“This is how you repay my generosity?” General Blackwell grunted, pulling me by force toward the doorway. I barely registered the pain. Heaven help me, some day I probably would be dragging men out of rooms. Our daughters would likely be just as headstrong and unpredictable as their mother.
“Papa, stop. You are upsetting Mama and the furniture.” Evelyn chided her father as if he’d taken the last biscuit from the tray and not like he was physically dragging me from the breakfast room. Her faith in her father’s goodwill was mightier than my own. But my trust in Evelyn was unshakable. My life was not in danger. “I would have shot him if it had actually been necessary.”
Ah. Apparently my life was not in danger—yet.
General Blackwell stopped but he didn’t release me. We were just inside the open doorway.
I raised an eyebrow at Evelyn, a feat quite impressive considering how little air was making it into my lungs.
I pulled down my collar with all my might so I could get another solid breath of air. Then I craned my head back so I could look the general in the eye. “I have no memory of the night we spent together,” I croaked as loudly as I could manage. Even still, I wasn’t certain my words would make it through to him. His face was still exceedingly red and it couldn’t have only been from the exertion of dragging me out of the breakfast room.
“That hardly makes it better,” Miss Pryor’s voice was only just above a whisper behind me. What a muddled mess. I took another gulping breath.
“General,” I raised my voice loud enough he wouldn’t be able to miss it. “I was completely delirious when I kissed Evelyn in the shepherd’s croft.”
The pressure on my collar immediately released and I dropped to the floor.
The whole room had gone silent—too silent after all the commotion of chairs toppling as I was being dragged away against Evelyn’s wishes. Everyone was looking behind me at the entrance to the room.
With dread knotting my stomach, I rolled over.
Mrs. Wickerton stood in the doorway, the diminutive features of her face frozen in shock.
She blinked rapidly, glancing first at Evelyn, then at me on the ground, and finally up at General Blackwell looming over me.
A slow, steady smile grew upon her narrow lips. With shaking hands she opened her reticule and pulled out her little book.
Mrs. Wickerton licked one of her fingers and then flicked through the pages of her book until she came to a blank one. “Am I to understand felicitations are in order?”
“No,” General Blackwell growled.
But Evelyn crossed the room, calmly stepping over my legs, and took Mrs. Wickerton’s free hand into her own. “They most certainly are. Thank you. We are delighted you are the first to know.”
30
EVELYN BLACKWELL
Papa finally gotthe chance to speak with John in private, albeit slightly later and slightly less private than would have been his preference. Mama and I had both forced our way into his study.
Papa stood behind his desk, pacing, while Mama and I each sat in one of the two chairs near the fireplace, leaving poor John to face him alone. Other men might have cowered under Papa’s fury, but not John. He withstood it well—so well I had a hard time removing my gaze from his broad uncowering shoulders while he waited patiently for Papa to form words.
When they came to him, he turned toward us and leaned both of his hands on his desk. “You came here with the express intent of proposing to Harriet, and now you expect me to allow you to propose to my daughter only two weeks later? Absolutely not.”
“I was first going to ask for your permission to court her.”
Papa raised a hand toward the door. “How can you propose only courtship after Mrs. Wickerton witnessed that scene?”
There wasn’t a correct answer to this question. As John stood his ground, I could practically see his brain churning trying to think of what he could say to appease Papa. “Perhaps you andyour family can discuss the timing and inform me what you think is best. I’m more than happy to court, propose to, or marry your daughter at your convenience."
Papa ran a hand through his hair. “You think I want a man who would take advantage of my daughter as a son-in-law?”
“Advantage?” I interrupted from my chair. “How could he have? He was delirious.”
Papa’s eyes were steely when he looked at me. “I’ve seen what men do when they are delirious. And beyond that, your mother discussed the possibility of you being the woman who saved Captain Calder that night. But you weren’t wearing white. How did you end up wearing white, Evelyn?”
Oh. Even more than the kiss, our state of undress would be quite hard to explain. Thank the heavens the door to Papa’s study was locked and Mrs. Wickerton wouldn’t be able to walk in on this conversation.
“You must understand,” John stated as if he were giving his commanding officer a report, “I was extremely ill. My trunk had been sent ahead to Applewood and I was soaked?—”
