Page 60 of The Bachelor
“Why, that arrogant rascal!” Mama said.
Gwyn blinked. “Who? Ensign Malet? Or Thorn?”
“Both, I suppose. Though I was really speaking of your brother. As you said in the carriage the other day—Thorn had no business running anyone off. It’s not as if you were a child. You were perfectly capable of making your own decisions in such matters. I don’t blame you for being angry with him.”
“Even though he turned out to be right about Malet?” Joshua put in.
Mama sniffed. “Yes. Because he could have handled it better. He could have told her why he believed Ensign Malet to be a fortune hunter and let her come to her own conclusions.”
Her mother had hit the nail on the head. That was what had made her so furious with him at the time. Thorn had decided she was incapable of listening to reasonable arguments concerning any fellow courting her, and then had taken steps to handle the matter without her knowledge or consent.
Mama looked at Gwyn. “I assume that Thorn had evidence of Malet’s eagerness to marry an heiress?”
Gwyn blinked. “I–I don’t know. I never asked, and he never offered. I just assumed that Thorn had turned into an overbearing arse as he approached his coming of age.”
Mama chuckled. “Hewasa bit full of himself back then, wasn’t he?”
“Still is,” she muttered.
“Not quiteasfull of himself, I think. But perhaps you should ask him what made him pay Ensign Malet off. And if his reasoning was sound, and he wasn’t just being his usual overbearing self, you might want to consider . . . letting bygones be bygones?”
“I might,” Gwyn said. Mama had made her curious now. She had never spoken with Thorn about it because of everything else going on in her life after Lionel left. Then Thorn was gone, without their mending their rift, and their relationship had suffered.
Not for the first time, she wondered what her life would have been like if she’d married Lionel. Miserable, probably, given the kind of devil he’d proven to be. And she could only imagine how awful he might have been to their children.
The knot in her belly tightened even more. No, she wasn’t going to think about that. It hurt too much, even after so much time had gone by.
“Wait a minute,” Mama said. “Isn’t Malet also the name of that fellow who tried to kidnap Heywood’s wife and her cousin at Christmas?”
“Yes,” she said blandly. “Turns out he’s actually the same fellow.”
“Well, if anything proves he was a scoundrel from the beginning, that does.” Mama breathed deeply. “Now that you’ve both finished your ices, we should probably head home, don’t you think? You may wish to rest before attending the opera this evening.”
“We’re attending the opera?” Joshua asked, looking as if someone had just threatened to kill the hunting dogs at Armitage Hall.
“You don’t have to go,” Mama said. “I’m sure Grey wouldn’t mind accompanying Gwyn. I daresay Eliza would be grateful for any night she doesn’t have to chaperone.”
“DoesGreyenjoy the opera?” Joshua asked skeptically.
“Who doesn’t enjoy the opera?” Mama said.
Joshua snorted. “Beatrice told me that the only thing she dislikes about London is the opera. And from what I understand, Grey doesn’t enjoy going anywhere in society unless my sister goes with him.”
“Yes, those two are still madly in love,” Gwyn said, trying to squelch her envy of that. “To be honest, Mama, I may not be up to going either.” It depended on her talk with Joshua. “Although I do have the most fetching opera gown . . .”
Joshua stared at her. “You would go to the opera to wear a new gown?”
“Of course not.” She forced a lightness into her voice that she didn’t feel. “I would go to the opera to beseenwearing my new gown.”
When that got a laugh from him, the knot in her stomach loosened a bit, for the first time all day. If she could still make him laugh, he might not betooangry with her.
Though it wasn’t his anger she dreaded. It was his contempt for her as an unchaste woman. Not that she thought she deserved it, but if he turned out to be the sort of fellow who believed that she did, she didn’t know how she would bear it.
Mama rose and took their bowls, then handed them to the footman with a request that he also fetch them a hackney coach. As the footman hurried across the road, Mama said, “I hope you don’t mind, but I do not relish the walk back. You’re welcome to walk, however, with the footman.”
“We’ll ride with you, Mama,” Gwyn said. Because if she and Joshua walked back, he would wish to talk, and she didn’t want to talk about Lionel in public.
As Mama nodded, then headed toward the street, Joshua offered Gwyn his arm, and she took it. He slowed his pace so that they fell a bit behind Mama. She knew it was deliberate, because even with his bad leg, he seemed able to keep up with them most of the time.
