“You just said it yourself,” Frederica said desperately, “Lord Padleigh would never consider marrying me.”
“Yet another would.” Margaret leaned forward, nodding furiously with her words.
“Exactly.” Ernest seemed completely resolved. “There is one man who has been hurt by your disappearance this last year. One man who was so devoted to you that he was often here in the hope that one day you would return.”
“Yes, yes, that’s right,” Margaret said with eagerness. “He could save us all from this mess.”
“Indeed,” Ernest went on. “You might never have warmed to him, but he could do much for us now. It is only right after your first scandal with him anyway, regardless of what has happened now.”
“No…” Frederica whispered, knowing exactly what her father was going to say. It was not love that this man felt for her. It was possession, desire perhaps, but nothing so soft and caring as love. For why would he threaten the life of someone she cared so much about if he loved her? “You will not make me marry him. I despise him.”
“You do not have a choice in the matter anymore. We must speak to Lord Wetherington. Maybe he will still marry you.”
CHAPTERFIVE
“What the hell were you thinking?”
Allan lifted his head from the back of the chair and rubbed the sore spot on his temples. He had barely slept and hadn’t even bothered going to bed. Instead, he’d spent the night here in his parlor, sometimes drinking the lone brandy that kept him company at his side.
“Good morning, sister,” he said, attempting a cheery tone as she burst into the room though he failed miserably.
She flung herself inside, her hair wild and barely in its updo at all. Behind her, Stephen ran in as well.
“Good morning, Allan,” Stephen said with a somewhat amused grin on his face.
“This isn’t amusing,” Dorothy snapped at him at which he attempted a serious expression.
Allan was in no mood for their bickering ways. Stephen, his oldest friend, had turned into a very natural suitor for his sister though the two had denied it vehemently for some time. Only when Dorothy was nearly courted by another did she and Stephen realize what they meant to one another.
Allan found their constant arguing wearying though.
“If you have come simply to shout at me, Dorothy, I do not need that headache.” He gestured to the empty brandy glass beside him. “Brandy has given me the headache already.”
“You look a mess,” Stephen said, moving toward him and picking up the tailcoat from where Allan had slung it across the back of a chair. “Have you not been to bed?”
“No.”
“It’s morning,” Dorothy reminded him.
“You know, I wondered what that great yellow thing was through the window. Must be the sun.”
“Allan, this is no jest!” Dorothy flung herself down onto the settee opposite him.
“You heard what happened then?”
“Charlotte turned up at my house this morning. A friend of hers came to her even earlier and told her what had happened. Gosh, I wish we had stayed longer at the ball last night,” she said with a heavy sigh as she looked at her husband. “Maybe we could have stopped it.”
“You were tired from taking care of the children,” Stephen reminded her, leaning on the back of Allan’s chair. “And I hardly think we would have been of much use in stopping Allan and Frederica keeping their hands off each other.”
“Stephen!” Dorothy snapped in outrage.
Allan simply glowered at his friend. Stephen raised a comforting hand.
“Do you want to tell us what really happened?” Stephen asked, his tone softer and more serious as he moved to sit beside his wife.
“I just came across Frederica in an upstairs corridor at the assembly rooms.”
“What were you doing up there?” Dorothy asked, nearly falling out of her seat in her restlessness. Stephen laid a hand across her back, clearly trying to calm her.
