Page 61 of The Sprinter
“What on earth?” the nurse said, glancing at Maggie.
Maggie whispered, “We’d best not answer it. It sounds dangerous, it could be thieves or rogues who’ve spied on the house and know we’re unprotected.”
Grace did not know if that was the case, but thought an encounter with thieves or rogues would certainly top off what was looking like the worst night of her life.
“Lady Barlow,” the voice shouted through the door, “I am searching for your daughter, please open this door at once!”
Grace felt as if time had slowed down as the seconds ticked by. She knew that voice as well as her own. The nurse looked at her inquiringly. Maggie whispered, “That sounds like Lord Gresham if I remember rightly.”
Grace nodded, the truth of what was occurring presenting itself. Lady Heathway had sent her nephew to accomplish two things: assure her that Grace had reached home safely and inform Miss Yardley that she was tostayhome.
Maggie hurried to the door and opened it. Lord Gresham strode in, looking like there was fire in his eyes.
“You’re here,” he said.
Before he could begin whatever rage he seemed set on, Grace said, “I thought my mother was dying…but she’s not dying.”
“Of course she’s not dying!” Lord Gresham said. “She’s been under the care of the most skilled physician in England and has an experienced nurse living in her very house! How could she possibly be dying?”
“It was in the letter, you see,” Grace said softly, before taking a rather long sip of the sherry.
Lord Gresham threw up his hands. “Another letter? You climbed down a drainpipe because of thefirstletter! Did it not occur to you to come to me? Or if not me, then my aunt?”
“Yes, I did think of that, but then I thought you’d say no or that I ought to wait until morning.”
Lord Gresham raked his hand through his hair. “That’s exactly what I would have said.”
“And so you see the problem,” Grace said.
“Idosee the problem. It’syouwho do not see the problem,” Lord Gresham said. He paced the small floor of the cottage as Nurse Maddington and Maggie slowly backed out of the room and took refuge in the kitchen.
“You are the most impossible and unreasonable creature who ever set London ablaze!” he said. “You heed no advice and you make the most rash decisions!”
“Yes, well of course I see that now.”
“Now?” Lord Gresham said incredulously. “Now does nobody any good. Your departure was announced at supper.The Sprinterhas sprinted once more.”
Grace shrank back. She had not imagined anything like that would have happened. She’d assumed she had caused some kind of talk, perhaps one person told another that they’d seen her leave precipitously and on down the line it would go. A public announcement to an entire tableful of people was rather more serious. And it was a tableful of people that included Lady Heathway and her friends.
“That is unfortunate, indeed,” Grace said so softly she barely heard her own voice.
“Unfortunate,” Lord Gresham said, as if she could not possibly have chosen a more ill-suited adjective for this debacle. “Do you understand the kind of gossip that will go round? Miss Yardley slipped away. Slipped away with who, they will wonder. I know well enough that Jacobs set this ruse up, but there is no direct evidence against him and he has denied it. The talk will be all about Lady Heathway’s charge, Miss Yardley, disappearing from the masque in an unknown carriage!”
Grace was sure he was working up to the news that Lady Heathway did not want her back. She wished he would just say it. She also wished she did not think him so handsome in his high dudgeon with his hair mussed. His cravat had become completely undone and his coat was dusty from the road. He really was rather glorious in his déshabillé.
“It is a confounded mess,” Lord Gresham said. He paused and spied her glass of sherry on the table, picked it up and drained it. He paced the small room, muttering to himself. Finally, he turned and said, “The only answer, as I see it, that is, the only way out, obviously must be…well, there’s nothing for it…we’ll have to marry.”
Grace stared at him. What did he say? Was he really suggesting it? Was he really intending to give up his happiness to protect his aunt from gossip?
It was absurd. He would regret the notion in the cold light of day. And he would regretherforevermore if she allowed such a thing to go forward. No, regret was too kind a word, he would begin in dislike and end in hate. They would be one of those awful couples who were rarely in the same room and when they were, there was a noticeable chill. Mr. and Mrs. Rebrum from the neighborhood were such people—they managed to be painstakingly polite to one another while still giving the impression that they’d like to stab each other’s eyes.
It was so lovely to hear him say those words, though. If only they were of his own volition and not forced from him in some mad effort to maintain his aunt’s dignity.
“Certainly not,” Grace said firmly. Whatever she was, she would not sacrifice a gentleman’s happiness so entirely, simply for her own gain. At least, not his. Not one who she liked so much. Loved, even.
“Certainly not?” Lord Gresham said. “Not just not, butcertainlynot? You have said very clearly that you would marry absolutely anybody turning up, but I am to be dismissed as a certainly not?”
“You cannot marry me. You do not even like me,” Grace said. “It is a very noble idea, but you would be miserable, you know you would.”
