntingly just out of reaching, haunting him with what could be, if he tried hard enough and won.
“Where is she?” he asked, looking around for Sian.
“Not here,” Martha glared.
“Yes, I can see that. Am I at liberty to know where she is?”
“We were meeting her at the town square at eleven,” Lucinda informed him.
“Lucinda,” Martha gasped. She sighed and rolled her eyes.
“Why shouldn’t he know? It is rude not to answer someone’s questions,” Lucinda argued.
“Quite,” Ryan agreed.
“She won’t want to talk to you,” Martha informed him.
“Well, that’s all right. She can just listen,” Ryan murmured. He looked at Mabel. “With your permission, of course.”
Mabel nodded briskly. When she looked at him, Ryan read something lost in her eyes, and suspected she was struggling to face the future without her husband far more than she was letting on.
“I won’t hurt her,” he whispered.
“She is hurt enough already,” Mabel replied.
“She told you.”
Mabel nodded.
“I can assure you that Norman didn’t have my permission to say anything, nor did I know he intended to. I can also assure you that he is quite wrong.” Ryan kept his voice low because he wanted Mabel to understand he meant every word.
This was a private family matter and, regardless of their current upset about what happened, he was still a part of their family.
Lucinda was the first to prove that she forgave easily when she slid an arm into the crook of his elbow and smiled at him. “Let’s go and find her, shall we?”
“I should be much obliged,” Ryan smiled with a courteous bow.
“Lucinda, you really are far too forward you know,” Mabel chided, but fell into step behind them with Martha, who happily linked arms with her.
Together, their small procession made their way down the main street to the town square. The time was five minutes to eleven.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“Excuse me. Might I trouble you for the time?” Sian called to the shop keeper who ran the grocery store.
“It’s five minutes to eleven, miss,” the man replied.
“Thank you,” she replied before hurrying out of the shop.
As she turned out onto the street, she glanced up and immediately slammed to a halt. There, not but fifteen feet away, was Wilhelmina. Their eyes locked. There was something almost cruel in Wilhelmina’s glare that warned Sian there was something wrong with her presence in the street. This wasn’t an accident. Sian felt a presence behind her and whirled around. Her eyes widened when she saw Cedrick standing not but six feet away. Sian tried to ignore them both and stepped out onto the road to try to walk past Cedrick only for him to dart out before her, preventing her from going anywhere.
“Do you not intend to speak with your aunt? She would like a word with you,” he bit out.
“I am busy,” Sian informed him dismissively.
Cedrick grabbed her arm in a painful hold. “Well, you are coming with me.”
“Get off me,” she cried, trying her best to twist her arm and break free. When that didn’t do anything more than painfully tighten her skin, Sian tried to prise his fingers off her. While she was struggling, Wilhelmina came to join them.
“We want a word with you,” Wilhelmina snapped. “Now, now, Cedrick, there is no need to be so rough with her. We were just going to offer her a lift home.”
“I don’t want a lift home,” Sian retorted flatly. “I am going to meet my mother. She will be here in a moment.”
“No. I don’t think so,” Mabel countered smoothly. “I have seen her at the town square, you see, and know she is waiting for you with that buffoon.”
“Pardon? She is with my sisters.” Sian blinked at her in confusion and temporarily stopped struggling.
“And that lover of yours,” Wilhelmina retorted coldly. “You might have been a bit more circumspect with your liaisons, my dear. People are talking.”
“Nobody has anything to talk about,” Sian snorted. “Unless you have been trying to besmirch the family name.”
Now that, Sian didn’t doubt. Wilhelmina would if she thought it would get her what she wanted.
“Don’t think I don’t know what you are trying to do,” Sian declared boldly. “You think that trying to persuade me that people are talking about me, and that my reputation is ruined, will be enough to persuade me to marry him.” She jerked her head toward Cedrick dismissively. “Well, I don’t believe a word you say, and wouldn’t marry him even if my life, my reputation, and my future, lay in ruins around my feet. Why, I should rather spend the rest of my life in a workhouse than marry that.”
“Well, it can be arranged,” Wilhelmina drawled.
“It is going to happen if you keep taking advantage of father. The workhouse that is, but you will live there too.”
Wilhelmina’s eyes narrowed spitefully with rage. “If Arthur has a problem with accommodating his dear sister, he has been more than capable of telling me so himself but hasn’t. I am afraid that it is seriously unacceptable for you to even try to speak for him.”
“Accosting me is not going to help matters. My father would never have given you permission to force me to do something against my will,” Sian declared boldly.
“He has told me to come and fetch you,” Wilhelmina informed her dourly.
“Well, he can come and tell me he wants to see me himself. Like mother said, I am not going to do something you tell me,” Sian spat. “None of us are.”
“You are going to come with us. We are going to have a nice sensible chat about what you are going to do about this poor behaviour of yours,” Wilhelmina informed her with an arrogant sniff.
