Amanda Scott (28 page)

Miss Lavinia said sharply, “Now, see here, Eustace Scopwick, you’ve no call to go saying such things. If a body’s wanting to go fishing and is looking for the friend she usually fishes with and hears two pistol shots, it is only natural that she—”

“Oh, cease your piping, woman, and go fishing or wherever else you can think to go!” Scopwick shot over his shoulder as he rapidly approached Sabrina and grabbed both of her hands. “And take that boy with you! Do not go any nearer, my lady,” he added quickly as Sabrina moved to pass him. “The sight is not a pleasant one.”

“Shots?” said Harry. “Two shots? Guess Ollie and Allie are to blame for those. A duel, don’t you know?” he added when all eyes turned his way.

“Well, we know that,” Dolly said, lifting her chin a little. “They were fighting over me, after all.”

“If you are wise,” said Mr. Enderby, favoring her with a chilly look, “you won’t refine too much upon that, my girl, for there is nothing at all romantic in having two gents making cakes of themselves like they did. Bad
ton
, that’s what it is, and that’s what I told them both from the onset. Dashed bad
ton
.”

“You’re only saying that because you don’t like it that Mr. Saint Just paid heed to me,” snapped Dolly.

“Dashed loose screw,” Harry retorted. “Said so all along. Man don’t go about seducing his friends’ sisters under their own roofs. And you, Saint Just, don’t go thinking to call me out for saying as much, because you know it’s true.”

“I don’t ever call anyone out,” Saint Just said blandly. “Oliver did the calling. I’ve apologized to him, and I’ll apologize to anyone else who will listen, before I take leave of you all.”

“Oliver oughtn’t to have called you out at all,” Harry said, frowning. “Dashed awkward.”

“What!” exclaimed Dolly. “You think Oliver did wrong to defend my honor? How can you say such a thing?”

“Didn’t say it,” Harry told her. “Said he was wrong to call Saint Just out. Guest under his roof, don’t you know. Man don’t threaten to shoot his guests. Only think what a precedent that would set. Told him so. Wouldn’t listen.”

“Well, of course he wouldn’t listen,” Dolly said angrily. “He was certainly not going to sit back and let that man do what he wanted to do to me, what I didn’t even know he wanted to do until Aunt Emily explained the matter to me. Why, I think you’re perfectly horrid, Harry.”

“Should have thrashed him for his insolence,” Harry said, still following his own train of thought. “Would have done it myself if anyone had told me what was going on.”

“Like to see you try,” murmured Saint Just dulcetly.

Oliver turned on him. “No, you wouldn’t, because saving Cousin Jack, Harry’s the best man with his fists in Yorkshire. You’d have suffered a lot worse than you did from my pistol.”

“Well, no one but the birds you frightened suffered from that,” said Harry, adding for the others’ benefit, “Both shot wide, which goes to show. Of course, Saint Just did it on purpose—deloped into the air. Oliver’s just a naturally bad shot.” His breath caught in his throat suddenly, and he looked the scene over again, lifting his quizzing glass to his right eye as his gaze came to rest upon Emily. “I say …”

“Which way were you facing, Oliver?” Jack demanded.

Oliver flushed to the roots of his hair as understanding swept over him. “I don’t know precisely. We just faced each other, and—”

“South,” said the helpful Mr. Enderby in a thoughtful tone. “Daresay he was pointed directly toward you lot.” Looking back at his principal, he said, “Looks like you didn’t fire so wide after all, Ollie, if your bullet touched Miss Wingrave and went on to put paid to that fellow there.”

Wrathfully Jack turned toward the hapless Oliver, the look on his face causing that young man to take two hasty steps backward. Jack said, “The Frenchman fell on his own pistol, causing it to discharge. The only thing you hit, you young idiot, was your aunt. And when I finish with you, you’ll be lucky if you can sight a pistol again, let alone fire one.”

“Jack, no!” Emily cried, trying to get to her feet. “Oliver never meant to hurt me. That was an accident.” Standing, she took a step toward him with the intention of stopping him physically, but the shock of the wound she had suffered made her dizzy and she stumbled.

Sabrina’s cry of alarm stopped Jack. Seeing Emily swaying on her feet, he leapt to catch her before she fell, but his temper was more inflamed than ever. Catching at her arms without thought of the pain he was causing her, he shouted, “You are right to defend Oliver, for it was your own idiocy that nearly got you killed. What were you thinking of to leap in front of the damned Frenchman’s pistol that way? In fact,” he bellowed, “what were you doing in the road at all? You promised to remain at the Priory, to stay out of all this.”

