Chapter Sixteen
“Eek! You’re getting married!” Gwenys cried in delight when Miranda returned as the noon hour neared. She had barely reported the unexpected news before Gwenys began squealing and jumping for joy. “We must tell Berry, Suzanna, and Gwendolyn!”
She tore out of the house before Miranda could stop her, and then began shouting at the top of her lungs in the middle of the square. “Miranda’s getting married! Miranda’s getting married!”
“Dear heaven,” Miranda muttered, chasing after her niece, who was hopping up and down in the middle of Duchess Square and shouting for their friends to come out.
“She said yes!”
It wasn’t long before Berry, Suzanna, and Gwendolyn raced out of their homes and threw themselves at Miranda to hug her and extend their congratulations.
“When is the wedding?” Berry asked, her smile soft and sweet. “I hope we are invited.”
“You are all invited,” Gwenys interjected. “And the wedding is tomorrow!”
“Maybe,” Miranda insisted, but none of her friends bothered to listen to her because they were all too busy squealing and cheering over her good fortune.
“We’ll be there,” Berry assured her. “I wouldn’t miss this for the world.”
“Nor I,” Gwendolyn agreed. “Although this will set me back in my romantic quest for the Marquess of Milbury. Now I’ll have to find him someone else who is lovely and smart and charming. I already have two candidates and wanted a third.”
Miranda rolled her eyes. Honestly, why did Gwendolyn not put herself in the running?
Suzanna laughed. “Bonham and I were going to install new drainage pipes in our dressing rooms tomorrow, but that can wait.”
Dear heaven. Those two were meant for each other. What other wife would be excited about the flow of their effluence? But Suzanna certainly had the soul of an engineer, and her husband adored her for this.
“Do you know what gown you will wear?” Gwendolyn asked.
“No, I haven’t thought that far ahead yet,” Miranda replied.
“There’s no telling if we will have all in order in time to marry tomorrow.
Solway is first going to call upon Gwenys’s father with Douglas.
Only afterward will they go for the marriage licenses, assuming Gwenys’s father gives his consent. ”
Berry frowned. “Will he resist?”
“For certain,” Miranda said with a shake of her head.
“I don’t know why they are even bothering.
His wife is going to make certain he rejects Douglas because she is such a spiteful harpy and wishes to destroy Gwenys’s happiness.
She loves to spread misery, so she will hover over him like a hawk to make certain he does her bidding. ”
“Oh dear. Well, we always knew he was a weakling,” Berry said. “But wouldn’t it be lovely if he chose this moment to finally do the right thing? Then you two can have a double wedding. The Lawsons wedding the Lanarks. It is quite romantic.”
“He won’t do the right thing,” Miranda replied.
“That wife of his,” Gwendolyn muttered. “Evil woman.”
Miranda glanced at her niece. “I know my wedding plans may interfere with—”
“Yours are most important,” Gwenys insisted.
“Once you are the Duchess of Solway, they won’t dare try anything with me.
If Douglas and I need to wait a few more weeks or months, then that’s what we shall do.
Douglas may have to return to Scotland on his own, but you and Solway will be here to protect me. ”
Miranda wished she could be as confident as Gwenys, but she’d had fifteen years of experience with Lady Lowery and her vile cohort, Lady Trowbridge. She would have to speak with Bram and work up a plan for Gwenys.
After adding their assurances to remain ever watchful, their friends returned to their homes while Miranda and Gwenys walked back to theirs.
“Aunt Miranda…”
“Yes?”
“I’m not really brave. My stepmother and her evil companion do scare me.”
Miranda put an arm around her niece’s shoulders.
“They scare me too. But they only succeed in sowing misery because they behave like predators. They can only move in for the kill once they’ve separated their target from the rest of the herd, and I am never going to let them get close to you.
Once you and Douglas are married, they will not be able to separate the pair of you, either.
I do not want you waiting months to wed.
We’ll discuss this tonight with the two men when they return from their meeting with your father. ”
“All right.”
“I am not the only one ready and willing to protect you. Those Lanarks will never allow anyone to hurt you without coming down on their heads like a big Scottish hammer.”
That made Gwenys smile.
They stayed home for the rest of the day and tried to concentrate on wedding thoughts, but they both knew everything was still up in the air.
It was nightfall by the time Douglas and Bram arrived at their home, striding in like conquering heroes along with two of their kinsmen while a half-dozen others stood at attention by the front gate with the discipline of a small army.
Miranda recognized the two who had marched in with Douglas and Bram as Lanark cousins, for she had met Hugh and James Lanark at various ton affairs over the past few years.
