Page 105 of Snapdragons
Everyone was watching them now, listening intently as Liam tossed her into the figurative muck. She had held out some hope that his anger had cooled and that this reunion would not be entirely awful. Being wrong about that was heartbreaking. And while she would like to keep the peace with her brother, she was standing in a room with hopefully her future in-laws, whom she needed to not think of her as a heartless liar.
“I have your letter still, Liam,” she said. “I would be willing to read it aloud so we can all determine if I have truly so whollymisinterpreted your words.”
Liam’s expression froze. A tiny bit of color crept over his face. He took a nostril-flaring breath, releasing it slowly. To the senior-most Mr. Greenberry, Liam said, “I do not wish to delay the meal any longer than it has been. Please, begin without us while I have a private conversation with my sister.” And in a rare showing of public poor manners, Liam didn’t wait for a response nor for his host to indicate if the plan was to his liking. He simply took hold of Penelope’s arm and began leading her out of the room.
Niles stepped into their path. He met Penelope’s eyes, his unspoken question obvious.
“I’ll be fine,” she reassured him.
Liam led her around Niles and out of the drawing room. They made their way from the entryway, down a corridor, and to a door leading out onto a terrace.
When he finally released her arm, he said, “I am beginning to suspect that I will never stop being humiliated by you, Penelope.”
“What have I done this time?”
“I have spent the past two days smoothing things over with the Greenberrys, salvaging their opinion of us by explaining that you and Mr. Niles Greenberry simply didn’t suit and that it was in everyone’s best interest to forgo the planned match. I made so many excuses for you, for him, for us, and just when I feel I have made progress, you arrive making sheep eyes at their son and grandson and undo it all.” He spoke in a tense, quick clip. “In their eyes, I will now either be an idiot or a liar.”
“We will simply explain that Niles and I made our decision after you left and that when you arrived here a few days ago, there was no reason for you to think anything had changed between him and me.”
“Which will only convince them that I am irresponsible andneglectful. Is that really so much better?”
Penelope pushed down her growing frustration. She knew she had caused her brother difficulties, but he seemed determined to think the worst of her and lay at her feet the blame for everything. She could argue with him, point out the many ways in which he was being horribly unfair. Everything she did met with his disapproval. Everything she did was wrong in his eyes. But she didn’t want to be at odds with him. If there was a way to make this right, and she wasn’t sure there was, she wanted to try. “What do you need from me?” she asked, leaning against the low wall of the terrace, wrapping her arms around herself as a shield against the chilled air. “What can I do?”
“I don’t know,” he muttered.
The both of them feeling sorry for themselves wouldn’t help anything. “There must be something,” she insisted. “We cannot leave things this way.”
“Most of Dublin society views it as a tragic thing that the older of the Seymour siblings was not male, as you are considered far more competent than I.” He began pacing, something she didn’t think she’d seen him do before.
“I have never heard anyone express that sentiment,” she said.
“Not to you, no.” His words were clipped and tense. “They view me as a laughingstock. I had hoped that view wouldn’t spread to England.”
“I truly don’t think it has,” she said. “I don’t even honestly think that opinion is held in Dublin.”
“I have shielded you from a lot of it, Penelope.”
Was that true? She’d not noticed even a hint of what he insisted was a widespread view of their family. Surely if his worries were founded, it could not have been kept from her entirely.
He continued on. “You no longer have to interact with Dublin society if you don’t wish to, but at least until Mother feels she’d like to venture to London, Dublin is the entirety of my socialcircle. And they think I’m a dunderhead.”
“You will return this time having seen your sister married into a respected English family. Surely that will be to your credit.”
But he shook his head. “They will say, ‘Miss Seymour got herself married into a respected English family.’ I will receive no credit for it.”
She chose not to press her suspicion that he was imagining more in other people’s evaluations than was actually there. How he felt this would impact him was the crux of the current matter.
“Liam, I cannot be blamed for what other people might say or think. It is unfair to hold their opinions against me.”
He stopped walking and turned to face her. “You truly wish to marry Mr. Niles Greenberry?”
“I do.” She bounced a little to keep warm.
“And I suspect you actually followed me here, not because you missed your brother but because you need me to sign the marriage agreement?” He eyed her the way a barrister might upon catching a criminal lying in court.
“Ihavemissed you,” she insisted. “And had your letter not dismissed me so entirely that I knew that feeling was not mutual, my missing you might have been reason enough for me to follow you here. But yes, I also need you to sign the marriage agreement.” Her teeth were chattering a little. “If you will not do so as a kindness to your sister, I hope you will at least do so as proof that you are the competent head of your family the world ought to see you as.”
“You intend to subject me to extortion?”
