Phoebe sat huddled in one corner of the porch swing, her skirt smoothed over her drawn-up knees. “What was I thinking?” she asked Remington. “WasI thinking? You were there. Did it seem as if I was conscious?”
“You were conscious.”
“Maybe I was concussed.”
“You were not concussed.”
Phoebe snorted.
“Doubts?” he asked. A smile played around his mouth but he was careful to restrain it.
“Of course. Don’t you have any?”
“No.”
She blinked. “Truly?”
He shook his head and toed the floor to put the swing in motion. “None.”
“Not about the marriage,” she said. “Thewedding.”
“Ah, the madness.” He pretended to think about it. “It will be fine. You’ll see.”
“Of course I’ll see. I have to be there. But whether it will be fine is something else entirely. Did you know Thaddeus was going to invite everyone?Everyone?He advertised in theFrost Falls Register, theLiberty Junction Gazette, and theCollier Sentinel. People from all over the county will arrive.”
“Not an advertisement. More like an announcement. I’m his only son—we think—and you’re his only daughter, I’d guess you’d say, so it’s natural that he’d want—” He stopped because the pointed toe of her kid boot found its target in his thigh. “Ow. What was that for?”
“You know. You said it on purpose to get a rise out of me, and you did, so I will not apologize for it, and you should stop grinning. It is not amusing. I am most definitely not your father’s daughter.”
He removed her foot from where it was pressing against his leg and pushed it back toward her. “All right. We are not brother and sister in any fashion and I pity the person who wonders about it aloud.”
Phoebe rested her face in her hands a moment. “Oh, Lord. I shall have to shoot someone.”
“Yes, well, we have that to look forward to. With any luck it will be a no-chin Putty.”
That made her giggle a little wildly from behind her hands.
Remington patted her knee. “It’s going to be all right, Phoebe. I swear it is. Fiona says you have bridal nerves. I didn’t know what she meant, but I think I’m seeing them now.”
Phoebe lowered her hands. “When did you start paying attention to anything Fiona said?”
He shrugged. “Since I realized she is going to be my mother-in-law. I am trying to make peace or at least keep it. She apologized to me, you know.”
“No. I didn’t.”
“I don’t suppose she could tell you because that would mean admitting to what she did in the first place. It was hard enough for her to speak to me about what happened. She rambled a bit, circled the thing for a while, but then she got it out. All of it. It was uncomfortable for both of us, and I am confident we will never speak of it again.”
“Did she say why she tried to seduce you?”
He shivered a little, remembering. “No, and I didn’t ask. I’m leaning toward her wanting to make my father jealous, but I don’t need to know her reasons. And please don’t say ‘seduce’ again. I’m done with it.”
Phoebe laid a hand over the one he had on her knee. “I’m glad.” She smiled a tad unevenly as her thoughts moved to what lay ahead. “How many people do you imagine will show up?”
“You don’t want to know.”
“I don’t, do I?” She sighed. “My dress arrived. Ben was dispatched to town to pick it up. Your father again. It’s incredible to me that he could choose something that I would have chosen for myself.”
“He might have had some help.”
