They both stiffened at the contact, but the anger and disappointment flowed out of Penelope as her daughter held her. She wrapped her arms around Bridget, gripping her tightly as if she had nothing else in the world to hold onto.
“I’m sorry,” Penelope sighed. “You don’t need to hear any of this.”
“I do,” Bridget replied. “Better to get it out with me than for Margaret to hear any of it. It irritates me that she still has so much love for him, but I don’t want to take that from her. She should not lose her innocence.”
“No, she should not. She is so happy. Have you seen how happy she is? I don’t want anything to take that away. I should have one daughter who is happy in life.”
And more disappointment came rushing back.
“Mother,” Bridget hissed as they hugged. “I am happy. You have two happy daughters.”
“Maybe you have it right,” Penelope moaned, her tears starting to wet the shoulder of Bridget’s dress. “You have decided you will never marry, and that means you will never be hurt like I have been hurt. Your father was a good man when I married him, and Lord Michael is a good man. What if?—”
“Don’t say that,” Bridget interrupted. “Lord Michael is not Father. He is a good man, and I know he will care for Margaret. He loves her, that much is clear. Father has an addiction. If we used him as an example, no woman would ever marry. You have to believe this wedding will turn out for the best.”
“I do,” Penelope replied. “It will save our family, but what if Margaret hates me for it? I arranged this marriage without considering her feelings. I wanted to save us from ruin, but what if she will be ruined?”
Bridget took her mother by the shoulders, hoping to speak some sense into her.
“You need not worry about Margaret, Mother. She is happy with Lord Michael, and she told me this morning that she is falling in love with him. You might have chosen for her a husband with other reasons in mind, but you still chose well.”
“Did I?” Penelope asked. She looked in a daze, her eyes wet and her legs shaky.
Bridget worried her mother would crumple if she let go of her.
“You did, Mother,” she reassured her. “You chose a man who could help our family and one who is perfect for Margaret. You have held this family together for so long, and you deserve some happiness of your own. Let me worry about things from now on, and enjoy your time here. Don’t you think it is for the best that Father has left?”
Penelope thought about it for a second. “I hate to say it, but itisfor the best. We only have to get through the rest of the time here, and then two more weeks, and they will be married. All of our problems will be solved.”
“Some of them will be solved,” Bridget reminded her.
She wished she could have her mother divorce her father, but that would create additional problems. They would start with the marriage of Margaret and Lord Michael and go from there.
“I know I am hard on you sometimes, Bridget, but it is only because I love you,” Penelope said.
Bridget almost cried at her mother’s words—a rare show of genuine affection from a woman who had erected walls around her heart because of her husband.
“I know,” Bridget replied. She rubbed her side after the long hug with her mother.
Penelope wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “You are still sore,” she said—more of an accusation than a statement. She was instantly back to her old self.
Bridget wondered what her mother would say if she told her she had been out riding alone with the Duke and had spent time with him at the estuary. She still could not believe she had gone along with it.
“I will be fine, Mother,” Bridget assured her.
“How did it happen to you? I heard something about a fall in the early morning.”
“Yes, I was walking not far from the house, and my foot must have caught in a tree root, and I fell into a bush. It looks worse than it is,” Bridget said.
Penelope reached forward, and Bridget expected a tender caress from a loving mother. Instead, Penelope took her chin and turned her face left and right to get a better look. Bridget almost gasped when her mother turned her face to the right and she saw the Duke walking toward them. Penelope turned her daughter’s face to the left and the Duke disappeared from view. She could feel him approaching, and wanted to strain against her mother’s touch to look at him, but thought better of it.
“It’s a good thing you are not getting married looking like that,” Penelope stated.
“The wedding is over three weeks away. They are only scratches,” Bridget pointed out. “If I were getting married, I would be fine.”
“Good day,” Nicholas said on arrival. “I noticed the two of you leaving in a rush, and I wanted to make sure both of you were fine.”
Bridget wanted to tell him that it was none of his business, but she refrained.
