Aldridge shrugged. “After MacLeod used Highland trickery to connect his fists repeatedly to Blackmore’s face—”
Blackmore nodded. “Much better.”
Aldridge smirked at his friend. “MacLeod challenged Lord Tarrymount to meet him either in the ring or on the field of honor for his part in ruining your good name.”
Cecelia clamped her mouth shut when she felt her jaw fall open. “And Lord Tarrymount chose to duel?”
“I would have done the same,” Aldridge said. “At the time of the challenge, we all thought Blackmore quite dead from the force of MacLeod’s hits.”
“I did not even swoon,” Blackmore growled.
“No, indeed,” Aldridge rushed to agree, though he gave both Aila and Cecelia an amused look. “You were simply resting, unresponsive, with your eyes closed.”
“Quite right!” Blackmore thundered.
“Where is this duel?” Cecelia demanded. She simply had to stop it. She’d never be able to live with herself if Liam died defending her honor.
“I’ll take you,” Aldridge offered. “You’ll never find the glade on your own.”
Cecelia glanced at Aila, who stood there calmly. “Why are you here?” She knew her voice was near a screech, but she did not care. “Are you not worried for your brother’s life?”
“Certainly not,” Aila responded confidently. “They are using rapiers, and whoever draws first blood is the victor. Liam will win.”
Cecelia wanted to throttle Liam’s sister. “And if Lord Tarrymount manages to strike a blow and your brother gets an infection and dies? This is madness! Who is his second?”
“Our younger brother Alistair. He only just arrived in Town,” Aila said.
Cecelia was so upset, she wanted to scream at Aila for not talking Liam out of the duel. Instead, she turned to her mother. “Mama, I must go!”
“I’ll go with you,” her mother replied. “I have grown quite fond of Lord MacLeod.”
Cecelia was struck speechless for a moment. When the ability to speak finally returned, she demanded, “Exactly when did you have the opportunity to grow fond of him? I know you said you understood why he did what he did, but now you say you have grown fond of him, too? When?”
“This morning,” her mother said primly. “He sent me a note begging me to meet him at the Rochburns’ home. Of course, I did not refuse, as I know how you truly feel about him.”
Cecelia did not feel the slightest embarrassment at her mother’s pronouncement. “What did he want?”
“Why, he wished for me to tell him every single detail I could recall about you. He said he wanted to show you that he knew you and loved you.”
Cecelia was about to ask her mother if Liam had mentioned Francis when Elizabeth spoke. “He came to me yesterday asking questions about you, too,” she offered.
“And me, last night,” Aldridge said.
“And me, after he blackened my eyes,” Blackmore supplied.
Cecelia’s heart nearly burst with happiness. He loved her. It didn’t matter why Francis had been on his arm yesterday. Cecelia believed with all her heart that he loved her. She had been the biggest sort of fool for ever getting so angry with him.
A few moments later, she sat squashed in a carriage between her mother and Aila as they raced, on Cecelia’s command, toward the dueling green.
Cecelia took her mother’s hand in hers. “Did you tell Liam—”
Her mother gasped at Cecelia’s use of Liam’s proper name.
Cecelia just grinned. “Did you tell him how terribly I feel for being so cross and ridiculous and how I went to see him?”
Her mother shook her head. “I thought perhaps it might be best coming from you. I know, if it were me, I would want to hear such wonderful news from the lips of the lady who had my heart and not her mother, who had been so horrid. I did tell him not to give up hope, though.”
The heaviness in her chest lifted as she leaned over and kissed her mother’s cheek. Not only had Liam given her love but he had given her mother—the wonderful, caring, thoughtful lady she had once been—back to Cecelia.
