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“Get off me,” she cried, trying her best to twist her arm and break free. When that didn’t do anything more than painfully tighten her skin, Sian tried to prise his fingers off her. While she was struggling, Wilhelmina came to join them.
“We want a word with you,” Wilhelmina snapped. “Now, now, Cedrick, there is no need to be so rough with her. We were just going to offer her a lift home.”
“I don’t want a lift home,” Sian retorted flatly. “I am going to meet my mother. She will be here in a moment.”
“No. I don’t think so,” Mabel countered smoothly. “I have seen her at the town square, you see, and know she is waiting for you with that buffoon.”
“Pardon? She is with my sisters.” Sian blinked at her in confusion and temporarily stopped struggling.
“And that lover of yours,” Wilhelmina retorted coldly. “You might have been a bit more circumspect with your liaisons, my dear. People are talking.”
“Nobody has anything to talk about,” Sian snorted. “Unless you have been trying to besmirch the family name.”
Now that, Sian didn’t doubt. Wilhelmina would if she thought it would get her what she wanted.
“Don’t think I don’t know what you are trying to do,” Sian declared boldly. “You think that trying to persuade me that people are talking about me, and that my reputation is ruined, will be enough to persuade me to marry him.” She jerked her head toward Cedrick dismissively. “Well, I don’t believe a word you say, and wouldn’t marry him even if my life, my reputation, and my future, lay in ruins around my feet. Why, I should rather spend the rest of my life in a workhouse than marry that.”
“Well, it can be arranged,” Wilhelmina drawled.
“It is going to happen if you keep taking advantage of father. The workhouse that is, but you will live there too.”
Wilhelmina’s eyes narrowed spitefully with rage. “If Arthur has a problem with accommodating his dear sister, he has been more than capable of telling me so himself but hasn’t. I am afraid that it is seriously unacceptable for you to even try to speak for him.”
“Accosting me is not going to help matters. My father would never have given you permission to force me to do something against my will,” Sian declared boldly.
“He has told me to come and fetch you,” Wilhelmina informed her dourly.
“Well, he can come and tell me he wants to see me himself. Like mother said, I am not going to do something you tell me,” Sian spat. “None of us are.”
“You are going to come with us. We are going to have a nice sensible chat about what you are going to do about this poor behaviour of yours,” Wilhelmina informed her with an arrogant sniff.
At Wilhelmina’s nod, Cedrick grabbed Sian once more. This time, he began to drag her by the arms over to a large carriage waiting across the road. Sian protested, screamed, and struggled. She was only partly aware of the shop keeper coming out of his premises to see what all the fuss was about. Unfortunately, Wilhelmina intercepted him. They were too far away for Sian to hear what was being said, but whatever Wilhelmina muttered into the shop keeper’s ear was enough to make the man hurry back inside and close the shop door without a second look.
Sian stared at the open maw of the carriage as if she was staring through the gates of Hell. She had no idea where it would take her and dreaded the thought of what would happen to her, her choices, and her future if Cedrick did drag her inside.
“This is kidnap,” Sian cried. “You cannot do this to me.”
Boldly ignored, she was bundled into the carriage anyway. She had barely hit the seat when Wilhelmina climbed aboard and was swiftly followed by Cedrick. Almost instantly, the carriage jerked into life.
“Let me out of here at once,” Sian hissed. “You are not going to get away with this, Wilhelmina.”
“Don’t be so worried,” Wilhelmina chided. “We are going to go home now. Your father has commanded you return. Given the help he has given me, getting his family back home is the least I can do in return, do you not think?”
“You have never bothered to carry out my father’s wishes before,” Sian snorted. “Or else you would have curbed your spending years ago.”
Strangely, Wilhelmina didn’t argue. Her gaze slid to Cedrick, who was staring out of the window as if nothing untoward was happening.
“This is kidnap, Wilhelmina,” Sian insisted. “My mother is waiting for me. I command you to stop and let me out. She is going to be worried about me and will tell the magistrate if I don’t turn up as planned.”
“No, she won’t. She will search the town for you. When she realises you are not there, she will go home to look for you. By that time, you will be back at home where you belong. Don’t worry, by the time we have finished you will be with the love of your life again. The only one you are meant to be with.”
“What would you know about that?” Sian frowned and struggled not to slide another look at Cedrick, not least because she didn’t want to give Wilhelmina any misunderstanding that she was even the remotest bit interested in the hideous man beside her.
“This isn’t the way home,” she whispered moments later when they turned away from the lane leading back to the village. “Take me home. At once, do you hear? I don’t care what you think you are doing, you cannot kidnap me like this. It is illegal, Wilhelmina. I am going to have you two arrested for this.”
“Oh, do shut up. I am sick of your bleating,” Wilhelmina sighed impatiently. She glared at Cedrick. “You really are going to have to curb her atrocious conduct, you know.”
“She will do as she is told once we are married,” Cedrick warned.
