Reginald’s mouth dropped. “Rag… Well! Darcy did you know this?”
Darcy shook his head. “I suspected,” he confessed, with a half-amused, half-scandalised look at his sister. “I did say I would consider any desire of hers, so long as it was reasonable.”
“But Boston! Why, that is half a world away.”
“Come now, Reginald,” Darcy scoffed, “if she goes, I will be certain of all the arrangements. She will be quite safe.”
“Oh, I am not worried about her safety, but she will be so far removed from us. Georgiana, are you sure this is what you wish?”
“No,” she declared pertly. “I do not have to be sure of anything yet. I am only thinking of it.”
Reginald chuckled. “The girl has sass, Darcy. We shall have to keep a close watch on this one.”
Darcy caught his sister’s eye and delighted in the open, pleasant smile that answered his look. “I would expect no less.”
Chapter 31
Wyoming
May 1900
“Youareleavingus,Colonel?”
Richard glanced up from the counter where he had been looking over the last of his account at the mercantile with Mrs Gardiner. Her husband had now appeared at her side, and he wore the same tired, anxious expression from the previous night.
“I’m to report to the South African front,” he confirmed. “I had protested this assignment, more vigorously than I care to admit, and it seems that someone must have pulled some strings for me almost before I had left the country.” He graced Gardiner with a tight smile. “Although now that I am here, I confess I am not eager to depart so soon.”
“I understand, sir.” Gardiner heaved a long sigh and made a visible effort at focusing his gaze on the ledger in his wife’s hands. He appeared to have little success.
“If I may, sir… how does Miss Elizabeth this afternoon?”
Gardiner exchanged glances with his wife. “It does not look good. Silas Bryson is causing trouble. I just came from the sheriff’s office, and if my suspicions are correct, he has something to do with the rumours flying about Lizzy.”
“Rumours already? What are they saying?”
“Everything I feared, and then some. They say she had set her cap for Jake as soon as her father lost the ranch. Many are claiming to have overheard Elizabeth teasing and flirting with him for months. Lizzy!”
Richard snorted in disgust. “She teases everyone—it is her way, but I never saw her encourage him. Far from it, in fact.”
“Most would agree with you,” Gardiner nodded. “But unfortunately, not all. Some accused her of loose ways in general.”
“What!”
“It is true, though. It might surprise you to know that some were jealous of the attention she has always garnered, and were eager to slander her good name with tales of wanton behaviour. Apparently, someone took notice of how many men she danced with last week—far more than the other ladies in town, unfortunately. There was even a whispered report that someone once saw her lift her skirt in the street at some passing men.”
“Probably to put her foot in a stirrup! And I am afraid I am to blame for the number of her dance partners, for I had taken it upon myself to see that she was never left alone with Bryson for long. How could everyone else not see that?”
Gardiner shrugged. “It’s an ill wind that blows no good. Would that she had some acknowledged beau before all of this, who could put these rumours to rest with a timely offer of marriage.”
Richard tilted his head quizzically as a door slammed from the back of the building.
“I have already tried.” Collins pushed open the swinging door from the storeroom with a melancholy shake of his head. “Alas, she rejected me!”
Gardiner rolled his eyes at Richard. “Billy, you couldn’t be her beau, even if you were the last man in the world.”
“I beg your pardon, but are you not her cousin?” Richard interjected.
“Once removed!”
