Page 71 of Wedding the Widow

“You are a very fortunate man, Lord Brack.” Another piercing stare at her, and she lowered her gaze. “Very fortunate indeed. Should you ever require my assistance again, my dear, your father knows how to find me. Good day, Mrs. Easton, Lord Brack.”

Sighing deeply, Elizabeth took Jemmy’s arm as Lord Robert’s tall, straight figure wound its way toward his carriage. “He is a very good man. I will pray each night that he finds the happiness he deserves, whether that is alone with his books and studies or with a good wife who will be fond of him and take care of him as he writes his manuscripts.”

“Well, I give you leave to pray for Lord Robert, and even to be fond of him, as he did attempt a very chivalrous deed for you and your family. However”—Jemmy paused and trapped her hand in both of his—“a fondness is as far as it may go.”

Elizabeth laughed, a great weight rolling off her shoulders. “I agree, my love. You shall hear no argument from me on that particular.”

The approaching figures of Papa and Mama, faces sullen, said Elizabeth’s trials were far from over. She quickly dropped Jemmy’s hands but raised her chin and set her jaw. She’d not antagonize them, but neither would she allow them to sway her from her chosen path. “Mama. Papa, I would like to present—”

“Come, Elizabeth.” Glancing first at her, then briefly at Jemmy, Mama took Papa’s arm and urged him toward the landau. “Please get into the carriage before we become even more of a public spectacle.”

Lord, more battles to face. But with Jemmy here, they could face them together.

“I would like to present—”

“You heard your mother, Elizabeth.” Papa’s tone was as cold as the two stygian pools that were his eyes.

Puffing out the frigid air, Elizabeth set her shoulders back. If her parents wanted this fight here and now, so be it. They would not give her beloved the cut direct, not after everything he had gone through to get here. She’d walk every step of the way home if she had to. “I’ll not enter that carriage until you agree to the introduction. I do not care that you disapprove of my choices, Mama. They are mine to make. And I will not allow you to slight the man I love, the man I am going to marry.”

“Elizabeth,” Jemmy spoke quietly behind her. “Perhaps we should—”

“No.” She raised a forbidding finger to him. “They will acknowledge you this instant, or I will walk every step of the way home. I am done being told what I shall and shall not do.” Swinging back around on her parents, she almost gasped to see their mouths hanging open. Good. At last, they were paying attention to her. “Who I shall and shall not marry.”

Papa coughed, and Mama sent him a familiar sideways look, one of her standards that said, “I’ll take care of this,” when their eyes met.

Sure enough, lips pursed, Mama finally nodded. “Very well, Elizabeth. We will meet Lord Brack, but for God’s sake, allow us to do it at home out of the cold. Wentworth, assist me into the carriage before my feathers freeze.”

As Papa helped her in, Elizabeth turned to Jemmy, whose eyes twinkled a bright blue. “Do you think you can manage one more turn on a horse today? It is not far, as you know.”

Jemmy grasped her hand and raised it to his lips. “I would ride to hell and back just to see you perform in such high dudgeon. It quite becomes you, my love.” He released her hand and bowed to her father. “I will see you shortly, my lord.” With a flash of his grin, he hurried toward a tired-looking black stallion, tied to one of the church’s posts.

“Elizabeth.” Her father called her back to the waiting carriage, and with a sigh, she gave him her hand and stepped up into it. This short ride would be accomplished in deathly silence or with Mama’s noisy recriminations. Either way, it didn’t matter, as long as Jemmy was there at the end of it.

Chapter 27

The quick ride home was silent, thank goodness, though Mama’s glare could have melted the Sphinx. Papa had opened his mouth once, but she had fixed him with her fiery eye, and he subsided into a fit of coughing.

They had scarcely pulled up in front of Worth House before the door opened, and there was Jemmy, reaching in to hand her down. He still looked windblown and rough, but he’d managed to remove most of the clumps of mud from his jacket.

Brimming with joy, as though she was really returning from church duly wed, Elizabeth took his arm and led him into the house.

Tawes’s eyebrows nearly disappeared into his hairline when he opened the door, but he speedily recovered. “Mrs. Easton”—a subtle pause—“my lord.”

She smothered a giggle as she relinquished her spencer to the butler. Jemmy had presented himself as Lord Robert’s brother. No wonder poor Tawes would be flustered, wondering why she would leave to marry one brother and return on the arm of another.

“Come into the family room. There’s a small wedding breakfast laid there that we may as well eat.” Elizabeth took his arm and led him up the stairs, her steps so much lighter than when she’d come down them an hour before.

“So we shall anticipate the wedding yet again?” Jemmy whispered, his grin widening.

Smothering a laugh, Elizabeth ducked her head, her cheeks heating, remembering the last time they had done so. “We’ve done more scandalous things than almost any couple I know.”

His face sobered instantly.

“What’s wrong?” Fear clutched her heart. He was precious to her, now more than ever. She couldn’t bear to contemplate anything else going amiss.

“Nothing, my love. At least, nothing that won’t keep until we speak with your parents.”

A niggle of unease continued to nag her, but his strong, warm presence beside her dispelled any lingering worry. As long as they were together, nothing else mattered.