Page 77 of Marriage Most Scandalous
“I’ll see what I can do,” Margaret promised.
“Good.” Alberta huffed and with a scowl in Juliette’s direction, marched off to find some consolation from her cronies.
Ordinarily, Margaret would join Juliette and try to calm her down, but Juliette hadn’t spoken to her since she’d learned of Margaret’s marriage. If the one glare she’d intercepted hadn’t been enough to warn her that their so-called friendship was over because of it, Juliette’s loud complaints across the room certainly did.
“The traitor marries him and gets honored. Why was I not honored when I married you, eh?”
Denton didn’t appear to be embarrassed. He was too used to being the center of attention at parties because of his very vocal wife. But Abigail looked flustered. Juliette was loud enough that even Abigail, with her poor hearing, had caught every word.
So Juliette, considered her a traitor? That was amusing, Margaret thought. Before Juliette could offer even more insults and disrupt the party further, she decided to leave the room and find out what was keeping Sebastian.
She wouldn’t be surprised if he’d already left without her, especially if Douglas had demanded that he truly marry her.
She didn’t quite make it out of the parlor before Juliette focused on her next target. “And him!” the Frenchwoman snarled contemptuously. “Disowned and yet—”
The remark ended abruptly. Margaret glanced back at Juliette and then stopped in surprise. Denton had actually put his hand over his wife’s mouth to shut her up. Although he might be immune to the insults she leveled at him, he wasn’t going to let her slander his brother. Bravo, Denton! Margaret wondered if Sebastian’s return had given him courage. It was about time he took his wife in hand. And, apparently, she wasn’t the only one who thought so.
Someone clapped. Loudly. Then someone else did. Within seconds, the entire room was applauding. Juliette looked furious and embarrassed. She broke away from Denton, snarling a French expletive that Margaret was quite glad she didn’t understand and ran out the door.
Barely managing to get out of the way before Juliette knocked her over, Margaret backed into a hard body. She turned to apologize but didn’t get the words out. It was her temporary husband standing there, and he looked like hell warmed over.
For a moment she thought he looked angry because he’d been there long enough to have heard Juliette. But, amazingly, his tone was bland as he asked her, “Did I miss something pertinent?”
“Just your brother keeping his wife from reviling you in public.”
“Good for him,” Sebastian said. “Shall we go?”
She frowned. His lack of interest puzzled her. But his expression hadn’t changed. He was furious about something, and if not Juliette...
She was afraid to find out what, so she merely said, “Yes. I’ve already told our hostess we’re going home.”
“We’ll be stopping there,” he said as he took her arm and escorted her outside.
She braced herself to encounter Juliette on the steps, but fortunately, Juliette hadn’t waited for her coach to be brought up. She’d found it herself and it was racing down the road.
And then Margaret realized what Sebastian had just said. “What d’you mean, stopping there?”
“To pick up John and Timothy and any traveling companions you’d like to bring along.”
“Bring along to where? Where the devil are we going that we need an entourage?”
“Where else but Scotland? They do still marry people up there on the spot, don’t they?”
Margaret drew in her breath sharply. “We need to discuss this.”
“There’s nothing to discuss.”
“The devil there isn’t,” she rejoined hotly. “One doesn’t just hie off to Scotland in the middle of the night. At the very least, wait until morning when you’ll see that this isn’t necessary.”
“No waiting,” he said as he shoved her into the coach that had pulled up. “If I sleep on it, I won’t be doing the ‘right thing.’ ”
“But—”
“Not another bloody word, Maggie, or you will spend this entire trip in my lap.”
She opened her mouth, but the menacing glint in his eyes arrested her and she quickly clamped it shut. This was The Raven she was dealing with now, and the dratted man was serious!
Chapter 47
