“You are all invited,” Gwenys interjected. “And the wedding is tomorrow!”
“Maybe,” Miranda insisted, but none of her friends bothered to listen to her because they were all too busy squealing and cheering over her good fortune.
“We’ll be there,” Berry assured her. “I wouldn’t miss this for the world.”
“Nor I,” Gwendolyn agreed. “Although this will set me back in my romantic quest for the Marquess of Milbury. Now I’ll have to find him someone else who is lovely and smart and charming. I already have two candidates and wanted a third.”
Miranda rolled her eyes. Honestly, why did Gwendolyn not put herself in the running?
Suzanna laughed. “Bonham and I were going to install new drainage pipes in our dressing rooms tomorrow, but that can wait.”
Dear heaven. Those two were meant for each other. What other wife would be excited about the flow of their effluence? But Suzanna certainly had the soul of an engineer, and her husband adored her for this.
“Do you know what gown you will wear?” Gwendolyn asked.
“No, I haven’t thought that far ahead yet,” Miranda replied. “There’s no telling if we will have all in order in time to marry tomorrow. Solway is first going to call upon Gwenys’s father with Douglas. Only afterward will they go for the marriage licenses, assuming Gwenys’s father gives his consent.”
Berry frowned. “Will he resist?”
“For certain,” Miranda said with a shake of her head. “I don’t know why they are even bothering. His wife is going to make certain he rejects Douglas because she is such a spiteful harpy and wishes to destroy Gwenys’s happiness. She loves to spread misery, so she will hover over him like a hawk to make certain he does her bidding.”
“Oh dear. Well, we always knew he was a weakling,” Berry said. “But wouldn’t it be lovely if he chose this moment to finally do the right thing? Then you two can have a double wedding. The Lawsons wedding the Lanarks. It is quite romantic.”
“He won’t do the right thing,” Miranda replied.
“That wife of his,” Gwendolyn muttered. “Evil woman.”
Miranda glanced at her niece. “I know my wedding plans may interfere with—”
“Yours are most important,” Gwenys insisted. “Once you are the Duchess of Solway, they won’t dare try anything with me. If Douglas and I need to wait a few more weeks or months, then that’s what we shall do. Douglas may have to return to Scotland on his own, but you and Solway will be here to protect me.”
Miranda wished she could be as confident as Gwenys, but she’d had fifteen years of experience with Lady Lowery and her vile cohort, Lady Trowbridge. She would have to speak with Bram and work up a plan for Gwenys.
After adding their assurances to remain ever watchful, their friends returned to their homes while Miranda and Gwenys walked back to theirs.
“Aunt Miranda…”
“Yes?”
“I’m not really brave. My stepmother and her evil companion do scare me.”
Miranda put an arm around her niece’s shoulders. “They scare me too. But they only succeed in sowing misery because they behave like predators. They can only move in for the kill once they’ve separated their target from the rest of the herd, and I am never going to let them get close to you. Once you and Douglas are married, they will not be able to separate the pair of you, either. I do not want you waiting months to wed. We’ll discuss this tonight with the two men when they return from their meeting with your father.”
“All right.”
“I am not the only one ready and willing to protect you. Those Lanarks will never allow anyone to hurt you without coming down on their heads like a big Scottish hammer.”
That made Gwenys smile.
They stayed home for the rest of the day and tried to concentrate on wedding thoughts, but they both knew everything was still up in the air.
It was nightfall by the time Douglas and Bram arrived at their home, striding in like conquering heroes along with two of their kinsmen while a half-dozen others stood at attention by the front gate with the discipline of a small army. Miranda recognized the two who had marched in with Douglas and Bram as Lanark cousins, for she had met Hugh and James Lanark at varioustonaffairs over the past few years. These Scots were all big men, towering over her and Gwenys, even though neither she nor her niece were small ladies.
She invited them into her parlor that suddenly seemed small because their shoulders were all so broad. “Would you care for refreshments?”
Bram answered for them. “Nay. We won’t be staying long.”
“Oh, I see. Do have a seat, gentlemen.”
