“You can’t order him about in my home. You don’t have the right.” She took a step back from him. “I think it’s time for you to go.”
“Minnie, please. This can’t be the way it ends.” Her words were like knives in his heart. But somehow. He couldn’t say the words that Charleston had so easily uttered. Had the other man stolen his voice? Or Had Lady Abernath taken it? Or perhaps, it was his mother who’d taken his ability to express genuine emotion.
Minnie reached for his hand, clasping his fingers in her own as her eyes crinkled at the corners. She didn’t say a word as she leaned closer. “It doesn’t have to be.”
He closed his eyes. Then opened them again. He couldn’t argue that he was saving her. Charleston’s proposal meant she’d have th
e protection of matrimony. “I…I need…time…I,” his mouth pressed closed.
Her fingers slipped from his. “If you will both excuse me,” she said, her voice flat as she smoothed her skirts. “I think I need time.”
Then she raced from the room, her skirts swishing as she went, brushing the door before it clicked behind her.
Tag watched her go. He had the feeling he’d just allowed his past to steal his future. He needed to act quickly if he stood a chance of reconciling the situation.
Chapter Fifteen
Minnie raced up to her room, tears threatening to fall down her cheeks. She clenched her fists as she moved more quickly down the hall. She’d not allow anyone to see her cry.
What was she upset about anyway? She should be happy. With two offers, she might be able to marry before the countess ruined her. Not that she’d accept either of the men. But she’d tell them each privately and not in front of the other.
Somehow, that thought calmed her. She drew in a deep breath as she opened the door of her room.
“Minnie,” her cousin, Mary, called from the other end of the hall.
“Oh Mary,” she cried, spinning around. “I just realized I left you with Lord Charleston and Lord Darlington.”
Mary waved her hand. “Pay it no mind, dear. That’s the most exciting five minutes I’ve witnessed in some time.”
Minnie looked at the ceiling. “Glad to have amused you.”
Mary chuckled as she made her way down the hall. “I didn’t just come up here to further torture you. I come bearing a message.”
“Message?” Minnie pressed her hand to her stomach.
Mary nodded. “I have to confess, I didn’t much like your duke at first but…” Mary reached for her hand. “I think that he is trying his hardest to be the man you need.”
Was he? Minnie wasn’t so certain. Did he want her or did he simply engage in typical male competition when he saw another man interested in her?
“Which is why I’ve consented to carry this missive to you.” Mary leaned over and whispered in her ear, “He wants you to meet him in the garden at nine tonight.”
Minnie gasped. “You consented to give me this message?”
“I did,” Mary gave her a mischievous smile that made her eyes dance. “If you’re caught, I knew nothing about any of this.”
Minnie gasped. Her proper spinster cousin had just set up an illicit meeting in the garden? “Mary, what’s happened to you?”
Mary winked. “Well, if you do get caught, the worst that will happen is you’ll marry a duke. He’s already offered. Once your mother learns that—”
“Don’t tell her,” Minnie hissed. “There will be no stopping her if you do.”
Mary reached for her hand and gave it a squeeze. “I’ll do my best, but you’d better decide quickly what you intend to do.”
Minnie nodded. Mary had a point there. She needed to let Tag go before her mother made the decision for her. Otherwise, she could find herself trapped in marriage with a man who didn’t share her feelings.
Tag paced just inside the gate as a clock nearby struck nine. Would Minnie come? His fingers were growing numb. While the days were warming nicely, the nights were quite cool still.
One of his horses whinnied nearby. He’d pulled his carriage into the alley next to the Chase family townhouse. The night was too chilly to speak outside and he needed a private setting for this conversation.