The Thoroughly Compromised Bride (7 page)

They were soon racing out of the town.

Elizabeth, caught up in the dire urgency of their errand, failed to see Lord Braxton standing on the street corner near her home. He was staring after them, a look of profound disapproval on his face.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Elizabeth at first forebore saying anything, not wishing to divert Charles’s attention from his driving, since she thought that very likely his concern for his niece would already have distracted him quite enough. No more than two miles had sped by, however, until she realized that Charles, whom she knew to be an excellent whip, was driving to an inch, his expert handling of the reins in no way affected by anxiety—for Melanie or anything else. In fact, one might almost have supposed that he was quite enjoying himself, for an almost imperceptible smile curved his mouth and the tiny creases at the corner of his one visible eye seemed more pronounced.

At that moment, he turned his head to glance down at her, and she thought she must have been mistaken in that first impression.

His expression now held nothing but the kindest solicitude as he asked, “Are you quite warm enough?”

She smiled up at him. “Oh, yes. How kind it was of you to have provided a hot brick for my feet. Thank you!”

“Not at all. However, we have a distance to go and the brick will not remain hot forever. If you should begin to feel the cold, I trust you will tell me.”

“Well, I shall, but I confess I am at a loss to know what you might do about it.”

“I shall give you my coat, of course.”

She admired the dashing driving coat he wore, with its several capes, as she said, “How unchivalrous of me that would be! So I am to take your coat and leave you to freeze, am I?”

“Oh, I won’t freeze, I assure you! I’m seldom bothered by the cold. However, should I find myself in that unhappy predicament, we may easily find the remedy.”

“Yes, by returning your coat to you instantly!”

“No, no! I would not be so shabby as to offer you the protection of my coat, only to take it back again. What a poor opinion you must have of me! No, I would simply require you to nestle close to me. That should do the trick.”

The mischievous gleam in his eyes made her laugh, and she retorted, “Very likely! But I wish you would be serious!” Then, the tone of her voice obeying her own suggestion, she continued, “Do you know, I find this elopement puzzling in the extreme, now I’ve had time to think on it. Mr. Kirby has certainly been most attentive to Melanie, but no more so than several other young men. However, I had not thought that she liked him above any of the others. Besides which, she is forever talking about her London come-out, so why should she suddenly wish to elope? It is the oddest thing.”

“Yes, isn’t it?”

She looked at him, frowning. “And here is another puzzle, for you don’t appear to be in the least disturbed by all this!”

“No? Well, perhaps not. After all—who knows?—we may be wronging the girl. At all events, let us withhold judgment until we know the whole.”

“Do you say that she may have some excuse for such outrageous behaviour?”

“Not at all.”

“Then I am at a loss as to what you may mean.”

“I would rather not say at present. My thoughts on the matter may be completely mistaken.”

She could get no more from him and they drove on in silence, only making desultory remarks now and then until they reached Bristol, where Charles made discreet enquiries.

As he climbed back into the curricle and they started off once more, he said, “No one remembers seeing them. But then they may not have stopped here.”

This failure did not worry Elizabeth unduly, but when they received no news of the runaway couple at either the Church End turnpike, or any other stop along the way, she began to feel a distinct uneasiness. They had passed only a few private coaches along the road, and in none of these had they perceived the youthful elopers. To make matters worse, the sky was becoming more overcast with each mile that they traveled.

Charles allayed some of her fears when he said, “The fact that no one remembers seeing them means nothing. It is difficult to make adequate enquiries when I am unable even to describe their carriage.”

This made sense and she still believed that this was the only reasonable road for the young couple to have taken, but what if they had not? The Bristol turnpike was in much better condition for fast travel than the alternative road, but it was not, after all, the shortest route.

Not all of Charles’s reassurances could banish her dread entirely, however, especially when a light snow began to fall a few miles out of Gloucester. It was a little past three o’clock then, and Charles pulled into the yard of a small inn called, appropriately. The Bird in Hand. They had changed horses only once along the way, and these could go no further. An ostler hastened out immediately to take charge of the pair, and Charles sprang down and spoke to him quietly for a few moments before coming back to Elizabeth. “Come,” he said, “we’ll go in and thaw out.”

