That they were free? That they were more than birds, fluttering their wings against the bars of a pretty cage?
In the end, they were still caged. They’d only pretended to fly.
“All right,” Henry said slowly. “What do you mean to do?”
She licked her lips and met his eyes. “I want to beat her to Gretna Green. And I want you to come with me.”
Henry appeared to stop breathing. Every muscle in his body went abruptly, unnaturally still.
Had shekilledhim? Surely it was notsoshocking a proposal. For heaven’s sake, Henry had been there when she’d gotten slowly and deliberately drunk on Christmas punch and attempted to use a Sèvres platter as a sled.
Then she divined the reason behind what was, for Henry, a startling display of alarm.
“I don’t mean that I want to elope with you,” she said quickly, feeling oddly stung. “I want to track her down on the route or—failing that—be there when she arrives. I think I can bring enough coin to pay off the whole bloody village. If no one will witness the ceremony, she willhaveto think twice.”
Henry was still frozen. She began to worry that he’d ceased to hear her.
“It’s only—well—” She hesitated, disturbed by Henry’s utter lack of response. “I cannot go alone. I need you to come with me, Henry. Please.”
At that last, life appeared to return to her brother’s best friend. He started to blink rapidly, and by God, the man had remarkably long eyelashes. Margo thought she might feel a breeze.
“No. No. Absolutely not.”
Her mouth fell open, and she snapped it closed. “No? Did you not hear me, Henry? I only need you to come along—I don’t need you todoanything—”
“You only need me totake you to Scotland—”
“It won’t be so much trouble! I promise, Henry, I’ll—I’ll be good.”
His body seemed to shudder, and Margo felt horror flood her before she realized he was laughing. “Margo, you couldn’t be good if your life depended upon it. You are a walking hurricane. Chaos scents you and hurls itself in your direction.”
Well. That wasn’tnottrue.
“Please,” she said, “please,Henry.”
“Can you not ask your brother?”
She scrubbed her face with her hand, then tangled her fingers in her wet coiffure. “He’s in Wales.”
“Bloody hell,” said Henry, and Margo felt her brows shoot up in surprise. She could not recall ever having heard Henry curse before. She and Matilda had gone through something of a blue period after they’d ordered a cant dictionary from a catalogue, and even at their worst, Henry had barely seemed impressed.
“I knew that,” Henry continued. “When does he return?”
“Not for another week at least. I have to gonow,Henry. Tonight, if I’ve any hope of finding Matilda before it’s too late. She’s already had nearly a day’s head start.”
“What if you don’t make it in time?”
She stared down at the puddle of water at her feet. “I can’t think that way. I have to make it.Please,Henry.” She was begging now, and she couldn’t bring herself to care. “I need you.”
“Damn it, Margo!” Henry leaped to his feet and started to pace, and Margo was frankly boggled. “I have—I can’t—” He choked off his words and tried again. “I am a solicitor. I have responsibilities. I cannot just leave for a two-week trip up the Great North Road and back.”
Margo felt cold self-loathing settle in the pit of her stomach.
God. What had she been thinking? Of course he could not simply bend to her every whim. He worked for a living—she had always respected that about him, just as Spencer did. Heworked.He had responsibilities, and people who depended upon him, and she was just a small, redheaded disaster who needed other people to clean up the messes she’d made herself.
On stiff legs, she rose. “I’m sorry.” Her voice was hoarse, but her eyes, at least, were dry. “Of course. I should have realized that sooner, I—”
She was not going to cry. Shewas not.
