Selina could not remember the last time she had sat down and talked with her brother. He was always so busy, and she was always lost in a book or secretly meeting with her friends.
Her thoughts drifted to the clandestine Matchmakers’ Book Club. The mysterious masterminds behind society’s most unexpected, and mostly successful, pairings over the past few years.
She doubted she would ever learn their identities or discover how it was that they put matches together, but she wondered if there was a way to make a request. A request for her brother, without whom Philip might not have arrived in time.
I never read the book they sent with my letter.
It was still in London. Unless it had somehow found its way into the things that had been sent to Ashbrook. She had been too occupied to search through her belongings, but perhaps it warranted a look when she got back.
“What do you think will happen to Lord Ramsbury?” she asked, wrapping the blanket tighter around herself.
Reuben shrugged. “Kidnapping a duke’s bride will not be tolerated in the courts. Then again, heisa marquess, so his sentence will never be as severe as he deserves.” He got up. “One thing is for certain: he will not be welcome in society again.”
“And if he seeks revenge?” Her voice wavered.
“After what has transpired here, I doubt he will be stupid enough to make the same mistake again.” Reuben patted her gently on the shoulder. “You will be safe, Selina.”
He headed off toward the dining room, leaving her to sit and wait for someone to come and tell her that she could go home. Not to London, not to the Barlow country estate, but to Ashbrook—the only place she wanted to be, even if there was a tough conversation to be had.
The ride back to Ashbrook was rather more silent than the journey to Lord Ramsbury’s residence.
Selina rode alone, at her own insistence, flanked by Zachary and Philip, with Reuben and her father following behind.
It was strange to see the same route in daylight. Rather pretty, actually, with the summery sunshine glowing down upon thequiet group. The hedgerows were alive with twittering birds and sweet-faced mice, the green and golden fields scattered with rabbits and a deer or two, while herds of sheep basked in the shade of lone oaks.
The constables had taken Lord Ramsbury away, so it would be the remaining servants who had to tell his mother what he had done. She pitied the old woman who might have been her mother-in-law, just as she pitied the Marquess for making the wrong decisions.
He will lose that manor.
She shook off the thought. It wasn’t her fault that Lord Ramsbury had acted so foolishly, just as it wasn’t her fault that she had ended up betrothed to Philip instead.
Holding that reminder in her heart, she lifted her head to the sunshine and allowed herself to enjoy the rest of the slow ride home.
“You do not have to stay,” Selina said shyly. “There is no risk of me being kidnapped again.”
She sat on the edge of the bed while the maids drew a hot bath for her, at Philip’s command. Meanwhile, he stood by the window like a guard on duty, his arms crossed, his gaze turning to the window every so often.
“Nevertheless, I will stay,” he replied.
One of the maids looked up from the bucket of hot water she had just poured into the tub. “If you are worried about Mary, Your Grace, she has gone.”
“Gone?” Philip’s eyes flashed. “I told her to wait.”
The maid grimaced. “She snuck away before dawn. The other ladies in the drawing room had dozed off while they were waiting for you to return, and Mary must’ve seen her chance to escape.”
“Did someone help her?” Philip growled.
“Does it matter?” Selina interjected with a sigh, weary of the upheaval. “She is gone, she will not come back, and I doubt she will show her face here again or anywhere in polite society.”
“Itdoesmatter,” Philip insisted. “I want to know every detail of the plan.”
Selina shook her head. “The plan failed.”
She hesitated, knowing that if she continued, it would mean the start of the conversation she had been dreading.
“She was in love with you, Philip,” she said. “People do foolish things when they are in love, especially when they have beenhurt. I forgive her. Indeed, I wish her luck, wherever she has gone. The details of the plan donotmatter anymore.”
Philip tilted his head to the side, confusion creasing his brow. “You forgive her?”
