Minerva's Match

by Lisette Giroux

  “I can’t. He bragged of how he would abuse her, of how he intended to make her work while he took the credit. He intends to have a mistress.” Revulsion threatened to bring the brandy back up, so he gulped down more. Still stone-cold sober, dammit. There was no doubt he was a Lansford.

  “He’s dragging her to America?” Eleanor screeched. “Over my dead body! Simeon, we have to stop them.”

  “Elle, be reasonable.”

  James stepped away from his cousin-in-law to be clear of the line of fire. He well remembered Min’s reaction to those words. This was not a group of women at all familiar with the concept of reason. In fact, he would swear they were its sworn enemies. Eleanor growled at Simeon, and James couldn’t help laughing. Finally the brandy was doing its job. Eleanor tugged the decanter from his grasp.

  “I was drinking that.”

  “I need you conscious, so we can fix this mess.”

  “I asked her to marry me, three goddamned times. We even…” He looked up to see his cousins’ questioning looks. “Never mind. That bastard abused her innocence when she was barely out of the schoolroom, and he and her father cook up some scheme, and she says yes, no hesitation, no questions, no delay. Fine. I’ll kill the bastard before I let him touch my wife!”

  The other two looked at him, then at each other. Eleanor spoke first.

  “Simeon, the men in your family should never be allowed around drink when they have been talking to the Heiresses.”

  “Eleanor,” Simeon said, “the Heiresses should never be allowed near the men in my family. We have no resistance to that kind of power.” The sight of the two of them grinning at each other was enough to make him gag.

  “I’ll call Watkins and have a room prepared. Simeon, see if you can get him to sober up. If he thinks they’re married already, we’ll never be able to get a straight story out of him.”

  James contemplated laying the whole sordid tale out, but his tongue felt thick in his mouth and he was suddenly too exhausted to keep to the task. Tomorrow would be soon enough to spell it all out for them.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  “Miss, you have some callers.” Adeline curtsied, something she’d never done in Minerva’s memory. Eleanor walked through the door as soon as Adeline left, towing Virtue behind her, with Louisa carrying her husband’s daughter, Bonnie, and Katie, the newest addition to their group, bringing up the rear.

  “Katie, how did you get here so quickly?” she asked the woman, who’d raced like a hellcat not many days ago.

  “Never mind that.” Eleanor took charge of the group as always. She was after all their Eris. The rest of them were just Heiresses.

  A half-sob welled up from Minerva’s chest. She was going to be so lonely in America.

  “What is this nonsense about you getting married to a man you don’t love and throwing over my dear cousin?”

  If Minerva hadn’t known Eleanor forever, she might have been quaking, but she did know her and dissolved into the tears that had been threatening since James had left yesterday evening. She hadn’t slept with all her worry over him.

  “I’m so afraid James will be hurt, killed even!” she sobbed out as her friends held her.

  A small hand patting her head roused her from her sadness. “Don’t cry M’erva. My new momma will hit the bad man.” That brought a watery laugh from her.

  “Violence is not always the answer, sweetness.” At least not usually, and she didn’t want to hurt James, just cut out her own traitorous heart. “But a cuddle from you would help.” The little girl she’d recently met climbed in her lap without hesitation. Holding Bonnie helped calm some of the terror beating in her chest. “What am I going to do?”

  “I’m sorry,” Eleanor said. “I thought I was in the house of my friend Minerva, goddess of logic. You are going to stop this damn duel and shake some sense into the man you love. That is just what we Heiresses of Eris do.”

  “I care for James, but I don’t—”

  “Liar,” her three best friends cut her off.

  She turned to Katie for support. “Surely you agree with me. You saw us argue.” She turned to the rest. “You all did. Do I have to remind you of what happened at the house party? I nearly stabbed the man!” They all laughed at her, Eleanor and Louisa laughing the hardest.