“I promised to stay on the Priory grounds,” she said without thinking. “The woods are still—”

“Damn you, Emily,” he snapped, giving her a rough shake, “I am going to teach you the folly of playing such tricks with me. Before this day is out, you’ll get such a lesson that you’ll never dare to do such a thing again.”

“We came to warn you about the duel,” Dolly said, “and I don’t care what Harry says. I don’t believe that Oliver did anything wrong. Though I do think,” she added musingly, “that it is rather nice that Harry wants to thrash Mr. Saint Just.”

“Just you come along with me, my girl,” said the exasperated Mr. Enderby, “and I’ll explain this business to you in a way that you will understand clearly. I never knew such a brainless wench in all my life, and that’s a fact. You need a good strong-minded man to look after you, so you just come along with me right now. And mind, Dolly, I’ll have no back-chat.”

“Yes, Harry,” Dolly said meekly. “Please don’t be vexed with me. Perhaps I didn’t properly understand, after all.”

“Dashed right, you didn’t,” said Mr. Enderby.

Watching them go, Emily remembered Dolly’s assurance that she wouldn’t go to the bottom of the garden with any man. Harry, however, was not a man whose motives need trouble anyone, Emily decided, turning her attention back to the earl.

He was staring in stupefaction at Mr. Scopwick. “I should what?” he demanded, making it clear to Emily that another conversation had been going on besides Harry’s with Dolly.

“Well, you cannot do the things you have been threatening to do to her if you
don’t
marry her,” the vicar said, chuckling and throwing a wicked glance at Emily. “It’s not, as our Harry would say, at all the done thing. Certainly, as a man of God, I could not condone beating a woman who is not your wife. Moreover,” he added, looking down at Sabrina and speaking gently, “you’ll need someone besides young Oliver there to help you run the Priory. I mean to take his mama off your hands if she will have me.”

Ignoring the bulk of the vicar’s comment, Jack said flatly, “Oliver is going back to Cambridge. Whether he likes it or not, I mean for him to finish his education.”

“I’ll go,” Oliver said quietly. “I’ve a deal to learn before I shall be fit to run Staithes properly or to look out for the children as I should.”

“Mr. Scopwick,” Sabrina said faintly, clutching tightly at his hands, “whatever did you mean by what you said?”

“Mean to marry you, that’s what. Been thinking about it for a long time, but didn’t think you liked me well enough or that I ought to speak before you were out of mourning. Can you stomach being Sabrina Scopwick after so many years as Lady Staithes?”

“Goodness,” Emily said while her sister looked up at the vicar in speechless dismay, “I had my mind all made up to a match betwixt you and Miss Lavinia.”

The vicar roared with laughter. “That heathen wench? I’d be ripe for murder within a week. No, ma’am, a peaceable man like me needs a peaceable wife.”

“Peaceable,” snorted Miss Lavinia. “That will be the day. Sabrina would need to sit on you in order to have peace if she were daft enough to marry you. Don’t you do it, Sabrina. We go on comfortably enough without him.”

Sabrina shook her head, still clearly unable to speak, and there were a number of chuckles from the others. Favoring them with an air of reproval, Miss Lavinia added primly, “Having known Eustace all my life, I can assure you all that I should certainly never be so lost to my senses as to marry him or any other man. Men are but foolish creatures at best, and a sensible woman steers clear of them. If dear Sabrina is so misguided as to agree to take on the burden of sharing life with you, Eustace, I shall fashion some thick earmuffs for her. At least, thus, the worst of your bellowing will be muted.”

“And what of your megrims, you old bat?” demanded the vicar. “No doubt we shall be forced to take you in as well. ’Twould be a crime to force you on young Oliver, and that’s a fact.”

Sabrina spoke at last, weakly. “I couldn’t possibly,” she said. “N-not possibly. Oh, dear.”

Scopwick smiled gently down at her. “You will change your mind, I think,” he said. “Already you look to me for help when you need it, do you not?”

Again she was silent, looking up at him with eyes that were round with astonishment.

“If Sabrina ever does agree to marry you,” Jack said quietly into the silence that followed, “Miss Lavinia can live with Emily and me, and welcome.”

