“She does not wish to see you.”
The words were like a slap in the face. “But why? There are many things to say… I wanted to tell her how much I enjoyed her performance tonight.” He raised his voice in hopes that Susanna was within earshot on the other side of the door. “She was magnificent.”
Lady Dearborn’s expression tightened. “Tonight, she destroyed her reputation so that you could be free. Go away, Lord Hawksridge.”
Miles slapped a hand on the door to prevent her from shutting it. The meaning behind her words rained down on him like a hailstorm. Susanna had done it on purpose? For what? Did she think he would be so scandalized he would not marry her? Her words from the beach echoed in his heart,I will not be married to a man who is not willing to love me.But he was willing to love her, with every fiber of his being. If she would only listen to him for one moment.
“But I do not wish to be free,” he called out loudly to the room beyond.
Lady Dearborn’s eyes softened. “We are leaving for Marbury in the morning,” she said softly. “Perhaps you may have better luck there. Now get out of here before my husband returns from getting drunk downstairs.” She shut the door in his face.
Miles leaned his forehead against the doorjamb and closed his eyes. “Damn vexing woman,” he muttered. “Stubborn, ridiculous.” He straightened. All right, back to Marbury it would be. He would damn well convince her to marry him and let him spend the rest of his life loving her. All he needed was a plan.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Marbury
“Hello dear!” Charlotteembraced Susanna tightly. “I’m so glad you are back safe from your adventures.”
“You mean her scandalous adventures.” Ellie was the next to hug her tightly. “You must tell us absolutely every detail.”
Olivia bustled into the room next. “I brought cakes from Mrs. Buxley’s.” She set the box down on the low table in the seating area between the two sofas.
Sophia was the last to walk through the door to the drawing room. She gripped Susanna’s chin and studied her face. “Are you unscathed? No harm came to you on the road?”
Susanna sighed. “Not to my person anyway, just to my heart. I am so glad to see you all.” She led the ladies to the sofas and plopped down in one corner. “I don’t even know where to start.”
Olivia opened the lid of the box from Mrs. Buxley’s and plated a small pastry. She handed it to Susanna. “With a piece of cake. Everything is easier to explain while having cake.”
Susanna laughed out loud. This was what her soul needed, to be surrounded by her bosom friends. These women always loved her no matter the plans that went awry. They always knew just what advice to give, or when to hold their tongue, something she herself had never been good at doing. Susanna took a large bite of the round honey cake on her plate. The taste of fresh blackberries mingled with the clover honey, and it tasted as though summer had burst on her tongue. “Mmmmm,” she mumbled around her mouthful.
Olivia passed out little cakes to each lady while Susanna remembered her manners and poured tea for her friends. She debated how much to tell her friends. In the end, she started with the decision to journey to Weymouth Bay.
“I knew it. You wanted to help Miles. I told him as much when we talked him into going to fetch you,” Ellie said. “I said all her plans begin with helping a friend.”
Susanna smiled at her friend’s fierce tone. Ellie would fight a lion if one said something against one of her friends. “It wasn’t entirely to help him, his complaining about Diana just gave me the idea. Truth was, I needed a project, something to do. I had been feeling out of sorts all season.” She told them all about the cows and how her coachman had been injured. And how she had told the innkeeper she was Lady Hawksridge to avoid his censure and get them decent rooms.
“Why did you choose Hawksridge’s name?” Charlotte asked.
“He asked me the same question when he caught up with us at the inn. I still don’t know. It just popped out of my mouth.” She shrugged.
“What happened next?”
“Well, Hawksridge was determined to bring me straight home, and he was being so bossy. You know how he is.” She glanced around the circle. “Anyway, I left early the next morning on the stagecoach without him. He was quite mad.”
“I can imagine,” Charlotte said. “He is used to people doing as he says.”
“My bad luck persisted and the coach cracked a wheel. The coachman left me alone on the side of the road to go fetch help and it began to rain and the horses needed to be unhitched and I got soaked to the bone.”
“Oh dear!”
“That’s when Hawksridge showed up and saved me. We rode into the next town together on his horse. It was quite stimulating.” She blew on her tea before taking a sip.
“Oh.” Ellie’s mouth formed a smallOin surprise.
But when Susanna glanced over at Charlotte, she had a small secret smile playing about her lips and Susanna knew that Charlotte understood exactly what she was talking about. After all, the brothers were identical.
“We were in the same inn as Maddox’s circus troupe finally and I decided to go off without him again. I told him plainly that he could go home if he wanted now that I was safely with Colonel Hadley and his wife. But no, he had to be so domineering.”
