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“My love, you agreed to stay in your rooms. I did not want you to hear any of that.”
“I could not help it. Forgive me. I knew a place from where I would be able to listen unobserved and could not stay away. What are we going to do, Lucius?”
For a moment, Lucius was silent. Rebecca clung to him.
“I do not know, my love. I must return and try again when your brother’s temper has cooled.”
“He will not see you. I know him. He is ridiculously stubborn on these matters and will not back away from his exiling of you. It would seem too much like weakness.”
“He must listen. I cannot give up,” Lucius said, flatly.
“How will you get by without the income from our land?” Rebecca asked. “Edward must know how much of your practice comes from Wrexham and its tenant farmers. I heard him ban you from our lands.”
“There are many other farms and lots of livestock in this county. I will replace the business. I am determined to show the Duke that I am in a position to take care of you.”
Rebecca couldn’t see how. Edward disapproved simply because of Lucius’ birth. Knowing that Lucius’ income was also now reduced would only make him more determined to see Lucius as an inappropriate match. The future seemed gray and bleak to her, a future without Lucius in which she was forced to marry another man.
Eventually, Lucius will forget me. He will meet some country girl, a squire’s daughter, or the daughter of one of his farmer customers. And he will settle down with her.
The thought left her feeling bereft and empty.
“Child! What on earth are you doing in the stables!” Olivia demanded from the doorway.
Rebecca jumped at her aunt’s voice. She made to step away from Lucius but in sheer defiance, he held onto her, pulling her back into his embrace. Rebecca looked toward her aunt, lifting her chin as her cheek rested against Lucius’ chest.
“We love each other. I am doing nothing more than allowing the man I love to comfort me before he is exiled from Wrexham by my hateful brother!” Rebecca said through her tears.
Olivia looked over her shoulder fearfully and then advanced into the stables, closing the doors behind her. She looked with distaste at the straw on the floor and then jumped, almost out of her skin, when a horse poked its nose at her over the door of its stall. Backing away, she jumped again as her back touched the white-washed stone wall. That produced another jump and a change of direction.
Finally, she cautiously advanced along the middle of the walkway that led the length of the stable, keeping a safe distance from the horses roused from their slumber by the commotion.
“This is no place for a lady. And you are a lady, whether you acknowledge it or not,” Olivia said, “I shall never get the smell of straw off my dress or…whatever else I can smell. Come along at once, Rebecca.”
“I will not. I am going with Lucius,” Rebecca said defiantly, “wherever he goes, so do I.”
CHAPTER 17
Lucius had never wanted anything as much as he wanted to lift Rebecca up to the saddle of his horse and ride away with her. Olivia put a hand to her mouth, now a perfect circle of shock.
“You cannot mean that, Rebecca!” she said. “Why, however would you live? Who would dress you in the morning or draw your bath? Or launder your clothes. Oh my, no, no, no.”
Rebecca laughed through her tears. “Aunt Olivia. There are millions of people all over the world who do those things themselves. It is not difficult.”
“They are not Boltons. It is difficult for us because we have never done them. I would not know the first thing about…about…cooking a meal or keeping a house clean. Such things are not for us. They are for staff.”
Lucius smiled grimly.
After the righteous indignation of the Duke, angry that a commoner should desire his noble sister, now we have the idiocy. Rebecca will never be this helpless.
“Your Aunt is right about one thing, my love,” he said to Rebecca softly. “Your brother would never allow you to leave with me tonight. He would raise a hue and cry and we would have the county militia raised against us. I would be arrested for kidnap, I have no doubt.”
“I will not let you go!” Rebecca said fiercely, holding onto Lucius.
He gently, but firmly, disengaged her arms from around his back.
“I have no intention of vanishing. But discretion is the better part of valor. I will withdraw to allow your brother’s anger a chance to cool. Then return to try again.”
“Try what again? What on earth has been happening?” Olivia demanded.
