“Er… Sorry to intrude,” he tried. “I just came to speak to Miss Williams.”
What was he supposed to do now? She hadn’t provided him with a script for this part.
“You won’t so much aslookat Hannah again if I have anything to say about it!” Mrs. Williams made a lunge at him, but Silas stepped backwards and her elbow collided with the hedges in a cacophonyof snapping branches.
“Mr. Corbyn!” Miss Williams chose that moment to emerge from the house and rush down the steps. “Youcame.”
She didn’t look like she was in any danger. A brilliant smile lit up her face as she approached, her dark eyes sparkling with joy. Her cheeks were pink with exertion as she hurried toward him.
Silas wasn’t sure when he’d last met anyone so happy to see him. It was strangely gratifying after the abysmal failure of his morning, until a sudden “Aha!” and a vise grip on his forearm reminded him that he was still supposed to be dodging her mother and their maid. The pair had moved in to flank him from both sides while he’d been distracted.
“Don’t hurt him!” Miss Williams cried, immediately stricken by his capture.
How embarrassing.
This had to be the most humiliating way he could have chosen to earn a bit of coin, but could he truly afford to complain? After his spectacular failure to find work at the docks this morning, he was forced to acknowledge the truth. There was no other way to come up with the money he needed for Marian and James’s brewery.
“Go back inside, Hannah,” her mother snapped. “I’ll deal with this one.”
Her tone heavily implied that Silas might soon find himself stuffed in a sack and thrown into the Thames, though he wasn’t convinced these women could manage the job without reinforcements. That maid looked a bit frail. He could probably break free of their grasp with one swift twist, but he didn’t want to hurt either of them.
“Your brother isn’t at home, is he?” Silas asked Miss Williams, in what he hoped was a fearless tone.
“No. Why?”
At least there was one piece of good news. Though Silas mightstill have to search for new lodgings before Williams came back and learned of all this. Maybe he should take Marian and James up on their offer to stay with them.
“Stop talking to him!” Mrs. Williams scolded her daughter. “You’ve already spoiled your chance at a match with Sir Richard. I won’t have you encouraging this ruffian.”
“I can hear you, ma’am,” Silas pointed out. It was bad enough that they insisted on hauling him up like a sack of coal. Did they need to speak about him as if he weren’t there as well? And what was this about a match, anyway? “You can’t mean to tell me you were really going to marry your daughter to that old codger.”
The man who’d tottered down the walk was sixty if he was a day. What business did he have creeping around Miss Williams?
“Mind your tongue,” her mother returned. “Sir Richard has more dignity in one finger than you have in your entire body.”
This was difficult to argue with, given his present circumstances.
“You’ve no right to interfere with Hannah’s prospects,” Mrs. Williams continued. “If you truly cared for her, you’d have the decency to stand aside and let her find a man of her own class. Surely you must see that you could never hope to marry her.”
Everyone paused to look at Silas here, as if awaiting his confirmation.
Who said anything about marriage?He wanted to retort.I only met the girl two days ago.
They shouldn’t even need to hear him say it. It was obvious he couldn’t match a gently bred lady like Miss Williams, who’d been raised with every refinement he lacked.
But Miss Williams was staring at Silas with a particular urgency, her dark eyes pleading. Clearly, she’d said something to make her mother believe that he had grander intentions than a stolen kiss at her brother’s club. That was why she’d needed him to show up andprofess his love.
Which he’d done. That was the real problem here: He kept agreeing to things he should have sense enough to steer clear of.
That had always been his problem.
Miss Williams must have grown tired of waiting on him, for she answered matter-of-factly, “We’ve made a vow in our hearts, even if you won’t let us make one in a church. We’ll never marry anyone else, no matter how long you keep us apart.”
Oh. So that was her game, was it? He was her excuse to remain a spinster, even if they never saw each other again.
“Yes,” he agreed. He’d already come this far. He didn’t care to turn back without earning his pay, particularly when he had little hope of finding it elsewhere. “I’ll, er, wait for you forever.”
Miss Williams narrowed her eyes. Too much? It was no worse than all the rubbish she’d said. Besides, he’d never claimed to be an actor.
