"I would prefer her to join our family in Dorset," his father said. "I agree—she doesn't need to marry Adrian. We can find a way to work around it. "
"She is welcome to stay here for as long as I live," Montague said. "After that it's up to my brother. "
"She will always have a home here," Simon Pagett said.
Everyone turned to look at him in surprise. Lady Whitmore with slowly kindling wrath.
"Good for you," Monty said faintly. "I knew I could count on you after I'm gone. "
"Your brother?" Lady Whitmore demanded, incensed.
"Half brother," Montague clarified. "And heir. I wish he wouldn't insist on remaining a damned parson, but there's nothing I can do about him choosing a 'respectable' life. You'll marry her, won't you, Simon?”
The two brothers' eyes met, a look of silent understanding moving between them. And then Simon smiled ruefully. "You know me too well, brother. Of course I will. ”
Lady Whitmore was on her feet, pale and shaking. For a woman so adept at hiding her feelings she looked quite devastated. At least everyone's attention was off him, Adrian thought, wondering if he could slip out.
''You're not going to marry Charlotte!" she cried.
The vicar looted back at her, and they might have been the only two in the room. "Of course I'm not. That is, I'll perform the ceremony for her, but she's not the woman I'm going to marry. "
Author: Anne Stuart
Lady Whitmore failed to look mollified. "Then who?" she demanded.
"You, darling," Montague said airily. "He's madly, stupidly in love with you. Now sit down and be quiet. ”
Lady Whitmore sat, too stunned to say anything more.
There was a faint smile at the corner of Haverstoke's mouth, one that vanished when he turned back to look at his son. "We still haven't decided what—"
Adrian rose, finally having had enough. "I'm afraid, sir, that it's not your decision. It's Charlotte's. I think you've kept me from her long enough. " And he strode out of the room, without a backward glance. Though he could have sworn he heard his father's approving chuckle as he went.
He took the steps two at a time in his haste to get to her. Charlotte was lying in bed, her red hair a coppery halo around her pale face and he felt the unfamiliar panic fill him. She looked so unlike her usual fierce self.
His mother looked up from her needlework and gave him a warm smile. "Did they ring a peal over you, dearest boy?"
"Of course. " He moved to her side and kissed her cheek. He adored his mother, but he needed her out of the room. "Do you mind if I speak to Charlotte alone?"
"Don't leave!" Charlotte protested, but Elinor, Marchioness of Haverstoke, had already risen.
"I'm sorry, my dear, but I believe he's about to abase himself, and you shouldn't miss the chance to let him. " She drifted out of the room on the scent of lilacs, and Adrian turned back to Charlotte.
He did look chastened, Charlotte thought, staring up at him. Which everyone probably told him he deserved, but she was more charitable. He'd saved her life. He'd tried to do the right thing. And when she'd been trapped in that hellish church she'd told herself she should have said yes to him, taken anything she could get of his love.
Now she knew she had no choice but to say no.
"I'm sorry I yelled at you," he was saying. "Back at the chapel. I was afraid he was going to kill you. "
"I understand," she said politely. "And I should thank you for saving my life. "
"If it hadn't been for me you wouldn't have been in danger in the first place. " He moved closer.
Her aim ached, her head hurt, and she wanted to cry. But first she needed to let him go. "I think you've been blamed too much for one day," she said. "You shouldn't be blamed for. . . er. . . compromising me. I never said no to you. ”
"Until today. When I asked you to marry me. "
She could do this, she told herself, putting a calm smile on her face. "In fact, you didn't ask me to marry you. You told me we would get married. "