  “If I had your knife skills instead of knowing how to box, Colin would be—” Louisa stopped short, seeing her new daughter looking at her with wide eyes. “He’d wheeze from the holes when he tried to breathe. If you take my meaning.”

  Eleanor jumped in. “Luckily, Simeon and I just participate in verbal jousting, but, Minerva, arguing with the man is just a sign of the depth of your feelings. If you didn’t care at all, there would be no reason to fight. Though I have to say, I do adore how my husband says he is sorry.” Both she and Louisa tittered with the secret they thought she didn’t know.

  “But I don’t want to love him,” Minerva nearly wailed.

  “Pfft. As if you get a choice. I certainly don’t…” Virtue suddenly looked up, just now realizing she was speaking aloud. The others eyed her questioningly, but she stood and removed herself to the other side of the room.

  “Virtue is correct,” Eleanor said. “Whether you want to or not is immaterial. You do. Now, what are you going to do about it?”

  Minerva considered her options. “Nothing.”

  Eleanor actually growled at her. “And people think me stubborn!”

  “We’re all stubborn. That is why Katie likes us so much,” Louisa interjected, and Katie nodded her head.

  “Still,” Eleanor said, “I know you are the smartest among us, Minerva, but truly, sometimes you can be such a dolt! That whole business with the coal boy when we were at school is a perfect example. Did you really think that the glasses and the plain hair could hide what you were? Yes, they temporarily dimmed your beauty to get you out of trouble, but did you think you could hide that way forever? That no intelligent man with eyes in his head wouldn’t eventually take a good long look at you and realize what a pearl you are? My cousin is at our house right now, tearing himself apart because the woman he loves refuses to admit that she loves him also. And before you try to slink out of this, yes, my friend, you are most definitely that woman. And don’t bother telling me you don’t love him. Please, at least be honest with us and, more importantly, yourself.”

  Bonnie left her lap and walked off to sit at the piano with Virtue. “But what if he tires of me? What if he leaves?” The words were whispered and earned Minerva a quick hug from Eleanor.

  “Min, we have no idea what the future holds. And I know James to be at least as stubborn as you. He would not have given his heart lightly. I don’t think you two will have a quiet marriage, but I can well imagine it will be passionate, and it surely won’t be boring.”

  Minerva gave them a weak smile she barely felt. “I just don’t think I can.”

  “So you are willing to risk him dying because of your cowardice?” The words were said gently, but they tore through her nonetheless.

  The thought of James lying wounded, or worse, on the field, was an image that she couldn’t get rid of. Running off to America was at least slightly tolerable, because she had known James would always love her in her memories of him. But to think of him dead? A sob erupted from her throat. “He can’t die.”

  “I believe he wants to,” Eleanor said. “I don’t know him well, but for a man as intense and tightly controlled as he is, he is beside himself at the thought of you in danger or in pain, emotional or otherwise. I honestly believe he feels the possibility of him dying is a small price to pay to keep you from that.”

  “Oh, James is such a pigheaded man. Oliver doesn’t care about me enough to beat me, the fool.” Her friends all looked at her as if she’d started speaking in Greek.

  “Am I to understand that you know Oliver doesn’t love you?” Eleanor yelled at her.

  “Do you care for him that much?” Louisa asked before she could answer Eleanor. Really
, the army could use them against any enemy, with less bloodshed and guaranteed success. Dropped behind enemy lines, the Heiresses would have them so rattled, the opposing forces would concede before a single shot was fired.

  “I am well aware he doesn’t care, and that is fine, because I don’t give a fig about him either!”

  “Fig!” Bonnie yelled, mimicking her.

  Louisa glanced over at her new daughter and then gave a pointed look at Minerva. “Yes Bon-bon, figs are delicious and sometimes we use the word when we are speaking of men.” The little girl looked at her quizzically.

  “Momma, Katie uses fig when she wants to say a bad word but shouldn’t.” The little girl educated Louisa, and Katie blushed furiously.

