Page 59 of The Duke of Scandal

“Gretna Green. The place where a couple may be married over the anvil.”

Harriet’s eyes and mouth went wide with shock. Edward nodded grimly and once again paced the room, hands opening and closing as though eager to be about the reigns of a horse.

“They’ve had weeks of a head start. Could have headed there months ago. Been and gone, in fact,” Edward said.

“But there is a chance they did not,” Harriet told him. “That they wished first to wait, to see if it would be necessary. Perhaps expecting you to relent?”

“I will pray it is so,” Edward said grimly.

Harriet’s heart went out to him. He was carrying so much on his shoulders, trying to protect the honor of his sister, of Harriet, of his own family, and the Worthinghams. While he might not be getting every decision right, he was doing what he thought was best. Harriet would have tried to reach out to Rebecca and her man, rather than driving them away with such trenchant views. But she could not fault Edward’s sense of duty or his love for his sister. He was misguided but with a good heart.

Blast it all. I will make sure the maid doesn’t get censured for this. I cannot bear being overheard any longer!

“Daisy, could you step outside for a moment?” Harriet asked.

The maid looked up in surprise and opened her mouth as though to protest. Then, after glancing between Edward and Harriet, she nodded and gathered her knitting implements, heading for the door. As soon as it closed behind her, Harriet knelt on the bed and pulled Edward into her embrace. She wore a nightdress that covered her from ankle to neck and was thick enough to be a blanket, but in that moment, she wanted to hold him and to be held. Edward buried his face into her loose hanging hair, returning her embrace.

“Promise me you won’t go without me,” Harriet said.

“You are not well enough to travel.”

“But Doctor Summers said I will be by tomorrow.”

“He said you should rest tomorrow.”

“I intend to spend the entire day on my backside, thank you very much. Either on the seat of a carriage or in a saddle,” Harriet said fiercely. “Besides, if we do find Rebecca, I think she would appreciate a kind feminine word, not just a vengeful older brother.”

Edward chuckled, he turned his head and kissed first her neck and then her cheek.

“Did I tell you I believe your mother is the mastermind behind the newspaper announcement?” he said with a smile.

“Mastermind? Mother? You flatter her.”

“She was most congratulatory and keen to let me know the entire family is behind our eventual marriage.”

“It does not follow that she did it,” Harriet said. “I can’t believe it.”

“The only other candidate is Eleanor, and she has made it clear she wants to be the Worthingham that joins with the Boltons. She has been quite forthright about it.”

Harriet shook her head. “Do you regret joining your family to mine, then?”

Edward tenderly kissed her. Thought fled and for a glorious moment, she was lost to a world of sensation and desire. Harriet felt herself go limp as Edward’s embrace tightened around her, holding her up. There had been a tension growing within Harriet at being in Edward’s company but unable to touch him. She knew that this was the very interaction that Simon sought to prevent by assigning her a chaperone but, for a moment, she abandoned thought or concern and gloried in the feel of Edward’s body against hers.

She collapsed to the bed, Edward on top of her. He supported himself on his elbow, stroking her hair while feathering her lips with kisses. Harriet wanted to pull the nightgown up over her head and cast it away but she resisted the wild urge.

There must be something held back for my wedding day. Good Lord, I cannot believe that I am thinking of Edward in terms of a wedding day! This is like a dream.

CHAPTER 42

Edward woke from a pleasant dream of heated kisses and Harriet’s beautiful body atop him. He stretched in his bed, smiling, and trying to hold onto the last image. There came an insistent knocking at the door of his room, refusing to let him sink back into dreams.

What need have I of dreams anyway when I have the real thing.

He threw a long dressing gown on over his nightshirt and walked barefoot to the door. There was no carpet in the room and the floor had the chill of the morning. This was his third morning in Erdington and he had become used to the lack of luxuries. If there had been a way that he could have reassured Simon that he needn’t feel self-conscious about the relative poverty of his house, that Edward cared not for the bare rooms or the lack of staff, then he would have. But, he could not think of a way to broach the subject without injuring the man’s pride.

He’s prickly enough to begin with.

Dining had been an awkward affair with Harriet and Edward making most of the conversation. The Dowager Countess remained at the house and twittered inconsequentially about nothingness. Eleanor cried off dining with them because of illness and Simon remained silent. Edward was praying that the man who had been dispatched to Wrexham would not dawdle. He wanted to be on the road to Scotland as much as he wanted to be anywhere but the frigid, hostile atmosphere of Erdington. Opening the door revealed a man with a red face and travel-stained clothes.

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