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Enraged to the point of murder, Morgan looked at Fairhead. “See!” he said in triumph. “Generally speaking, she’s always generally speaking.”
He should have taken warning the moment he saw her eyes narrow, but he didn’t.
Instead, he blurted out, “Do you really want to spend the rest of your life withthat?”
Her shriek of outrage could have splintered glass. As it was, it made an indelible impact on his eardrums.
“If Iwerea man, I’d call you out,” she snapped before gathering her skirts and storming from the room.
And it was only then that Morgan realized he’d seen tears starting in her eyes.
Tears,he thought, momentarily stunned. From Serenity? Surely he was wrong.
“You are a pig, Morgan Drake,” Kristen said, rounding the settee to stand before him. She looked at him as if he were the vilest creature alive. “I’m ashamed to have ever called you brother.”
Before Morgan could respond, Robert and Jake entered the room.
Robert paused an instant and stared at Fathead. “Stanley? Why on earth are you wearing that getup?”
Color stained the man’s cheeks.
Suddenly everything became clear. Serenity’s dress and acquiescence. Fathead’s declaration of love.
Kristen’s manipulative personality.
The look in Martha’s eyes…
“You mean he’s not a captain?” Morgan asked.
“No,” Robert answered. “He’s the local smith.”
“Kristen!” Morgan bellowed, moving toward her.
With a squeak, she ran from the room.
“Congratulations, Captain Drake,” Fairhead said with a snide grin. “You’ve managed to clear the room.”
Morgan turned on the menace who had ruined his night. “At least I wasn’t a dupe for a knottypated scheme.”
“No,” Fairhead said, picking an imaginary piece of lint off his cuff. He looked up at Morgan, his glare hostile. “You were a royal jackass. Between the two, I think I’d much rather play the dupe.”
Serenity maliciously pulled the pearl-tipped pins from her hair, taking comfort in the pain as she walked through the garden with no destination in mind. She just needed to get away. Be alone for a while until she could assuage the wounds of her heart.
“This was so stupid,” she snapped, wiping angrily at the tears on her cheeks. “You knew he didn’t care for you. You should have never listened to Kristen.”
Hurt beyond her heart’s tolerance, Serenity reached into the pocket of her dress trying to find a kerchief.
Of course one wasn’t there.
“Oh, bother anyway,” she sobbed, wiping her face with her hand.
“Here.”
She froze at the sound of Morgan’s deep timbre. He stepped out of the shadows with a crisp linen kerchief dangling from his right hand.
“What do you want?” she asked, her voice harsh. “Haven’t you insulted me enough?”
Taking the extended cloth, she dabbed her eyes.
