With that, he jumped to the longest branch and was on the ground in record time. “You should have let me teach you how to climb trees,” he laughed up at her and then sat down under the tree as if he planned to spend all night there.
Blair slammed down the window and went to bed.
Chapter 8
On Sunday morning, Gates told Blair to get dressed for church, and she was to look as much like a lady as she could manage.
Breakfast was a sullen meal, with Houston more rigid than usual, and both she and Opal looked as if they’d been crying most of the night. Duncan’s face seemed to be permanently set in the mask of a martyr who was suffering for everyone.
Immediately after the awful meal, Opal said that she didn’t feel well enough to attend church and retired to her room. Gates got Blair into a corner and told her that she was killing her mother with her wicked ways.
Church was the worst. The minister seemed to think that what had happened between the twins was a great joke and made the congregation laugh when he said that Lee had changed his mind about which twin he wanted to marry.
After the service, people gathered around them, wanting to know what was going on, but Houston just stood there looking as if she were made of steel. And when Leander tried to talk to her, she answered him with barely concealed anger, so of course he decided to take his fury and frustration out on Blair. He grabbed her arm and half dragged her to his waiting carriage.
Blair was thrown against the seat of the buggy as Lee took off and headed for the south of town. It wasn’t until they were out of town that he slowed down.
Blair straightened her hat. “Did you think that she’d smile at you and say something pleasant?”
He halted the buggy. “I thought she’d be reasonable. It was the two of you who started the whole game. I never meant to publicly humiliate her.”
“All you have to do is help me get back to Pennsylvania, and you can go back to Houston on bended knee and I’m sure she’ll have you.”
He looked at her for quite a while. “No, I won’t do that. You and I are going to be married. I brought a picnic basket and I thought we could have lunch.” He wrapped the reins around the brake handle, climbed down and went to help Blair down. But as he came around the horse, he paused. “I seem to have a rock in my shoe,” he said, and leaned against a tree to remove it.
Blair sat there for a
moment and watched him, thinking about her sister’s face during the announcement in church; thinking that she didn’t want to remain in Chandler or become this man’s wife; then she grabbed the reins, flicked them, and yelled to the horse to go while Leander stood there wearing only one shoe. He chased her for a while, but he soon stopped when he stepped on something with his stockinged foot and started limping.
When she was safely out of reach of him, she slowed the horse and returned to Chandler. She had to find a way to escape the town. After this morning’s announcement, she couldn’t very well board a train without some curiosity being aroused. Being a Chandler in a town named Chandler had drawbacks. Tomorrow, Alan would arrive and perhaps he’d help her. In spite of what she’d told Lee, she had some worries about whether Alan would still want her after what had happened.
The minute Blair saw the Chandler house, she knew something was wrong. Opal was sitting on the porch, and when she saw Blair, she jumped up.
“Do you know where your sister is?”
Blair hurried up the stairs. “Has she run away? Let me change and we’ll start looking for her.”
“It’s worse than that,” Opal said, sitting down in the porch swing. “That awful man, Mr. Taggert, came to the church and told everyone that he and Houston were going to be married, that it was to be a double wedding with you and Leander. What is happening to my family? Mr. Gates says that that man Taggert has killed people to get what he has, and I can’t help but feel that Houston is taking this man because she lost Leander and she wants to show the town that she can get another husband. And he must be very rich. I’d hate to think that she’s marrying the man for his money.”
Blair sat down in the swing beside her mother. “This is all my fault.”
Opal patted her daughter’s knee. “You always were easy to talk into anything. Don’t look so surprised, dear, I know my daughters quite well. For all that Houston looks as though butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth, I know she was the one who used to talk you into the most daring things. You’ve always had the very biggest of hearts and always wanted to help people, which is why I’m sure that you’ll make a very good doctor.”
“If I ever get out of here and can continue my education,” Blair said bleakly.
Opal toyed with a clematis vine running up the side of the porch. “I’ve been thinking about you and Lee. You might not think so at the moment, but he really is a very fine man. I don’t think anyone knows him very well. He was always so quiet around Houston, but in the last few days, he’s been more animated than I’ve ever seen him.”
“Animated! Is that what you call it? He orders me about, tells me I am going to marry him, says that a woman can’t be his partner in the clinic he wants to build and, in general, is a narrow-minded pig of a man.”
“And did you think that on Friday night?”
Blair turned her face away to hide a blush. “Perhaps I didn’t then, but I’d had a great deal of champagne, and there was moonlight and dancing and things just happened.”
“Mmmmm,” Opal said noncommittally. “However you saw that night, I don’t think Lee saw it the same way.”
“I’m not sure I care how he saw it. The problem now is Houston. I have returned to this town and effectively ruined her life, and now she says that she’s planning to marry that ugly Midas, Kane Taggert. How are we going to prevent that from happening?”
“Mr. Gates and I are going to talk to her as soon as she returns home and see if we can persuade her to believe that there is another solution to this problem, other than the drastic one she seems set on.”