Page 37 of The Rebellious Countess
“But—”
“It keeps both of you safe as well,” Hag interrupted.
“Hag insists, and I find myself agreeing with her for the first time since she started going by the ridiculous name.”
“I don’t understand,” she confessed. A week ago, when she’d said her vows, she had expected a quiet marriage in the country. Since then, she’d found herself drunk, kidnapped, transported to enemy territory, abandoned with nothing, married to a man she did not know, attacked by a stranger in a tavern, witness to that man’s murder, and somehow beholden to the woman who committed the murder, who, it seemed, was actually her dead mother-in-law—now most certainly alive.
She nearly laughed. Thetonhad thought her childhood was full of scandal. Being the bastard to dead parents, who had lived as husband and wife until they died, hardly seemed like it was gossip-worthy compared to this. Her parents had believed they were legally married and had lived in the country while her father traveled to Edinburgh and Carlisle on a regular basis.Her mother had died giving birth to their sixth daughter, and her father had died of drink and a broken heart four years later. Debt had taken their home, and the girls had gone to live with their nursemaid until their mother’s godfather, the Duke of Nithesdale, had taken Máira’s oldest sister under his wing with plans to sponsor her. He ended up marrying her and making her a duchess on his deathbed. And then somehow, after giving birth to the duke’s son, Iseabail had met another duke and married him.
Dukes were rare. One woman marrying two, an impossibility. The gossip had been understandable, but this? This would knock thetonon its ears—if she ever made it home.
“I think we should return home at once,” she mused.
“I agree. Things have become far too complicated,” Hag added.
“I would love to accommodate the two of you, but that is impossible,” her husband interjected.
“Why?”
“The Earl of Astley? Remember?”
No, she actually had forgotten about him, which made her feel horrible. If it hadn’t been for Simon, who knows what would have happened to her sister Caillen. He’d saved her life when she’d eloped to Gretna Green with her husband William, only to have William gunned down by highwaymen on their way back to London. It was Simon who came across them and saved Caillen from certain death. The highwaymen, however, had escaped, and Caillen had been recuperating at Simon’s mother’s house in the country for the past eight months.
It was horrendous of her to forget Simon’s plight. “Of course. Let us be off. Simon needs our help.”
Elias frowned. “Not our help.Myhelp. You will return to theMaribelleimmediately.”
Máira stood up straight, thrusting her shoulders back and ignoring the way Elias’s gaze strayed to her breasts. “I will not.”
Elias, however, dismissed her objection. “Yes, you will. I will head out to find Astley on my own.”
It was his mother who disagreed next. “No. You will not go alone.”
Elias’s brow puckered. “Fine. I’ll take your henchman.”
“Tomás is not a henchman. He works for me.”
“He’s your guard dog.”
“A more loyal breed I’ve never found.”
“Not even in Father?” Anger tinged his words, but Elias didn’t back down.
“Especially not your father,” Hag agreed.
Elias flinched but didn’t argue.
“If Tomás disappeared there would be talk. I cannot allow him to go. Not now.” Then she did the unexpected and nodded in Máira’s direction. “She should go with you.”
Elias spit out his answer before Máira could agree. “No.”
“Yes,” she and Hag said as one, and smiled at each other. God help him if they could actually agree.
“She could be useful,” Hag said at the same time Máira said, “I can help.”
“How can she possibly help?” Elias plopped down into a chair as if all the fight in him escaped. Then he closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead, his elbow resting on the table. He sighed and rolled his neck before looking at his mother.
“Traveling as a couple is better than traveling alone.” Hag’s argument made him stiffen further.
