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“To say nothing of what a coward you are being,” said James in a solemn tone.
Laurence stared daggers at his friend. “I beg your pardon?”
“You’d better.” James stood from his chair, adopting a judgmental posture that looked no less intimidating for his slight frame. “All that talk you’ve given me and the other lads about living up to our principles? And now, the first time you’re ever confronted with something that’s important to you besides this farm and you just let it slip away without putting up a fight?”
Mary-Anne tsked loudly. “Perhaps I was right after all, James,” she said while looking down her nose at her brother. “Perhaps it was all just a bit of fun with a pretty girl, and my brother is not so different from most men after all.”
“Now see here,” Laurence said menacingly. “I don’t want—”
“Imagine getting so worked up over a roll in the hay!” James laughed. “You’ll never see me becoming so upset when one of my little flings comes to an end.”
“Certainly not!” said Mary-Anne. “I suppose my brother really is just a moon-eyed, sensitive boy to get so flustered when—”
Then the great walls he had built came crashing down, and Laurence surrendered to his feelings. He was not displeased to find the first emotion that flooded through him was righteous fury, and with this he pounded a fist on the table, scattering his uneaten dinner and silencing the others in the room.
“That isenoughfrom the both of you!” he bellowed, feeling the cords in his neck standing at attention. “Alicia is not ‘a bit of fun,’ nor is she ‘a roll in the hay.’ She is a wonderful, beautiful woman whom I love more than life itself!”
“Then why did you let her leave?” asked Mary-Anne, stunned by this display of outrage but evidently undeterred in her mission.
“I do not intend to!” Suddenly surging with energy, his dinner forgotten, Laurence pushed back from his chair and sprang toward the entryway. “Where did you put the paper with her address?”
Mary-Anne held up the paper between two fingers and gave Laurence a grin of pure warmth. He retrieved it with a grunt and examined the elegantly scrawled words, reviewing the route he would need to take to get there.
London,he thought grimly.If I ride Robinson hard I should be able to get there in a few hours.
“I say, I hope you’re not thinking of riding before morning?” James asked.
Laurence shot him a look and raised a finger in warning. “Right though you may be, you have been quite enough help with your blasted advice, my friend,” he said, at least half-serious in his threatening posture. “I would not push my luck if I were you.”
James sank back in his chair, hands up in appeasement. “Agreed.” He was quiet for a single breath before he struck up an impish smile and rolled his eyes towards Mary-Anne. “In that case, I shall use the last of my luck to take you up on that offer of a drink.”
Out of the corner of his eye, he could just detect Mary-Anne and James sharing a laugh, one full of satisfaction and shared affection. But he could not pay them any further mind as he walked toward the barn to ready his horse to ride at dawn. Now that he had given free rein to the invading thoughts of Alicia, he could do nothing but surrender to their passion.
I ride at first light,he said to himself, chin set with determination.I will win Alicia’s heart or die in the attempt.
