“She can take the carriage and then it can be sent back for us!”
He’d never liked Phillipa Blake, that was true, but he now loathed her. Who treated their own blood with such disregard?
“Phillipa, if you don’t—”
“We will take Mary home,” Beth cut Zach off. “We would not want you to miss out on a moment of the festivities, Phillipa.”
Zach heard the sarcasm, but neither of the other Blake women did. They smiled. Lady Blake patted her daughter’s head and left.
“They are not seriously walking away from Mary?” Zach glowered after them.
“Beth offered,” Nathan said.
“Yes, but I did not expect them to take her up on that offer. A member of their family fell in the water!”
“Stop roaring,” Mary told him. “They can do nothing for me, and if Phillipa came, I would have to listen to her moaning.”
“And here is our carriage,” his brother said.
Gabe and Dimity climbed into theirs and then Nathan, Beth, Zach, and Mary got into the next one.
“Well now, that was entertaining,” Beth said. “I’m sure this particular house party will be talked about for some time to come.”
Mary sat beside her, looking like a bedraggled dormouse huddled in the blanket. He turned away when their eyes met. The rest of the drive was undertaken with Beth attempting to converse with her three uncomfortably damp companions.
“Beth,” Nathan said, placing a hand over her mouth. “We are wet and cold and have no wish for conversation. Be quiet now, my love.”
She made a harrumphing sound but subsided into silence. Nathan took her hand in his, and his large thumb caressed her hand the remainder of the journey. Zach looked at Mary’s small hand gripping the blanket. What would it feel like to hold it in his?
When they pulled up at the Blake town house, Zach stepped down first.
“I can climb from a carriage,” Mary said, looking at his hand as if it was poisonous.
“And yet I will help you,” he gritted out.
“Why?”
Zach reached into the doorway where she stood and lifted her from the carriage.
“Say goodbye, Mary.”
“I will call on you soon, Mary,” Beth called.
Nathan grunted his goodbye.
“I can walk up my path,” Mary said, stepping around Zach. “Good day.”
“No thank you,” Zach muttered.
She spun to face him, gave him a look that would fell an entire forest, and then stomped up to her front door. Seconds later, she disappeared through it.
Zach climbed back into the carriage as an icy blast of wind hit him. The carriage began to roll away from the Blake town house, and he kept his eyes out the window.
“Can I ask you a question, Zach?” Beth said.
“That depends on the question.” He looked at his sister-in-law. She still sat with her hand in Nathan’s. Connected. All the people in his family were like that with their loved ones.
“Do you like Mary?”