As he reached to hand her down, she stared at him in amazement. By now, it was quite clear to her that their mission was hopeless. It was equally clear from the lowering sky that darkness would fall much sooner than normal. Concern for the change in the weather, added to her fears for Melanie, were setting her on edge, and Charles’s nonchalance caused her to speak more sharply than she intended. “But what are you about? It is perfectly obvious that we must turn back if we are to reach Bath before nightfall. And I am persuaded that we must do so at once!”

“My dear, we are going nowhere just now, except inside this inn, where we will warm ourselves and have some refreshments. Then we will discuss what must be done.”

Since she was so frightfully cold by now that it required the most exacting effort to prevent her teeth chattering, she gave in with tolerable good grace.

The landlord greeted them cheerfully and obsequiously, for he knew quality when he saw it, and was pleased to offer his best private parlour to the gentleman and his sister when Charles requested it. If he thought it odd behaviour for a gentleman to carry his sister on a journey, in this weather, in an open carriage, and with little or no baggage—well, there was no accounting for what the quality might do. He bowed them into a comfortable-appearing room and while he bustled about, starting a fire to warm them, Charles helped Elizabeth remove her pelisse and bonnet and seated her in one of the wing-chairs beside the fireplace. He then excused himself and followed the landlord from the room.

He returned just as the waiter, carrying a tray which contained a bottle of wine, a pot of tea and some cold meats, arrived. When they were seated at the table, Elizabeth said, “I must own that some tea will be very welcome, but I don’t care to eat anything.”

“Nonsense! You haven’t eaten since this morning. It will do us no good if you faint from hunger later on. Come, you’ll feel more the thing after a few bites.”

She was annoyed at being obliged to admit, again, that he was right, but as she could see the wisdom of his words, she once more acquiesced and placed some food on her plate. Before she had taken her second bite, she found that she had been far hungrier than she had thought, and they both set about the business of eating in silence.

When she had finished, she looked up to see that Charles had turned his chair sideways and was sitting at his ease, one arm resting on the table, his long, shapely legs stretched out before him, his booted feet crossed at the ankles. He was watching her with a peculiar expression, impossible to read, and with a slight smile upon his lips.

She returned his smile and said, “Well. you were right, of course. I feel much better now and am ready to leave whenever you are. Naturally, we shall not get back before nightfall, but I am persuaded that we need not regard that.”

His eyes remained fixed on her face as he picked up his wineglass and sipped from it before answering her. “My dear,” he said apologetically, “I hardly know how to tell you this, but I have engaged rooms for us here, for the night.”

She stared at him, too shocked to be capable of speech.

He continued softly, “If you will but think, you will realize that I could do nothing else. Were the weather more agreeable, we
might
make it back with no insurmountable difficulty. However, with this snow it would be the height of folly to attempt it.”

“Oh, but a few snowflakes—what can they signify? They cannot continue for long!”

He smiled ruefully. “If you will but look out of that window behind you, you shall see that you are mistaken.”

She turned her head towards the window, then jumped up and ran to it. What had been, on their arrival, a few flurries, was now a full-fledged blizzard, with the wind driving a heavy curtain of snow before it. The ground was covered, and she realized that she had been hearing the whistling of the wind for some time without being aware of it.

“Oh! Of course we cannot leave,” she cried. Then, after a few moments she turned and murmured, “How foolish of me. I can’t seem to think clearly.”

He had followed her to the window, and now placed his hands on her shoulders. For just an instant she thought he meant to take her in his arms, and felt an almost overwhelming desire to take the one small step that would permit her to melt against him and lay her head on his chest. Instead, after a small hesitation, he took her hand, led her to her chair by the fireplace and gently urged her into it before moving to the other.

“My poor girl,” he said tenderly, “you have endured a great deal today, have you not?”