These Scots were all big men, towering over her and Gwenys, even though neither she nor her niece were small ladies.
She invited them into her parlor that suddenly seemed small because their shoulders were all so broad. “Would you care for refreshments?”
Bram answered for them. “Nay. We won’t be staying long.”
“Oh, I see. Do have a seat, gentlemen.”
Since they were in fact gentlemen, they waited for Miranda and Gwenys to sit first before settling into their chairs. Miranda clasped Gwenys’s hand when the obviously hopeful girl sidled close. “What happened with Lord Lowery?” Miranda asked.
Douglas shook his head, looking quite despondent.
“Oh dear,” Miranda whispered, and put a hand to her throat in dismay. “This is what we feared.”
Bram growled softly. “But it has all worked out. We’re to have a double wedding tomorrow morning.”
Gwenys leaped out of her seat and hugged Bram. “You made this happen. I know it was you.”
“Hey, do I no’ get a hug?” Douglas teased. “I’m to be yer bridegroom.”
Gwenys hugged him, too.
“You have left me confused, Solway. Douglas’s expression did not look promising.” But Miranda knew Bram must have done something to bring about this result. “How did you manage this miracle?”
He winced. “Ye might no’ be too happy with me.
I’ll tell ye later. But the important thing is that Gwenys’s father consented and Douglas has the license burning a hole in his pocket.
However, no’ everyone will be happy about this outcome, so Gwenys and Douglas must leave immediately after the ceremony. ”
Her eyes narrowed.
What had Bram done?
Gwenys did not think twice about it as she hopped up and down with glee. “Oh, yes. I shall run up and pack my belongings right now. Lottie will help me. I’ve already got a bag ready for a week of travel.”
“Good,” Douglas said, rising to join her. “Dinna unpack that one. Leave it be. Ye’ll be in need of it on our travels north. The rest will come later on a luggage cart. With yer permission, Miranda, I’ll help Gwenys gather her belongings.”
Miranda nodded. “So long as Lottie is in the room with you.”
“Of course,” Gwenys replied, as though the thought of doing anything improper with her handsome betrothed had never entered her mind.
Well, Gwenys was a bit na?ve as to the nature of men. Douglas was honorable, but he was also lusting after his soon-to-be wife.
As soon as the pair left the parlor, Miranda stared pointedly at the remaining Lanarks. “Now, tell me what really happened.”
Bram cleared his throat. “Well, lass, this is how I see it. Mongo abducted ye when he meant to abduct Gwenys, for which I ought to be eternally in his debt, but I’m going to punish him anyway.
Gwenys’s father and stepmother sought to cruelly abduct her too.
So I consulted with my cousins,” he said, nodding to Hugh and James, “and Montrose, who is a fine lad.”
“Aye, a fine lad,” Hugh said.
James agreed. “He’s one of us.”
Bram nodded. “We all decided that I ought to have a turn abducting someone.”
Miranda thought he was jesting—at first. “You? Who are you going to abduct?”
“Gwenys’s father.”
“Bram! You cannot! You must not!”
Hugh leaned forward, obviously eager to have a say. “To be precise, we did abduct him a few hours ago. It is done, so ye may as well save yer breath in talking Bram or any of us out of it. I thought it better to take the stepmother, but Bram and Montrose were vehemently against it.”
“I’m not surprised. She may be odious, but she’s a lady.”
“No, that’s no’ why we dismissed the idea,” Bram said with a twitch of his lips, obviously attempting to contain his smile.
“Ye know the lady is detestable. Why would Lowery ever pay a ransom when this would be the perfect chance for him to be free of her? If he paid us, it would only be to beg us to keep her in our clutches longer. A bribe rather than a ransom.”
Miranda suppressed a laugh. Oh, what he said was so true. Who would ever want that spiteful woman back?
“But seriously,” Bram continued, “why would we abduct that vile serpent of a woman when it is his blessing we need? So we took her limp dishrag of a husband instead. Kept it simple. He was the one who had to give his consent to the license.”
Miranda’s head was spinning. “How did you pull it off? Did he struggle when you grabbed him? You haven’t hurt him, have you?”
“Och, no. We would no’ harm him,” James intoned. “In truth, I think he was relieved we took him.”
Miranda’s eyes widened. “Relieved?”
James nodded. “Aye, he cares for his daughter, but he’s in an impossible situation with his wife. She’ll make his life a misery for the next hundred years if she thinks he signed willingly. So, it could be said we did him a favor.”
“By abducting him?”
“Aye,” Bram said.