The Offer (Baron 2)

“You know very well what I mean,” Richard said, his hands fists at his sides. “I don’t like this, Phillip. I just might have to kill you.”

“Dear me, what a reward for a good Samaritan. Just stop it, Richard, and attend me. When Charles found us, he convinced me that I should offer for her, as five days spent alone with me, regardless of the circumstances, would ruin her reputation. She turned me down flat, Richard, as, I’m convinced, she will do to you, if you’ve still a mind to have her. However,” he continued, looking straight into his friend’s dark eyes, “I intend once she is better to push her again to accept me as her husband. She shouldn’t be ruined and ostracized. She doesn’t deserve it.”

“If you haven’t damaged her, then I’ll take her to wife.”

Phillip said only, “I didn’t damage her.” He thought that if the situation resolved itself and she became his wife, what had happened to her would not at all be such a bad thing. Although he didn’t love her, he had come to like her and respect her. She seemed even-tempered, sweet. She was a mystery one minute, an open book the next. He would, he concluded, treat her much better than Richard would. To his mind, Clarendon merely wanted Sabrina to while away his boredom for a time. He could see the marquess setting her up as a new mother for his young son, while he resumed his own pleasures in London. Sabrina didn’t deserve that.

Charles said, “Perhaps I should offer for her. I’ve known her forever. I’d keep her safe. What do you say?”

Both gentlemen turned frowns upon Charles, making him fling up his hands. “All right, forget it. But I’m here, should she need a sacrificial husband.”

“Just shut your trap, Charles,” the marquess said. “I’m going to see her now. Has that damned Dr. Simmons come down yet from her room?”

“I’ll ask,” Charles said and pulled the bell cord. He would be vastly relieved, he thought, if only Trevor got the broken nose out of this mess.

21

Sabrina didn’t move even though her arm was getting numb. She didn’t want Margaret to know she was awake yet. She felt the soft cotton of her own nightgown against her skin. It felt wonderful. How kind of Elizabeth to send her clothing to Moreland.

She felt consumed with misery at her own helplessness. She had to regain her strength soon so that she could go to her grandfather, assure herself that he would be all right, and convince him that it would be better for all of them if she went to London. It occurred to her that she would now have to apply to Trevor for her inheritance from her mother, the ten thousand pounds that was hers upon her eighteenth birthday. It belonged to her, and even Trevor couldn’t prevent the solicitors from turning the funds over to her. How very disappointing for him that she hadn’t died. A sob rose in her throat. She tried to keep it swallowed, but it was no good. The sob burst from her mouth like the sound of a dying chicken. That almost made her smile.

“Bree, my love, you’re awake. How do you feel?”

Sabrina raised glazed eyes to Margaret’s face as she poured Sabrina a cup of tea. Her childhood friend who’d married a man she loved; a childhood friend so happy it hurt to look at her. “I’m alive,” Sabrina said. “Really, I’m alive. No need for you to worry so, Margaret.”

“Of course I’ll worry. Do you have any pain, Bree? Shall I fetch Dr. Simmons for you? He’s still downstairs, speaking to Phillip, I believe.”

Sabrina felt Margaret’s hand, soft, and featherlight on her forehead. She missed Phillip’s hand, solid and strong. She grabbed Margaret’s hand. “No, Margaret, I’m fine, really. I’m very grateful to you and Charlie for bringing me here to Moreland. I couldn’t have gone back to the Abbey. Thank you. I’ll be strong again, really soon now. You know me, I’ve always healed faster than I deserved. Soon, Margaret, soon I’ll take my leave of you. Another day, perhaps two.”

Sabrina wondered dispassionately what her aunt Barresford’s reaction would be when she arrived on her doorstep. Would Elizabeth write to tell her that Sabrina was a slut, a trollop, a—? She didn’t know any more words for loose immoral women. No, Elizabeth didn’t want her to return to Monmouth Abbey. She’d keep her mouth shut.

From what she knew of Aunt Barresford, she didn’t think the lady would turn her away, not with ten thousand pounds in her purse.

“You’ll stop the nonsense, Sabrina. I won’t hear another word out of you. You’ll stay here until I tell you that you can leave. Listen to me, even at this moment, Charlie is getting rid of the Christmas guests. I won’t have to leave you. My husband Hugh will be arriving from London in two days and we’ll all celebrate Christmas together. It will be quite like old times.

“Remember that one Christmas when you and I were angry at Charlie because he treated us like little girls, which we were, of course? Ah, but the revenge we exacted on him. He still shakes his head about that and shudders.”

Sabrina managed a smile. “I’ll never forget the look on his face

when he came downstairs from his bath, and you and I were hiding inside the cupboard behind the stairs. He was green from head to foot. A lovely moss green. It was a magnificent revenge.”

“Yes, and despite what you and I have done to him over the years, he is very fond of you. Ah, don’t forget that Phillip is here, of course, and Richard Clarendon. He, Charles, and Phillip were closeted together in the library for the longest time. My maid told me that Teresa Elliott came out of there so angry she could barely speak. I’ll bet she spewed her meanness on Phillip and he put her in her place.”

“Richard Clarendon is here? At Moreland?”

“Yes. He was searching for you with all the other men. Even after your sister—no, never mind that. It’s not important now.”

“Tell me, Margaret.”

“I don’t want to. You’re still ill. I don’t want to make you mad.”

“Tell me, Margaret.”

“Very well, Sabrina, but I want it noted that I don’t want to. Elizabeth and Trevor called off the search for you. Richard was so furious he went on a rampage.”

Oddly enough, Sabrina felt nothing much at all with that news. She could understand how her presence would ruin the tales Trevor and Elizabeth had told.

“You say all the gentlemen were in the library?”