Helpless to do anything at this point, Selkirk stood and glared at his niece. “So you tried to escape me by pretending to be married, did you? I should’ve expected as much. Lies and more lies. I doubt you’ve said a true word since you left our house.”
“It wasmyhouse, Uncle. That was your first mistake. And you and my aunt have made so many more, I’ve lost count.”
He lifted his chin, which bore the mark she’d place on it, and looked down his nose at her. “You’re a nothing. And you’ll amount to nothing, you mark my words. You’ll never find a man to wed you.” He glanced scornfully at Paul. “Bed you, mayhap, but wed you? Never.”
“You are quite mistaken, sir, I assure you.”
The Earl of Vernwood descended the stairs, elegantly clad in deep green, and followed by Sir Geoffrey. The Vernwood valet brought up the rear.
Confronted by such obviously aristocratic elegance, Selkirk could only gape. Not even a moan from his wife distracted him from the vision approaching him.
Vernwood raised his glass and eyed the man from head to foot. “Most unpleasant. I can only believe that you are responsible for the dreadful sounds that caused me much distress.” He dropped the glass and looked over his shoulder at Paul. “Sir Geoffrey, upon hearing the frightful noise, hurried to my rooms. I believe he was hoping to protect me, or find protection behind my valet. I’m not quite sure which.” A lightning flash of humor crossed his face, but was gone before he turned back to Selkirk.
“I will assume that you are, or pretend to be, related to our dear Harriet. If so, then I caution you to be most careful as to what you say next. There is, as I understand, a matter of investigation ongoing into the disposition of the Selkirk estate.”
The moan from Mrs. Selkirk was louder at the Earl’s statement, but everyone ignored her.
“This investigation,” continued the Earl, “has been prompted by the rumors of inappropriate behavior by family members with regards to the Selkirk finances. Improper withdrawals, promissory notes against the principal, to which access is expressly forbidden…other such matters. If, sir,youare the family member…or members…” he shot a look at the squirming lump of Mrs. Selkirk, now buried beneath her voluminous dress and cloak, “…then I do suggest you begin to exercise what little common sense you possess.” He leaned forward. “By shuttingup.”
“I say,” said Sir Geoffrey. “Are you an heiress, Mrs. Harry? Escaping the wicked villains after your fortune? That sort of thing?”
Harriet sighed and wondered if she should protest being cast as the heroine in a Gothic romance novel.
Paul stepped into the breach. “Perhaps this is the perfect moment to inform you all of a slight change here at our hunting box.” He took Harriet’s hand and pulled her to his side. “This woman is indeed my lawful wife, as of last night, when we were wed, legally…” he shot a hard look at Selkirk, “by Reverend Simon Ridlington, at the Pineneedle Drift Church.” He took a breath. “At that time, I was also informed that my situation, which had been complex and private, had also changed.”
Had the proverbial pin dropped at that second, everyone in the hall would have jumped at least two feet. The silence was that overwhelming. Even the Yule log seemed poised on the edge of bursting into flame.
“I have at last been able to assume my rightful position as Viscount Hayward, upon the demise of a distant relative. Thus Harriet, my wife, is now Lady Hayward.”
The air from the Hall was sucked into many pairs of lungs.
Mrs. Selkirk, extracting herself from the tumble of skirts, stood, throwing a disgusted look at Lady Aphrodite and the urn. She stared at them all, saving her fiercest scowl for Harriet. Then she spun on her heel and stalked to the door, rubbing her head where the urn had struck.
“Well, fuck the lot of you.”
Stunned, nobody moved to stop her from opening the door and walking away.
*~~*~~*
“And that was pretty much that,” said Harriet as she sat around the Ridlington dining table some days later.
“I will confess that it was such a shocking comment, we were all struck dumb,” added Paul with a rueful grin. “But on reflection, no good would have come from us detaining those two.”
“You let Mr. Selkirk go free as well?” Rosaline’s eyes widened from across the table.
“What else could we do?” Harriet shrugged. “If they return to London, they will be questioned most thoroughly and probably lose everything they have, whether legally theirs or mine or what. If they’re sensible—which I doubt—they will liquidate their assets and head for the continent.”
“That’s what I’d do,” agreed Edmund. “But from where I sit now, it would have been much more satisfactory to beat the devil out of them, then have them transported.”
“That was an option,” grinned Paul.
“I would have done it,” announced Richard, finishing another mince pie.
“Me too,” said Kitty, adjusting her elegant necklace. It sparkled as brightly as her eyes in the candlelight.
“They did the right thing, I believe.” Simon leaned back in his chair. “Why continue to sully one’s existence with useless leeches like those two? No disrespect to the Selkirk name, Harriet…”
“Understood,” smiled Harriet. “Leeches is an excellent way to describe them.”
