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She had to go home, for her mother’s sake, and face her father’s wrath before he could hurt anyone else.
She hurried toward her chamber. Once inside, she started flinging clothes into her trunk, packing as quickly as she could. She would leave within the hour, just as Lady Helen had requested, and take a stagecoach from town back to her part of Oxfordshire, then head home.
“I will not let him hurt her again,” she muttered to herself in anger. In her mind, she was coming up with all sorts of brutal images and ideas of how her father might have hurt her mother. Each one tempted her to cry, and each one ended up making her fury grow.
When Sherborne still didn’t make an appearance, she left the room and began to walk down the corridor, hoping to go in search of him. Yet a figure appeared nearby at the end of the corridor and her boots skidded to a stop, coming face-to-face with Lord Northrive.
***
“Mr Blake, there you are,” Marcus said, hurrying forward. “Quick, I must speak to you.”
Mr Blake opened his mouth as though he too were about to say something, but there were voices at the far end of the corridor. What Marcus had to say, he did not want to be overheard. He took Mr Blake’s arm and dragged him into the nearest room. This was one of the empty guest chambers, leaving them the peace they needed. He released Mr Blake and closed the door behind the two of them, locking them away from the outside world.
“I owe you a huge apology,” he said, jumping toward Mr Blake. It did not escape his notice that the young man was breathing heavily, even red in the face and perhaps a little teary-eyed. His heart went out to his friend, fearing what heartbreak he had put him through. “I had no idea that you had any sort of attachment to Lady Helen.”
“What?” Mr Blake said, rearing back a little.
“Please forgive me, had I known then I never would have asked you to plead my suit to her.” Marcus stepped toward him. “Pray forgive me, my friend, that was cruel of me to do, but I never would have done it had I known how you feel.”
“Wait a minute,” Mr Blake said, holding up both hands in trying to stop Marcus from saying any more. “You think that I care for Lady Helen?”
“Seeing what I have just seen,” Marcus said, grimacing as he ruffled a hand through his hair, “it is hardly surprising. There is also a whisper going through the staff about some kind of heartbreak.” He didn’t miss the way Mr Blake recoiled. Seeing that pain made Marcus reach toward his friend, feeling that pain as though it were his own.
“I understand why you walked away from Lady Helen so rudely now, to be faced with having an attachment to her when I have been pursuing her myself, and the match is sanctioned by our parents….” He trailed off, realising he was making no sense. “Mr Blake, I am so sorry you have to go through this.”
“I have no designs on Lady Helen whatsoever.” Mr Blake’s sudden words were higher-pitched than usual.
“What?” Marcus asked, dropping his hands from his head.
“You think I could like her?” Mr Blake said, gesturing to the door as though out into the house where she must have been.
“She is incredibly beautiful,” Marcus said with a sigh. “She’s also enchanted Walter and Peter. Apparently most men can’t help but be charmed by her.”
“I am not one of them,” Mr Blake said, standing a little taller. “I have no idea where you have gotten this idea from, but I am far from being besotted with the lady. Like her if you must, my lord, fall in love with her if you wish to as well, but I could never care for anyone who is so manipulative, nor so arrogant.”
The words stunned Marcus, making him place his hands on his hips.
“Those are heavy insults indeed to place at the lady’s door,” he said with a warning tone.
“I do not make them lightly, but they are deserved on this occasion, more so than you can ever know.”
“What on earth does that mean?” Marcus asked wildly. “Blake, there is no harm in admitting to being charmed by the lady, but I will not stand here and let you insult her out of jealousy.”
“Jealousy? Yes, I am jealous. But not of her.”
“What? Then of who?” Marcus asked, not understanding what was going on with their conversation.
Mr Blake veered toward him. The move was so abrupt that Marcus didn’t have time to think of what was happening, not until he felt Mr Blake’s arms wrap around his neck and their lips collide together in a kiss.
