“I meant the village, sir, not your fine establishment,” Lord Chimes said.
“Wine,” Geoffrey croaked, making a desperate drinking motion with his hand.
“Coming up,” the man said and departed.
“We looked in some of the more likely coaching inns,” James Diamond continued. “And then we gave up and rode like the devil was after us. We’ve been here for hours.” He looked pleased with himself.
“What if we hadn’t come in here,” Geoffrey asked.
“We’ve paid people in all the nearby hotels to keep an eye open for you.”
“There’s only two others,” Lord Chimes said. Then he fixed Geoffrey with a hard stare.
“In truth, you’re lucky you made it this far. If I’d found my daughter with you in one of those inns, I would have taken her directly home,” Lord Chimes said.
Then he looked at Caroline. “You’re awfully quiet, Daughter. What do you have to say for yourself?”
Geoffrey watched her take a deep breath, visibly sit taller, and then address her father with confidence.
“I am quite pleased to be marrying Lord Diamond no matter the how and the where of it. I hope you won’t try to stop us. You cannot do so, here in Scotland.”
“Only with my pistol,” Lord Chimes threatened.
Geoffrey startled and saw his father straighten, too. He had no doubt whose side his father would be on should violence erupt.
“Father!” Caroline admonished. “The law is on our side.”
“Speaking in jest,” Lord Chimes grumbled. “Merely in jest.”
“We plan to marry in the morning and head straight back to London,” Geoffrey explained to the man who would be his father-in-law.
He wished he could add that he hadn’t laid a finger on Caroline and had waited for her to become his lawful wife. Yet such restraint had proven impossible.
“You cannot marry,” Lord Chimes said.
Geoffrey looked to his father for support but found none.
“As much as I hate to agree with Chimes on anything he says, he is correct,” Lord Diamond said. “You cannot. And if we have to use force to stop you, we will.”
Chapter Fifteen
“Ilove him,” Caroline declared. She glanced at Geoffrey, and he winked, giving her strength. “As deeply as you love Mother,” she said to her father. And then she addressed her would-be father-in-law. “And as assuredly as you love Lady Diamond.”
The barman took that moment to deliver a carafe of ruby-red wine and two glasses. With haste born of the tension that had Caroline’s nerves stretched taut, Geoffrey poured them each a full glass, and they drank a hardy sip.
“That may be, Lady Caroline,” said the Earl Diamond, “but you cannot marry tomorrow morning. You cannot marry my son until his mother and your mother arrive.”
Caroline’s mouth dropped slightly open before she regained her composure.
“My mother is coming? Here?”
“Withmymother?” Geoffrey asked. “Together?”
“In the same carriage,” her father assured her.
“Impossible,” Caroline murmured, thinking she would have to see the two women descend from the same coach to believe it.
“When they arrive, which may be by the end of tomorrow if they followed the same path as you, then we shall have one of these anvil weddings,” Lord Diamond said.