  “Exactly, dear.” They all turned back to Louisa. “So you’d let a man who loves you, and whom you love, even though you refuse to admit it, die in a duel with a man who cares nothing for you and whom you couldn’t care less about but insist on marrying anyway. Did I miss anything?” Louisa gave Minerva a scathing stare, and when Minerva looked at the others, they did the same.

  “I’m a coward.”

  “No, you’re an Heiress, and you need a plan,” Louisa said. “Come now, you aren’t alone anymore.”

  Those simple words gave Minerva more hope than she perhaps had a right to, but they also brought her no relief from her misery.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  “Is there no way I can talk you out of this, James?” Simeon asked for the perhaps millionth time. “You are a smart man. Surely you understand the consequences. There is no good ending to this other than begging off.”

  “Simeon, I appreciate your counsel, but I’m afraid there is no other option. Don’t you see? If she marries him, she’ll waste away to nothing. It would be the worst kind of abuse, and he’d never even raise a hand to her. Bad as any beating would be, bruises heal. Minerva’s psyche would never recover from the emotional damage of this marriage, however. I can’t let him just have her.”

  Simeon shook his head again as he had been doing repeatedly since James had arrived and poured out his story. James shouldn’t have drunk the brandy. Now he just had a damned headache, and he suspected the only thing that would make it better would be falling asleep with the most stubborn, impossible woman in his arms. He laughed to himself. He was a dead man, whether a bullet found him or not.

  He marshaled his thoughts. There were responsibilities to be taken care of. “Just promise me you’ll follow the instructions written here. If anything happens to me, er, if I… succumb, I have a distant cousin that will inherit, though he is young, so someone will have to manage the place in his stead. I know you are busy with your own responsibilities, your estates and Parliament, but could you see yourself to teach him something? I have visions of the Lansford line reverting back to form, and the tenants paying for it as usual.”

  “I will, you know that, but all this is unnecessary. Nothing is going to happen to you.”

  “Best to be prepared. Now there isn’t much that isn’t entailed. I sold what there was to cover debts, but there is a little cottage on a faraway corner. It isn’t much, but it has a little land, and here is some money, again not much.” He handed Simeon his purse. “This all goes to my wife.” The anguish rolled through him, but relief bubbled like little caps of foam on a wave. He’d said it now and waited for Simeon to say something.

  When he looked up, Simeon was staring at him with questions in his eyes. “Have you been drinking again?”

  “What? No.”

  “So you were serious last night when you called her your wife?”

  Gah, he wished he were drinking now, but he needed a clear head to make sure everything was taken care of when he was gone.

  “Yes. And if… She might be with child. It’s doubtful, but she’ll know before they announce the heir to the title.”

  Simeon looked at him agog. “Then I don’t understand. How can she marry this other bloke if she’s married to you? Even the Heiresses draw the line well before bigamy.”

  “Simple. She has no idea.”

  “Come again? How is that possible? And yet you ruined her?”

  “Scottish custom is a little vague. We both signed the registry, and it was done. Only she was a little off her game since she’d just had her bag stolen and didn’t even look at what she was signing. We only had enough money for the one room, and I thought I was doing the right thing. How the hell was I supposed to know she’d turn out to be the most vexing, fascinating, intelligent woman I’d ever met? Do you have any idea how hard it is to resist a woman like that? One who makes your blood race and makes you realize that your carefully ordered life might as well be a coffin. And then there were the knives and the singing, and God help me, the brawling. And I didn’t ruin her. That bloody bastard Oliver did. Still, I tried to resist her. For all the damned good it did me! Do you know how hard it is to ignore your baser instincts for days at a time so you aren’t walking around with a bloody goddamned erection all day?”

  His cousin’s eyes went wide, then he started laughing so hard he was wheezing for lack of air. Simeon reached over and poured two glasses of brandy, though it took a while since he had to stop every few seconds due to the bursts of laughter that would overtake him. “Oh yes. Yes, I do, James,” he said as he handed over one of the glasses.

