“Yes, you may. Still, the result will be the same. Andy wrote an eloquent Letter of Wishes. He was my friend, and I shall honor it. Now, I find a need to search out my valet. I’m also certain that Gibson, my secretary, and a host of others have tasks they have been waiting for me to perform. If you will all excuse me?” He didn’t travel too far to the door before Mrs. Warbler stopped him by practically wrapping her arms around him.
“You have saved our village,” she declared.
Lord Marsden acted embarrassed by the hug and from there beat a hasty path out the door.
“I have sherry at my house,” Mrs. Warbler announced. “Please, everyone, come and join me for a toast to a new day in Maidenshop.” She led the way out the door and many followed.
Gemma moved forward until she saw Mr. Thurlowe. He’d not left with the others.
He held his hat in his hand, his stance awkward. “Congratulations.” There was no good humor in his voice.
She mimicked his tone. “Thank you.”
“The cut on your temple looks better this morning than it did last night.”
“Yes, thank you.” She wasn’t going to give him one inch and would have gone on after the others except he moved to place himself in her way.
“You know I was planning to hold a lecture seminar here.”
Gemma tensed, waiting. “Yes.”
“Perhaps we could make arrangements?” He did not wear humility well.
And the truth was, yesterday, before the attack, she would have been open to the idea. Now—? “You spoke against me.”
His expression tightened. “I spoke for the Society.”
“Youhidthe magistrate from us. If my friends had not gone for him, you wouldn’t have said a thing until you had coerced him into your way of thinking, using your friendship as inducement. Certainly it would be easier than bashing someone over the head.”
He really didn’t like that. “I say again, I had nothing to do with Fitz’s action last night.”
“Perhaps. But I’d wager that if he’d found my letter, you would have looked the other way. Youwould have denied me of what was rightfully mine. You and your friends would have happily seen me turned out.”
A dull red crept up his neck. Was it shame? Or anger that he hadn’t won? “I said before the magistrate that I would have paid you for The Garland.”
“Am I to believe that? Or trust you would have paid me what it is worth? Do you have that sort of money, Doctor?”
“I have enough to have seen you happy. I also have a better character than what you believe.”
“I doubt if you will ever convince me of that, sir. And I shall never let you or yourSocietyhave a foothold in The Garland again. I am not one to entertain my enemies. And no, you may not have your lecture here.” With those proud words, she dismissed him with a, “Good day, sir,” and left to follow the others.
Huddled in the crossroads down by the church, Winderton and the younger members of the Society were working themselves into a lather over Mars’s verdict. Even Sir Lionel and Fullerton had joined them. Apparently, the old members had just caught word that there had been a meeting.
Shielding was boasting that he wasn’t afraid to take the matter all the way to London, a bit of silliness if ever Ned had heard of it. “A woman shouldn’t have the right to inherit property. Or at least property important to the village,” Shielding was saying, punctuating the air with his finger for emphasis.
Heads nodded. Ned walked right by them. They could grouse on their own. He had his own concerns. His lecture series was ending before it really started.
However, they weren’t going to let him go. “Thurlowe,” Winderton called.
One had to stop for a duke.
Ned turned. “Yes?” He took a beat and tacked on, “Your Grace?”
“Where are we going to meet now?”
“Yes,” Sir Lionel said. “Where shall we gather now that we’ve lost The Garland?”
Ned didn’t hide his exasperation. “Where have you been gathering?”
