“We can’t leave now.” Fort was looking out of the window. “It’s started to rain and there are clouds over the moon.”
“What?” Portia went over to look for herself, but saw that he was right. “I can’t stay here all night!”
“You should have thought of that earlier. I always knew your crazy starts would lead to trouble. Of course,” he said, “perhaps we can get you back into Malloren House…”
Portia actually considered it before saying, “No. But when will we be able to leave? We have to leave before morning.”
Before Bryght realizes that I’ve gone.
He let the curtain drop. “Even the high nobility can’t control the elements, Portia. If the clouds clear, we can travel. If they don’t we have to wait for dawn, but we should be able to make some kind of start then. You’d best stay in here. I’ll tell the footman to keep his mouth shut.”
Portia sat down on a chaise feeling chilled and weary. As long as she was active she could put off thoughts, but now they surged back to torment her. If only she had been able to surrender to Bryght, surrender to her husband and the marriage bed. If only Oliver’s disastrous affairs had not intervened.
But without Oliver’s disastrous affairs, she doubted she would ever have even met a Malloren.
It was Oliver’s debt that had taken them to Maidenhead. Doubtless that wild meeting had caused Bryght to approach her in the park. That and his gaming with Oliver.
What, she wondered, had caused him to game with Oliver? She knew him now and couldn’t believe him a hawk. Perhaps it was just as Bryght said, and one gentleman could not refuse to game with another.
It would have ended there, however, if not for Oliver and Cuthbertson.
Fort came back into the room and Portia looked up at him. “You bid for me at Mirabelle’s.”
“Yes.” He looked away, making the excuse of checking the fire.
“What would you have done if you’d purchased me?”
He turned to face her. “Probably more than Bryght Malloren did. I wouldn’t have left you to Steenholt or D’Ebercall, but there was no getting out of there without a riot. I admit, I’d have probably just tried to make it quick for you. It wouldn’t have occurred to me to trump up a wager like that. You might consider,” he added rather severely, “that you owe the man this wedding night.”
Portia ignored that. “Trump up a wager? What do you mean?”
“I gather Bryght forced that wager on the sugar planter. The man’s been heard to mutter that it was underhanded, but at least he doesn’t suspect that you were not what you appeared.”
The wager that saved her had been Bryght’s inspiration?
“I gather it was a virtuoso performance,” Fort said. “Are you sure you don’t want to go back and enjoy even more of the same?” Portia sensed that he really wanted her to. Perhaps it was just to save his own skin, but perhaps it was to save hers.
“I can’t,” she said.
“Very well,” he said with a sigh. “Why don’t you lie on the chaise and rest. I’ll call you as soon as it becomes possible to travel.”
He left her alone, and despite her tangled thoughts Portia even managed to doze. Fort woke her to say they could set out. “The visibility’s not perfect, but the moon is clear. We can go, if we go slowly, and I think we’d be better on our way.”
Portia agreed, shivering at being woken in the chill morning hours. Shivering perhaps with fear. She was beginning to truly dread a meeting with her husband and, as Fort said, it could not be put off forever.
Like death, it must be faced one day.
Her heart said Bryght would never hurt her. But if she thought him capable of killing Oliver, she had to think him capable of hurting her.
“What time is it?” she asked, wrapping her cloak around her.
“Nearly four. We’re going to steal out to the mews like robbers.” He flashed her an encouraging grin. “Lord, this reminds me of some of our youthful adventures.”
She grinned back for him, but she feared it was a feeble effort. “How far is it?” she whispered as they crossed the hall. “How long will it take?”
“It’s about thirty miles to the Abbey, so I’d say five to six hours if the roads are fair.”
“So we might be there by nine? What will we do when we arrive?”
