She had taken slow, steady steps as she spoke, until she was standing just before her father.
“Can you say you have done any of that for me? Have you arranged any of that for me? No. I didn’t think so.”
“You will not speak to me like that!” he said, fisting his hands at his side.
“You do not have any say over me anymore,” Minnie said, crossing her arms over her chest as her father sputtered.
“I will have this marriage annulled!” he said, thrusting a finger in the air. “What is it? A Scottishhandfasting? There is no way it can be legal. You were gone less than two days, and I can hardly see you obtaining a license.”
“It is very legal, sir,” Tommy said, far more politely than Minnie had. “I have the certificate right here.”
He held it up but out of Mr. Draper’s reach, as though he knew it would be in jeopardy if he brought it any closer.
“Besides,” Minnie said with a forced yet smug smile, “no one else would ever marry me now.”
“You don’t know that. We can cover this up. Pretend it never happened.”
She shrugged. “Is it worth risking?”
“Do you know,” her father said, leaning in, finally lowering his voice, although the ire remained, “what this is going to cost me?”
“Yes, I am more than aware just what I am worth to you,” Minnie said. “Fortunately, I am worth much more than money to my husband.”
“Good,” her father raged. “Because you are getting nothing from me. Not one pence!”
“I cannot believe I ever thought that you cared for me,” Minnie said, blinking away the tears in her eyes. “Did I really mean so little to you?”
Mr. Draper shifted back and forth before he answered, some hesitancy glinting in his eyes. Perhaps at one point, he had cared. But that had fled along with his desperation to save his business. Save himself.
“I will make you pay,” he said, pointing to them. “Both of you. I have the authorities out looking for you. Now I know where to send them. Tell your employer that he should be waiting for a visit, Ward.”
With that, he stomped off, his hands in fists beside him, whistling for his carriage to come fetch him.
“Think he’ll give us a ride?” Tommy said in her ear, and when Minnie glared at him, he sobered.
“Sorry, luv. Too soon.”
Minnie instantly let her ire fall, knowing that she was directing it at the wrong man. “I’m sorry, Tommy,” she said. “And I’m sorry that he confronted you like that. It isn’t right. Especially if he tries to hurt you in any way. Then it will be all my fault, and I?—”
“We are facing this together, remember?” he said sternly. “Now, are you ready to go home?”
Home. With Tommy.
“Ready,” she said, forcing a smile on her face. She was. She couldn’t wait to start this new life together.
Small as his home might be, it would be theirs.
No matter what.
“This is… cozy,” Minnie said as she looked around the room with what he was sure was supposed to be disguised horror.
“It’s home… fornow,” Tommy said, standing at the doorway with his hands in his pockets. He wished he’d had more time to prepare, and he could only imagine what she was thinking.
The house she had run away from was one of the grandest houses in Manchester.
This was… well, it was a room.
“Once my apprenticeship is finished and I take over the shop and hire my own apprentice, we will find something better,” he promised. “A house, perhaps. It still won’t be what you’re used to, but it will be better than this.”