At Wilhelmina’s nod, Cedrick grabbed Sian once more. This time, he began to drag her by the arms over to a large carriage waiting across the road. Sian protested, screamed, and struggled. She was only partly aware of the shop keeper coming out of his premises to see what all the fuss was about. Unfortunately, Wilhelmina intercepted him. They were too far away for Sian to hear what was being said, but whatever Wilhelmina muttered into the shop keeper’s ear was enough to make the man hurry back inside and close the shop door without a second look.
Sian stared at the open maw of the carriage as if she was staring through the gates of Hell. She had no idea where it would take her and dreaded the thought of what would happen to her, her choices, and her future if Cedrick did drag her inside.
“This is kidnap,” Sian cried. “You cannot do this to me.”
Boldly ignored, she was bundled into the carriage anyway. She had barely hit the seat when Wilhelmina climbed aboard and was swiftly followed by Cedrick. Almost instantly, the carriage jerked into life.
“Let me out of here at once,” Sian hissed. “You are not going to get away with this, Wilhelmina.”
“Don’t be so worried,” Wilhelmina chided. “We are going to go home now. Your father has commanded you return. Given the help he has given me, getting his family back home is the least I can do in return, do you not think?”
“You have never bothered to carry out my father’s wishes before,” Sian snorted. “Or else you would have curbed your spending years ago.”
Strangely, Wilhelmina didn’t argue. Her gaze slid to Cedrick, who was staring out of the window as if nothing untoward was happening.
“This is kidnap, Wilhelmina,” Sian insisted. “My mother is waiting for me. I command you to stop and let me out. She is going to be worried about me and will tell the magistrate if I don’t turn up as planned.”
“No, she won’t. She will search the town for you. When she realises you are not there, she will go home to look for you. By that time, you will be back at home where you belong. Don’t worry, by the time we have finished you will be with the love of your life again. The only one you are meant to be with.”
“What would you know about that?” Sian frowned and struggled not to slide another look at Cedrick, not least because she didn’t want to give Wilhelmina any misunderstanding that she was even the remotest bit interested in the hideous man beside her.
“This isn’t the way home,” she whispered moments later when they turned away from the lane leading back to the village. “Take me home. At once, do you hear? I don’t care what you think you are doing, you cannot kidnap me like this. It is illegal, Wilhelmina. I am going to have you two arrested for this.”
“Oh, do shut up. I am sick of your bleating,” Wilhelmina sighed impatiently. She glared at Cedrick. “You really are going to have to curb her atrocious conduct, you know.”
“She will do as she is told once we are married,” Cedrick warned.
Sian glared at him. “God, I hate you.”
Cedrick had changed. The somewhat affable fop who had turned up on the doorstep in the middle of the night had vanished. In his place was someone who spoke with a callous contempt and a surety that was arrogant, aloof, domineering, and cruel. The spite in his eyes when he turned to throw her a dour look warned Sian that he would see any wife as a possession he could treat as callously and cruelly as he chose, and nobody would be able to question him over it.
“I don’t care what you threaten me with. I will never stand at any altar and say the words you need me to. You couldn’t force them out of me.”
�
�You will if you want your family to stay in that house,” Wilhelmina growled. “You see, Cedrick here has money and he is prepared to loan some to your father to pay off his debts. It will ensure you can stay in your house. If you don’t do this, Sian, your family will be destitute; driven to bankruptcy by your failure to do your duty to your family. You are not going to marry for your welfare. You are doing it for theirs.”
“And what are you going to gain from it, Wilhelmina? Don’t try to tell me that you have our family’s best interests at heart because your presence in that house has driven everyone apart.” Sian stopped to contemplate that. “But that is what you wanted all along, wasn’t it? You wanted us to leave so you could tell father your lies without anybody interfering. You would then tell father that I had married him. Everyone would then return home. Father would be too pleased to have his wife and two of his daughters back at home to care about your schemes. Once we are married there would be nothing anybody could do if your lies were ever revealed. Well, I am not going to do it. You see, I am already betrothed.”
“You, madam, are a liar,” Wilhelmina bit out.
“Really? Well, I suggest you ask my mother then. You have just made the worst mistake of your life because you have just kidnapped a Lord’s fiancé and intend to force her into marriage to someone else.” Sian sat back in her seat with an air of satisfaction when she saw Wilhelmina’s worried frown. “You are going to have to explain to the magistrate why you have seen fit to commit several crimes. I can assure you that you both will end up behind bars because I am going to make it clear to everyone that you have kidnapped me, and forced me against my will.”
The carriage suddenly jolted to a stop. Sian looked out of the window but knew they hadn’t gone far enough to even leave town. Her stomach dropped to her toes when she saw a small, dirty sign clinging desperately to an old wrought iron fence that circled an aged building. Sitting atop the tallest part of the front façade was a small cross.
“You are insane if you think I am marrying,” Sian protested.