She sat upright in her chair, hands folded in her lap, and said, “It’s the most absurd thing. I’m perfectly sure I ought to be concerned about any number of things, but all I seem able to think is that I have no change of clothes or even any tooth powder.”

He grinned rather uneasily, for all the world as though he were a small boy guilty of mischief, as he said, “Well, do you know, it is one of my excessively strange habits that I like to be prepared for all eventualities. Before leaving the house, I had Melanie’s abigail throw a few of her things into a portmanteau. Of course, the gown may be a trifle short, and there is no tooth powder.”

She wrinkled her brow. “How very odd of you. How—”

He interrupted hastily, “And perhaps I can relieve at least one other of your concerns by telling you that I have no intention of taking advantage of our situation to ravish you!”

“Oh, no! I know you would not! What a shabby trick that would be to play on a friend!”

He threw his head back and laughed. “You are delightful! And if I had had the dastardly intention of playing you false, in spite of my promise, that sentiment would put paid to it.”

She answered his grin, sinking back into her chair, and they sat quietly for a time, watching the flames of the fire.

At last Charles stood and went to the table. “Would you care for a glass of wine, my dear? Or would you prefer that I call for some ratafia?”

“The wine, please.” She smiled.

He poured two glasses and carried them back to the fire, handed her one and seated himself again.

She took a sip before suddenly exclaiming. “Oh! We have not given one thought to poor Melanie! I wonder where she may be.”

His mouth twisted sardonically. “If my theory is correct, poor Melanie is just where she ought to be— in Bath with her mother!”

She looked astonished. “I beg your pardon, but I seem to be more than usually dull-witted today. I don’t understand you!”

He hesitated before asking what seemed an irrelevant question. “My sweet, is your aunt pleased with your apparent preference for the single state?”

“Oh, no!” she laughed. “She is forever scolding me and lamenting over it.”

“Well, my own dear sister is not only of the same mind where I am concerned, but is also an inveterate matchmaker, and a schemer of the first water, to boot—with few scruples to her credit!”

“Good God! You cannot mean what I think you do! That Lady Langley and Aunt Emily planned this whole contretemps? No! I cannot credit it! It would be too insane—too monstrous of them!” Then she added triumphantly, “And besides, they couldn’t possibly have known that it would come on to snow and trap us here.”

“I will own that I’m still puzzled by that aspect of it,” he said. “Well, perhaps you have the right of it. And if that is so, then Melanie is indeed on her way to Gretna Green and an elopement, and there is nothing we can do to prevent it.” He paused for a moment, frowning. “In which case, I only hope that it is, in fact, marriage that Mr. Kirby has in mind.”

Elizabeth stared at him. “Oh, but surely—”

“There is nothing sure about it,” he interrupted. “What do we know of this Adrian Kirby? A marriage over the anvil would be disastrous enough, but if he should merely be bent on seduction, Melanie will most certainly be ruined. No decent man would be willing to offer her marriage after such an event.”

Gazing into his wineglass, Charles failed to see how Elizabeth’s face paled. This was much too close to her own situation, and though his assessment of the outcome agreed with her own, she could not prevent herself from asking, “But if the man loved her...?”

“My dear,” he said quietly, “no man wishes to take another man’s leavings.”

She drew a sharp breath and colour rushed back into her cheeks. She had always accepted the truth of what he’d said, but even so, such a typically male opinion struck her as being blatantly unfair, and she cried, “That is ridiculous! It is my understanding that men do so nearly every time they take a mistress!”

“That is a different matter entirely. I was speaking of marriage,” he replied rather sternly. Then his face relaxed into a smile as he continued, “But there is no need for us to discompose ourselves over such an unlikely occurrence. As I said before, I strongly suspect that Melanie is even now with her mother.”

Fearing that her own past experience had prompted her to respond overemphatically, Elizabeth made a deliberate attempt to calm herself and turn her thoughts to their previous conversation. Several moments passed before she was successful, but then her eyes opened wide with dawning comprehension.