“We won’t need more rooms,” Lord Diamond said. “These ladies are with us.”
Caroline considered that statement. They certainly would not need another room if she and Geoffrey married that very day.
“My father and Lord Diamond were about to head out and find you, thinking you still hours away.”
Her mother made a face, and Lady Diamond raised a perfect eyebrow.
“It looked to me as though they were stuffing their potato traps, not the least bit worried over us,” the latter said.
“How did you get here so quickly?” Lord Chimes repeated his question while he dragged more chairs to the table.
“We didn’t stop the second night. The innkeeper’s wife had an elbow for weather, and she said —”
“I beg your pardon,” Geoffrey’s father interrupted. “Did you say an elbow for weather?”
“Yes,” Lady Diamond said. “Her elbow twinges when snow is imminent.”
“And it was twinging,” Lady Chimes agreed. “We ate our supper and continued on with fresh horses.”
“But how did you find us here?” Geoffrey asked.
“Your carriage is parked directly across on the square. I hope no one steals it.”
“Hear now!” said the barman, who was carrying in another tea tray, piled high with scones and jam.
“That’s uncalled for,” Caroline, Geoffrey, and the two fathers said at the same time as the barman.
The ladies looked at all of them as if they were lunatics.
“If we’d stayed at the last inn,” Lady Diamond said once she had a cup of tea in hand, “we might have spent our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day trapped there, too.”
“How brave of you,” Lord Diamond said, looking fondly at his wife before taking another bite of warm scone.
“Never mind that,” Caroline’s mother snapped. “Are these young people married?”
Caroline’s father answered. “We told them they couldn’t do so until you arrived.”
Her mother pursed her lips and shook her head while Lady Diamond observed her with interest. Hopefully, she wouldn’t mind having Caroline for a daughter-in-law.
“Do you condone this marriage now?” her mother asked her father.
Caroline held her breath.
Chapter Sixteen
Caroline felt Geoffrey take her hand and give it a reassuring squeeze. What’s more, he did it in front of everyone. Whatever her parents and his parents said, she knew they would marry, even if they had to run away again, farther into Scotland.
“We are too late for condoning,” Lord Diamond pronounced.
“Or for prohibiting,” her father added. “Our daughter has spent three days alone traveling with this man. They must marry. I think we all know that now.”
Caroline felt a twinge in her stomach, and it had nothing to do with the miracle of snow. Mortification, embarrassment, a little shame over causing their parents to come such a long way chasing after them —were she and Geoffrey selfish?
She glanced up at him, and the warm sparkle in his eyes quashed all her doubts. They were in love after all.
“Very well,” her mother said. “Allow Lady Diamond and I to get our feet under us, and then we shall bear witness to the marriage of our children.”
Caroline was surprised to see Geoffrey’s mother nodding. “Agreed,” Lady Diamond said. “Do they have chocolate here, by the way? Or only tea?”
