Page 35 of The Gentlewoman Author

Mrs. Eliot filled the doorway. “Mary, you must go with him. I ordered the maid to pack your trunk.” In a gentler tone she said, “It is the best way to hush the scandal. If you are both gone, I can spread the news that you and Louisa left together. No one will be the wiser. If you hurry, you may find her tomorrow or even today. It is early still.”

“Find her today,” Mrs. Allen repeated and looked out the window, seeming to talk to herself. “Yes. I see the wisdom. Then I will take her home and let my brother do what he will with her.” She rubbed her forehead.

“I did not imagine Louisa was foolish enough to put herself in the power of that scoundrel,” Mrs. Eliot said. “You know what he wants, I suppose. Her dowry. He lost his sister’s in endless reveling and has been desperate to earn it back since she became engaged a few months ago.”

“What?” Mary and Daniel spoke together.

“Oh, yes. I thought everyone knew.” Mrs. Eliot paled. “Good heavens. Louisa may not know if the two of you do not. Talk of Savage’s escapades is all over town. I don’t know how I failed to mention it.”

Mary pressed a handkerchief over her face and whimpered. “I wish I’d never taken her on this foolish adventure.”

Daniel’s chest tightened. He’d brought a serpent with him to Bath.

“Mary,” Agnes said, “all might not be lost. Go! Get that imprudent girl and marry her off to whomever her father chose.”

Me. I am the person of whom they speak.Could he marry her after this?

“You are right.” She stood. “I will be ready in quarter of an hour.” She left the room, muttering over Louisa’s stupidity and her own inept efforts to help her niece.

Mrs. Allen was to accompany him. Her presence might slow him down, yet there was pleasure in the thought of spending time with her.

Savage. That blackguard! A thief and a reprobate. The man ought to be whipped. Daniel’s father had told him of Miss Thorpe’s dowry. Not a fortnight earlier, when Savage wondered what Louisa would bring to a marriage, Daniel told him and thought nothing of it. Though generous, the dowry was not enough to sustain a lifetime of Savage’s laziness or his gambling habit. If news spread of Savage’s financial desperation, his chances of marriage to a lady of fortune would vanish. He must have hoped he could win back his losses at the gaming table, and when he could not, preyed on Miss Thorpe. If he ruined her, her family could not deny their union. They would appear at Mr. Thorpe’s door, begging for his blessing and Louisa’s money.

True to her word, Mrs. Allen’s trunk was packed in fifteen minutes, and in another five, Daniel handed her into the carriage. Mrs. Eliot rushed down the steps and stuck her head into the carriage door. “If I discover something, where shall I send word?”

Daniel gave her the direction of his castle. She nodded and took Mrs. Allen’s hands. “My dear friend, trust that I will do everything in my power to help. Should you need anything at all, write.”

The carriage pulled away. “Where is your maid?” he asked.

“That is one consolation. Nellie is with Louisa, so they have a chaperone. She is a good sort who will look after Louisa.” Mrs. Allen pulled at her sleeves, then clasped her locket. Would wrapping his arm around her shoulders soothe her? He brushed the thought aside.

In any case, the carriage was too small for a maid, but Jeremy’s presence was enough to keep it proper. Daniel arranged himself next to Mrs. Allen. The length of her body next to his unraveled and soothed the coils that were building in his stomach. Anger calmed to a simmer. In the close space of the carriage, he inhaled her rosewater scent and surreptitiously peeked at her. Her fidgeting stilled, her hands rested on her lap and her forehead on the window. He wanted to console her but didn’t know how. They rode in silence until all signs of civilization lay behind them.

“This is my fault.” Her voice broke and shattered his heart. He ached to remove her pain, to see her free of worry once again. His fingers twitched to take her hand in his, but he kept them laced together in his lap. They were friends, but not that sort.

“You are merely her guardian and cannot be responsible for her behavior.”

“I am. I assure you. She’d never have done this if I had not put the idea in her head.”

“You suggested this to her?”

Of course, she hadn’t. She was a gentlewoman who would never say such a thing. “Not overtly. But yes. That is precisely what I did.” Her voice diminished to a rough whisper.

Daniel tried to imagine a scenario in which such a suggestion would have been made. Perhaps, there was an argument and Mrs. Allen told her niece to go ahead and run off with a rogue. Now was not the time to ask for elucidation. “You did not arrange with Mr. Savage to carry off your niece. You did not persuade your maid to pack her bags and accompany her on an infamous journey. Whatever you said to her could not have convinced her to take such a step. And it is at least as much my doing. I began to suspect he was a villain some time ago. I even warned him against flirting with her. But I did not foresee that he would make such a move.”

“Flirted with her? I didn’t notice. You see how negligent I was?”

He had no words to comfort her, so he patted her arm, a shadow of what he would like to do. How would he restrain himself for the entirety of the journey?

Silence followed, and Mrs. Allen watched out the window of the carriage, fingering a letter she’d been holding since they alighted the carriage.

She held it up and waved it. “Louisa’s farewell letter. She thanks me for inspiring her with the bravery to make the elopement.”

Daniel wanted to smack Miss Thorpe. “She is a young lady who made a poor decision of her own accord. You did nothing wrong, Mrs. Allen.”

“You may as well call me Mary. The need for formality vanished as soon as we embarked on this errand.”

“Daniel.” He took her hand and squeezed. In an effort to express assurance, he opened his mouth. Everything will be all right. I will make sure of it. And I am sorry for my part in this. The sentiment did not materialize, and anyhow, the words were not necessary. The clasp of their hands spoke what he could not utter.