“Ohhhh!” Lady de Boult was a picture of perfect outrage. With an angry, futile, “Well!,” she glowered at Alex, and then, to his surprise, she also slapped him before stamping off toward the palace.
With a rueful grin, he rubbed his twice-injured cheek. “You English lasses have hard hands,” he said.
“Go to hell!” was Velvet’s furious reply. “If you think I intend to kiss and make up with you, you’re mistaken, my lord.”
His brow darkened, and then he said in a seemingly calm voice, “What I think, Velvet, is that you’re a spoilt brat. I admit I was wrong in ignoring you in the years between our betrothal and now, but when that contract was made between our families you were a child and I already a man.”
“You might have sent the child a doll, my lord. You might have remembered her occasionally on her birthday, or Twelfth Night, or even the anniversary of our betrothal, but you did not! The truth of the matter is that you did not remember me at all until your dying father reminded you of your obligations. Only then didyoudecideyouneeded a wife, a creature upon whichyoumight breed the next generation of Gordons of BrocCairn. Well, my lord Earl of BrocCairn, I am not a brood mare, and I have decided that I will not marry you ever! You’re far too fickle a man to suit me!”
Alex was stung by the truth of her words, yet if she would not give in, neither would he. The right was his, he told himself firmly. “I was willing to wait until yer parents returned home, Velvet,” he said in an ominous voice. “I have played, or tried to play, the suitor for these four months, but ye’re an impossible little shrew! I will wait no longer! Not for yer parents, not for ye, not for anyone! I need a wife now, and ye’re contracted to me by both God’s law and man’s.” Taking her firmly by the hand, he dragged her along behind him down the queen’s garden toward the river.
“Stop! Where are you taking me?” Velvet demanded of him.
“To Scotland, madame! To be my wife! To be the mother of my children! By this time next year, the first of our sons will be at yer breast, Velvet, and this nonsense will be long forgotten!”
“Never!” she cried.“Never!I would sooner be dead!”
He ignored her cries and her frantic struggles as, reaching the quay, he called out to hail a boatman. Shoving her down into the small boat, he directed the man to Lynmouth House. When she looked as if she might scream, he glowered at her and said in a low, threatening voice, “One word, Velvet, and I’ll toss ye in the river to drown! I swear it!” She believed him, regretting bitterly that she had ever driven him so far. It was symptomatic of her own childishness, she realized, that she had been so wrapped up in herself she hadn’t stopped to consider him or his feelings in this matter. Perhaps she might reason with him.
“My lord,” she began softly, “please, I beg of you, do nothing foolish. We are too much alike, I fear, to make a successful match. I cannot believe that there are not any number of girls who would be honored to be your wife.”
“Yeare my betrothed wife,” he growled at her. “Now be silent! I don’t wish to share our problems with all of London.”
She opened her mouth to protest further, but then closed it again. Better not to aggravate him. They were going to Lynmouth House, and Robin and Angel would be there. They would help her reason with him and it would all be resolved. Meekly, she folded her hands in her lap and waited to reach their destination.
The Earl and Countess of Lynmouth, however, were not in residence when they arrived. A message had come up from Devon late the day before saying that the earl’s little daughters were ill, and nothing would do, the majordomo told them, but that her ladyship hurry down toLynmouth Castleto minister to her stepdaughters. Naturally his lordship went with her.
Velvet was horrified, realizing that without Robin and Angel to mediate this quarrel she had no control over Alex. Turning, she whispered, “I can’t leave without seeing my brother, my lord.”
“We’re leaving within the hour,” he said coldly. “I want to be free of London and well on the road north before nightfall. We have maybe four hours of daylight left today. Pack only essentials. I’ll arrange to have the rest of yer things sent later on.”
“I cannot leave the queen, my lord. She will never forgive me if I go without speaking to her first.”
“Once we’re in Scotland, Velvet, Elizabeth Tudor will no longer matter in yer life. Ye’ll have a king then. A Stewart king.”
“What about Pansy? I can’t travel without my maid!”
“Aye, ye’ll need the girl. Where is she?”
“Back at the palace.”
“I’ll send Dugald for her.” He grasped her arm again and led her up the stairs of Lynmouth House to his apartments. “I want ye with me, madame, for I’ll not have ye upsetting the servants with any caterwauling.” They entered his rooms. “Dugald! Get back to St. James and fetch Mistress de Marisco’s tiring woman, Pansy. Be quick, man, for we’re off for home this day!”
Dugald’s face split into a wide grin. “Aye, my lord! I’ll not be long in fetching the lass, and ’twill be good to go home at last.” He hurried out the door without so much as a look in Velvet’s direction.
“Sit down,” Alex commanded, and in order not to anger him any further, she obeyed.
For some minutes they sat in silence, and then Velvet said pleadingly, “Please, my lord, you can’t do this.”
He looked coldly at her. “I am doing it, Velvet, and if ye were to challenge me in the courts over this I should win. Ye are legally my betrothed wife, and unless either I or yer parents dissolve the contract made between us, ye have no other choice. Yer parents are away, and I wish to marry now. Yer brother would support me if he was here as he is yer guardian. Ye know that, so resign yourself to our marriage.”
“Wait at least until Robin returns from Devon, my lord!”
“Nay, Velvet. If I sent a messenger after Robin it would be several days before we had a reply. Winter is coming, and in the north it’s nearer than it is here in yer soft England. Even the few days it would take to obtain Robin’s official permission could mean the difference between our getting back toDun Brocbefore the snows or being caught in the first storm of winter. I have the right, Velvet, and we leave before sunset.”
Once again silence descended upon the room. Why, thought Velvet to herself, why could I not have walked away when I saw him fondling that overblown de Boult creature?Because you love him, came the answer, and she cried aloud, “No!”
“No?” he questioned.
