“Nor do I, but it’s better than traveling any further with you!”
“In all my life, I have never met a more insufferable woman!”
“Do you think those horses are tired from their effort or from listening to this nonsense for hours?” Nathaniel murmured to Cecily as the loud and fractious back-and-forth continued.
She looked back with unhappy eyes, clearly more worried than entertained by the situation.
“They’re not married yet. They can’t be,” she thought aloud, her mind running only along this one track. “But if they’ve been alone together for so long, theymustget married.”
“If you think me insufferable, you had better not marry me!” Mary shouted the next moment, taking a ring off her finger and throwing it at Patrick. “After seeing your true colors, I’m certainly in no hurry to marry you!”
“I dare say that’s mine too,” Nathaniel muttered, watching the silver band roll in the dust before Patrick picked it up. “He probably pinched it from the family collection at Greyhaven Park.”
He watched his brother’s face contort painfully with anger, shock, hurt, and confusion as he stared at the ring in his hand. If he had any sense, he would have given it straight back to her, but sense had never been Patrick’s strong suit.
“Well then, I suppose you’ve saved us both the trouble of getting all the way to Scotland and finding all this out too late,” Patrick said with unconvincing insouciance.
At this point, Mary burst into tears, and Cecily could hold herself back no longer, rushing to her side.
“Mary!” she called out. “Thank God I found you, Mary.”
“Cecily! What are you doing here?”
“I came to look for you. Do not fret, everything will be all right.”
“Oh, Cecily! I’m so sorry.”
Mary threw herself into Cecily’s arms and sobbed inconsolably on her shoulder as Nathaniel strolled forward to confront his brother.
“Ladies, you had best go and wait in my carriage,” he announced crisply. “I expect the horses are hitched by now, and I will join you shortly. But first, my brother has some explaining to do.”
Pushing Patrick ahead of him and ignoring the mutinous expression on his face, Nathaniel went back to the inn and asked for a private parlor.
* * *
“I tell you, it wasn’t my fault!” Patrick insisted for the hundredth time. “What was I supposed to do? Leave her there at the mercy of her drunken uncle and old Ashworth?”
“It’s never your fault, is it, Patrick?” Nathaniel scoffed. “Anyway, you’re talking as though I’m angry that you eloped with Miss Mary.”
“But you are angry, Nathaniel,” Patrick stated. “If you weren’t, you would have just laughed and walked off. That’s what you usually do.”
“I’m angry that you haven’t finished what you started, as usual,” Nathaniel clarified through gritted teeth. “You ought to be halfway to Gretna Green by now, if you’d shown any real determination. Why did you have to come back here?”
“That wasn’t my fault either!” Patrick cried out and then changed his tune as realization dawned on him. “Wait, are you saying… You actually wanted me to elope with Mary?”
“Christ, I couldn’t care less what you do, as long as you keep the law and don’t make trouble for me,” Nathaniel snapped, not wanting to show his full hand to his unreliable younger brother. “But still, why not marry the girl? She’s of good family andcomely enough. It really would be simplest to get you both back on the road to Scotland.”
“You want us to go to Gretna Green now? After everything?” Patrick repeated incredulously. “What about Mary’s sister? Won’t she stop her?”
“You may leave that to me,” Nathaniel told him shortly. “Miss Holt and I have an understanding. If you write and sign a letter now, swearing that you will marry Miss Mary as soon as you reach Scotland, I believe I can set everything to rights.”
“But I still don’t understand why you’re taking such an interest all of a sudden.” Patrick frowned in confusion. “You’re never interested in me, or anyone else…”
“A charming fraternal observation,” Nathaniel commented, not entirely understanding his brother’s point but uninterested in encouraging further speculation. “I remind you that I am not the current subject of discussion, nor the cause of the domestic crisis that now entangles us. The point is that the girl is ruined by your escapade, and you must marry her.”
“Well, Mary won’t have me now, will she?” Patrick grumbled. “You heard what she said. She even threw back my ring.”
“Myring, I believe,” Nathaniel corrected him. “Which I do not begrudge for its intended purpose. What in hell’s name did you say or do to upset a woman who was so keen to marry you that she ran away from home in the night?”