  “So you married the girl without her knowing…”

  “I was trying to preserve her reputation, odd as it might sound. Blast! Why do they have to be so unusual? What woman just goes off to Scotland by herself? And she mentioned you were in on it!”

  “We were already two days out when my wife informed me we were bringing Minerva to Edinburgh for a conference. I had thought we were just on a rescue mission for Louisa, but she had her kidnapper, er, husband, well in hand by the time we arrived. Then Eleanor’s father took ill, so we turned right around, and Minerva stayed to go to you. What a mess. We were supposed to take her back with us.”

  “How is Eleanor’s father?”

  “Not well. The duchess wants to try anything that will help him breathe easier, but I’m afraid most of it just makes the situation worse.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Nothing we can do for him, but you we can save. You know, that isn’t a bad idea. Kidnap the girl and head off to the continent. Eventually her stubbornness will give way to her loving you.”

  “Wouldn’t work. I think she is as afraid of me as she cares for me.”

  “You are hardly a fierce man.”

  “Not me, exactly. She’s afraid of what I make her feel. That she feels at all, actually.”

  “Ah, that is a bigger problem. Oh, I met with the man’s second this morning. The poor young man didn’t know which to be more afraid of, me or the thought that he’d be at a duel at first light tomorrow. Pistols, no surprise. This is bloody bad business. Perhaps I could talk to this Oliver fellow?”

  “Simeon, you should have heard them, Oliver and Minerva’s father. Not once did they let her finish a statement or ask her opinion. She is smarter than both of them. They were in love with the sound of their own voices and each other more than they cared for that girl. This isn’t just a matter of changing his mind. She needs to be removed from there. Promise me you’ll take her under your protection. I need to know she’ll be safe when I’m gone.”

  “Stop talking like that. We just need to come up with a workable plan. You could wound him, take her, and head to the continent…”

  “And live on what? You know that my appointment at the university is what keeps me fed and clothed. Nothing comes in from the estate, and as I’ve just given you the money we won for the plow, that won’t be changing soon. No, if I can’t be with her, if she can’t love me enough to overcome her fears, I might as well be dead anyway.” Suddenly, he didn’t have the energy to get drunk.

  “I can’t dissuade you?”

  “No. There really isn’t any answer that finds Minerva with me at the end.”

  “Simeon?” Eleano
r called from the hall.

  “In here, dear.”

  “Oh, there you are, my love.” She kissed him far too passionately for public viewing. Lucky bastard. James’ mind wandered to kissing Minerva. She’d kissed him just like that when they’d been at the fair. The memory forced the air from his lungs like a punch. He stumbled and landed hard in a chair.

  “James! Are you all right?”

  “I’ll be fine as soon as this blasted duel is over with.”

  “I went to see Minerva this morning.”

  His stomach clenched, and some kind of fire roared through his veins. Minerva was the only one who could stop this nightmare. “Is she still insisting she’s going to marry the blighter? And on a bloody boat no less. Wouldn’t be surprised if he just tosses her overboard so he doesn’t have to deal with her. Minerva’s father is the one who put him up to this farce.”

  “James, she cares for you. I know she does.”

  “Because she said so? I’ve told her I love her. Eleanor, I just can’t stand by and do nothing. She won’t leave with me. She won’t say she can’t marry him. She won’t let go of the fear of someone leaving her again. And nothing I say can break through that.”

  “I tried. I think you might be right. I’m sorry.”

  “Are you going to tell her the rest?” Simeon cocked his head toward Eleanor.

  “Tell me what?”

  “I married Minerva. She doesn’t know.” His voice was faint with the emotion the words tore free.

  Eleanor blinked several times and opened her mouth to speak, then shut it. Finally, she started laughing. “James, you are too clever and too perfect for my most stubborn friend. But if the two of you are married then she can’t marry that bastard!