Bram arched an eyebrow. “She has someone better, Miranda. She hasye.”
The comment had her blushing.
Then her blush deepened when Bram related to his kinsmen how he’d found her outside Parliament in the midst of a near riot. “She was beating some poor sod about the head.”
“Because he tried to steal my necklace.” She huffed in indignation, as though that would make her actions less foolish.
Bram cast her a look that was both affectionate and admonishing. His cousins had wide grins on their faces and were trying to stifle chuckles.
She got back on the topic of Gwenys’s father. “Will his wife not be screaming bloody murder by now?”
“No,” James said. “She thinks he’s gone to his club with Montrose.”
“You are jesting, are you not?” Miranda could not believe what she was hearing. “Is Montrose that deeply involved in your kidnap scheme?”
“Aye,” Bram admitted. “He loathes the influence Louisa’s mother and Lady Trowbridge exert on her. He’ll do anything to foil their underhanded schemes. Can ye blame him? He thinks Louisa shows promise, and they might make a happy marriage if only those two vipers are kept away.”
“And Bram’s had us watching Lady Lowery and that Trowbridge woman,” Hugh added. “Mr. Barrow told us that they sneak off to the gaming clubs whenever Lord Lowery is no’ around.”
“They do?” Miranda was not all that surprised, for these ladies represented everything that was rotten in theton. They were bored, spoiled, privileged, and cared only for their own amusements.
“Aye,” James said, laughing as he took out his pocket watch and checked the time. “They went off to gamble the moment Montrose and Lowery left the house. They ought to be at the tables by now.”
“And how is this significant?” Miranda stared from one to the other, for all three men were grinning and guffawing once again.
James obliged with an explanation. “Mr. Barrow knows everyone in the London constabulary and…well, they are about to stage a raid on that gaming hell.”
She gasped. “What?”
Hugh gave up a hearty laugh. “They’re going to be rounded up and taken in with the other tarts.”
Miranda’s eyes widened. She tried to respond, but no words came out.
“Ye know, ladies of loose morals,” James said with a nod.
Miranda could hold back no more and burst out laughing again, then hastily placed a hand over her mouth because she did not like to think of herself as petty and vengeful. But it was no use pretending to be appalled when she wanted to leap out of her chair and dance around the room with the wild delight of a pagan dancing around a bonfire.
“The two of them will be released at eleven o’clock tomorrow morning,” James concluded.
“By which time Gwenys and Douglas will be married,” she said in amazement, and turned to Bram. “And I assume Lord Lowery will be safely returned home by then and will not say a word about his consent, Gwenys’s church wedding, or your abducting him.”
“Well, it could be said that we just had a pleasant night out, just us lads,” Bram teased. “Abduction is such a vulgar word, especially when Lowery so quickly went along with it.”
Miranda was still amazed. “You set all this up? With Montrose? And Mr. Barrow? And your cousins? When did you find the time to plan this?”
“The night of the soiree.”
“Is this why you did not attend?”
“Aye. I knew something had to be done when Douglas, the moonstruck lad, showed up on my doorstep. Lanark Castle and all my holdings are going to fall into ruin if he does no’ marry yer niece fast and get his mind back on his work.”
Miranda shook her head. “And what of me?”
“Och, I love ye something fierce. Getting Gwenys and Douglas married took a bit of scheming, but it was always my plan to woo ye with all my heart and soul once they were safely husband and wife. I was never going to walk away from ye.Never.”
“I was so afraid you would,” Miranda admitted, her heart melting again at his words. “I thought you were avoiding me because you did not want to see me again. I had insulted you. How did you know I would change my mind?”
“And marry me?”