E
MILY HAD BEEN WATCHING
Jack for some time, trying to decide if he was still furious with her for nearly getting herself killed and, incidentally, for disobeying his orders. She realized now, without surprise, that although she had been almost as surprised as her sister to hear Mr. Scopwick’s proposal, she had not been nearly as astonished by the vicar’s suggestion that Jack marry her, and she had been even less astonished to hear Jack make the offer he had just made regarding Miss Lavinia. Before she could search her mind for logical reasons for this surprising turn of thought, Sabrina spoke up, diverting her instantly.

“Before anyone gets married,” she said rather quickly, still looking up wide-eyed at Mr. Scopwick, “should we not remove that odious person from the roadway? I am sure Melanie and Giles, at least, ought not to be standing here talking about such things over the body of a dead man. It is not at all the thing, you know. And what are we going to do about Miss Brittan? She certainly cannot continue as Melanie’s governess, although I am sure she has repented of all her dreadful deeds.”

Miss Lavinia sniffed. “No doubt it was the man’s fault, anyway. Probably he’s the one clouted Emily.”

“Do not blame Antoine,” said Miss Brittan stiffly. “He was still in the prisoner camp that day. When I knew that Miss Wingrave had been so foolish as to follow me, I merely stepped behind a tree, and when she passed me, I hit her with a rock. I do not apologize. It was necessary that I not be recognized. And please do not call me Miss Brittan anymore. I am Felice de Bretagne, and my family is an old and proud one.”

“But we were kind to you,” Sabrina protested, looking away from Scopwick at last in her surprise.

“You provided me with a place to live near my beloved Antoine, that is all. Your country would not permit me to visit him when I asked to do so. Indeed, I was forced to pretend to be a citizen of Belgium to pass your stupid customs. I had an English governess when I was a girl, and I speak your language like my own, so once I was here there was no difficulty. Now that Antoine is dead, I shall die too.”

“You’ll go to prison, more like,” said Scopwick, “despite what I said before. Don’t hold with hanging females, myself, so I’ll speak for you, I expect. Daresay you won’t like Bridewell, but there it is. Where are those cursed Runners of yours, Meriden? We could use them now.”

“At the tavern in the village,” replied the earl, who was watching Emily closely. “I’ll send someone to fetch them.”

“I’ll go,” Oliver volunteered.

Meriden glanced at him. “An excellent idea,” he said curtly, “but don’t think to play least in sight afterward, my lad. I’ve still a few things I want to say to you about your duel, you know.”

Oliver nodded, returning his look manfully. “I know, and I deserve to hear them. We never thought about how close to the road that clearing is. Even Harry didn’t consider that, blast him.” He glanced at Mr. Bennett, who had been watching and listening without making his presence felt. “Your nag’s in my stable, Ted. Want to ride along with me?”

“What about him?” Bennett asked, gesturing toward the Frenchman’s body.

“Lord, he ain’t going anywhere,” said Oliver.

“Nevertheless,” said the much-tried earl, “someone must stay here until the Runners arrive to deal with the body and to take Miss Bri—that is, Mademoiselle de Bretagne in charge. There is no point that I can see in taking either one back to the Priory.”

“I can stay,” offered Scopwick, chuckling again.

“No, I want you to look after Sabrina,” Jack said, ignoring that lady’s small gasp as he turned his gaze upon Emily again. “Miss Lavinia and Giles can take Melanie fishing with them, if she wants to go, but Sabrina will no doubt wish to continue with her visit to the vicarage, and I want a few words alone with Miss Wingrave.”

His tone of voice made Emily look at him sharply. He was looking grim again, and she was by no means certain whether he meant to propose marriage in style or to throttle her.

Mr. Bennett expressing his willingness to remain with Miss Brittan while Oliver fetched their horses, as well as a pair of stout grooms to take Bennett’s place while the two young men went in search of the Runners, the others were easily persuaded to leave the scene.

Sabrina said nothing about the decision made with regard to where she would go, but expressed concern lest some unsuspecting wanderer come upon the Frenchman’s body.

Scopwick assured her that there was no cause for worry. “Man’ll have to be carried somewhere, I expect, so it’ll be best if the lads bring a hurdle or some such to carry him on. Runners’ll take Miss Whatever-she-chooses-to-call-herself in charge, but they ain’t going to want to be burdened with a dead body any more than anyone else would.” He looked at Meriden. “Daresay the churchyard’s the place for him. I’ll see to it if you like. Just have the lads take him along there once the Runners have had a look at him. Ought to notify the folks at Stilington Camp that their wanderer’s been found, too.”