A horse was neighing outside. “At the nearest inn I could find after you took your fall, perhaps fifteen miles from the city.”
Bringing her palm to her forehead, Abigail took a moment to work out how long it would take for James to reach them. But doing so proved a challenge when she didn’t even know how long it had been since they’d left Foxborough House.
Lowering her hand, she saw that her knuckles were grazed. At least Toby hadn’t undressed her while she’d been unconscious. Beneath the blanket covering her, she still wore her wedding gown.
“You have to take me back right now,” she said. The quicker she returned, the better. Or at least this was what she chose to believe.
Tobias just smiled. “Don’t be silly, Abby. We both know your marrying Mr. Townsbridge would have been a dreadful mistake, and since you felt you had no choice in the matter, I realized there was nothing for it but to risk all in order to save you.”
Abigail swallowed. His eyes were filled with adoration, his smile conveying both warmth and happiness. And she knew in that moment that Tobias didn’t think he’d done anything wrong. Quite the opposite, actually. And this made her wary, because it made her wonder if perhaps James had been right about Tobias’s feelings for her all along.
“But you didn’t save me, Toby.” She sat up and gave him the most forthright gaze she could manage. “Iwantedto marry Mr. Townsbridge today.”
“Of course you did,” he murmured with something akin to compassion filling his eyes. “Your family’s reputation was at stake. You had no choice but to do your best in order to minimize the scandal. Especially for Petra’s sake. But everything will be better now.”
Abigail sucked in a breath. “How does whisking me away make anything better?” she asked as she yanked her hand free from his grasp. Her eyes were starting to prick with the deep understanding that what he had done would ruin her every chance of salvaging an already fragile situation. Whatever prospects her sister might have had for a successful Season when she debuted were growing slimmer by the second.
“I’ll make you happy,” Tobias vowed. “I’ll—”
“James would have made me happy,” Abigail argued.
Tobias frowned and then he suddenly laughed. Not a humorous laugh but rather the kind that made Abigail want to shrink away into nothing. “I know you’ve just taken a hit to the head, Abby, but let’s be honest. That man—” he practically spat those two words “—made you miserable. Hell, I’ve never seen you more unhappy than when you were in his company andhedid that. He took away your sparkle, thejoie de vivrethat made you so dazzling. And I will never forgive him for that.”
The anger in his voice seemed to come from somewhere deep inside. Abby stared. She’d never seen Tobias like this. He had always been charming and composed, but now...now he was like a thundercloud ready to send bolts of lightning in every direction.
“Toby,” she told him gently, hoping to calm him. “I know you were acting in what you thought was my best interest today, but you have to take me home. I want to go back to London. I want to marry James.”
“No.” He made a decisive sweeping motion with his hand.
Abigail gaped at him, at this person she’d known for most of her life and who’d now transformed into someone she didn’t recognize. “No?”
“After he compromised you at the Pratchard ball, you were horrified by the prospect of having to marry him. Then, when he came to call on you at your house and found me there, he was rude and condescending toward you, and when I happened upon the two of you in the park, it was clear that he was oppressing you and that you wished to be anywhere else but in his company. So forgive me for doing what most would consider completely unthinkable, but the very idea of Mr. James Townsbridge owning you makes me want to do bloody murder!”
Having risen during this tirade, Tobias raked a trembling hand through his hair and turned away. His back was rigid, his breathing ragged. Abigail watched him with mixed feelings as she thought back on James’s courtship and how it must have looked from Tobias’s perspective. As she did so, the lopsided world she’d awoken to seemed to right itself, for she finally understood his anger.
“It’s true that James and I got off to a pretty bad start,” Abigail said. She waited until she was sure Tobias was listening before she continued. “We didn’t like each other much when we first met, I’ll admit. Getting caught together in a compromising position was destined to make things worse. But the real problem was that we didn’t really understand each other well, and I, at least, was too afraid to be honest. We’ve since moved past that, though. We’ve talked and gotten to know each other.” She drew a deep breath. “When you met us in the park, I had a terrible headache. That is the only reason why I may have seemed unwell to you.”
Unsure of what else to say, she stopped talking. A pause followed and then Tobias turned toward her. His expression was grim, but the anger from earlier seemed to have vanished. “Are you saying that I have misinterpreted the situation?”
Abigail nodded. “Yes. I believe you have.” She watched his expression transform into one of dismay and then added, “There’s no doubt in my mind that you meant well, Toby, but in truth, you have just made everything so much worse.”
“I’m sorry.” Tobias’s gaze darted toward the window before returning to her. “I was only trying to help. I...” He closed his eyes on a sigh and dropped down onto the bed near her feet, causing her to bounce a little in response to his added weight. Leaning forward, he braced his forearms on his thighs and stared at the floor. “I want to make you happy and...I just wish...”
When he said nothing further, she pushed aside the blanket and swung her legs over the side of the bed so she could sit beside him. “When you offered for my hand last year, I believed you did it because you’ve never been close to your own family and marrying me would have made you part of mine. But there’s more to it than that. Isn’t there?”
It felt like an hour went by before he finally said, “I love you, Abby.” His voice was pained and although he’d done something terribly wrong, she felt her heart break a little on his behalf. “The thought of you with another man kills me. And all because of my worthless brother. Had it not been for him your father would have accepted my suit, and you would now be my wife.”
She flinched in response to his voice, now suddenly raised and awfully loud in the small space they were in. The fury that burned inside him was shocking, as was the thought of how different things might have been if his brother had not tarnished the Chesterfield name.
A shudder went through her, for she knew she would have married Tobias had her father allowed it, and lost her chance with James.
“You’ve always been a wonderful friend, Toby.” When he raised his head and glared at her with accusing eyes wrought with heartache, she hastened to add, “I love you dearly, though not in the way you wish but more like a brother.”
With a grunt, he stood and went to the window. “A lot of good that does me.”
She understood his misery. When she hadn’t believed James would ever return her affection, she’d been dreadfully unhappy as well. Unrequited love was no simple thing. It could plague the mind and the soul and lead to discontentment of the worst possible kind.
“I’m sorry,” she said, unsure of how to help him. “You’re a wonderful man: kind, considerate and—”
