Chapter 3 #3
Mama was getting older. She deserved to be comfortable after these past few years. If we were careful in the writing of the marriage contract about my inheritance, perhaps a marriage to Mr. Green wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. I could find some good to do with Papa’s money.
I stood. “I’ll speak to him.” My stomach felt sick, and my hands had started shaking, but what other option did I have?
Moving here had been a mistake, but I had made Mama do it even though she’d expressed her concerns about coming unannounced.
She’d been right. There wasn’t a place for us here. There wasn’t a place for us anywhere.
Mama’s face brightened in surprise at my answer, but next to her, David’s face turned dark. He unfolded his arms and put them on his waist. “You will do nothing of the sort.”
“Pardon?” I asked, once again surprised by David’s interference.
“You have nothing to do with this.” Mr. Green’s voice rose by an octave, and the veins in his neck bulged.
David glanced at me, his face softening in a way I was certain he meant for me to understand.
But I didn’t. There was a heat in his lingering gaze that belied how little we knew each other.
In all our time together, he’d never looked at me like that.
Indeed, as a fourteen-year-old, he wouldn’t have been capable of it.
“My dear,” David’s voice was tender as he strode toward me.
I looked to each side, thinking perhaps I’d misunderstood that look of his and his term of endearment.
But of course, there was no one else but me on this side of the room, unless he was referring to Mr. Green.
I sneaked a quick glance at the odious man, but he looked just as confused as I.
“I believe we owe your family and friends an explanation about why you came back to Breckenridge.”
Oh no.
I closed my eyes tight. Blast the man, he was going to try to protect me.
He crossed the room and reached for my hand.
It was still shaking, but I allowed him to take it.
His look of concern deepened when he noticed the tremors.
I forced myself to take a long, slow breath. I needed to be in control.
He leaned forward and, with his breath warm near my ear, whispered, “That man doesn’t deserve to breathe the same air as you. I cannot watch him annoy you any further. Let me help. Please.”
He squeezed my hand softly and then straightened, his eyes on my face, awaiting an answer. A moment ago, my own mother had practically thrown me at Mr. Green. But now, this man, who had once been a boy I’d spent only a short summer with, was offering an escape.
We’d both removed our gloves for dinner and hadn’t had time to replace them.
His hand was warm and slightly rough, most likely from thatching roofs.
They were the kind of hands a woman could trust. I hadn’t had a man’s hand wrapped around my own since Papa had passed away, at least no well-meaning one, and something about the familiarity of the motion made me want to lean into him and, more than that, allow him to help me.
Especially if it meant I didn’t have to go into a room alone with Mr. Green.
I nodded, feeling my chin quiver slightly.
“Miss Atwood”—David’s smile projected pure happiness, and Mr. Green’s scowl deepened—“Anna”—he corrected softly, and my eyes went to Mr. Green.
His face was beginning to match his name—“has no reason to speak with you alone, not when she has come to Breckenridge with the express intent of accepting my proposal of marriage.”
I nodded in agreement and then paused. Marriage? My eyes widened, and I whipped my head back to David. Had he just said marriage? I kept my smile plastered to my face out of self-preservation, but certainly, I’d misheard him. What in heaven’s name?
Mama’s hands flew to her throat, and her mouth dropped open.
Miss Tate’s face went pale, and her eyes flashed back and forth between me and David.
Only Mr. and Mrs. Preston seemed happy about the announcement.
Mrs. Preston clapped her hands in excitement while Mr. Preston smiled and nudged her with his elbow.
“That is preposterous,” Mr. Green blurted out. “Miss Atwood has lived for the past six years in Derbyshire. She’s never told anyone she was engaged.”
“I proposed to her eight years ago.” David showed no signs of deceit.
He stood firm and steady as a mountain in a storm.
“Didn’t I, Anna?” His mouth curled to a soft smile that almost made me believe he was in earnest. The man hardly knew me.
But for whatever reason, he was helping me, and I wasn’t going to sabotage him.
“It’s true,” I said, trying to match his confident smile.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Mama said from the other side of the room.
David’s smile dropped, and he looked at Mama as if she’d scolded him. “She knew I wanted to keep it a secret. I was young and needed to prove myself. I’m sorry, madam, if my need for secrecy has caused your family pain.”
“You expect us to believe she’s been engaged for eight years? To you?” Mr. Green asked, his lips pursed together and eyes narrowed. “You barely look of marriageable age now. You would have been a child.”
David straightened, and even though he wasn’t a large man, his presence seemed to take up the room. “Matters of the heart are not bound by the years we’ve lived on the earth. As you must know, seeing as you’ve pursued a woman half your age.”
Mr. Green sputtered, and I pressed my lips together to hold back a sudden laugh. No one ever spoke to him like that.
“How old were you?” Mr. Green asked again, his voice laced with fury.
“Let’s see,” Mr. Preston said cheerfully.
“Miss Atwood’s first visit was eight years ago in the summer.
Mr. Tate is twenty and three now, which would have made him fifteen.
” He paused for a moment. “No! Fourteen, as he wouldn’t have had his birthday yet.
” He walked over to David and slapped him on his back.
“Knew what you wanted early, didn’t you? ”
David’s eyes met mine, and with the same intense expression he had used eight years ago when he had asked me to marry him, he answered, “Yes.”
Mr. Green’s eyes bulged and skirted about the room as if he were the only sane man in it. “A man engaged at fourteen. I’ve never heard of such a thing.”
“Is this true, Anna?” Mama asked. “Did he really propose to you that summer?”
I looked between the two men. David stood waiting to protect me.
I had no idea what he planned to do after Mr. Green left, but it hardly mattered.
Mr. Green was pulling at his cravat, his anger showing in every inch of his body.
I couldn’t go with him. Mr. Preston would help us once I explained the need.
He felt terrible about not having a place for us to stay.
There had to be a better answer than marrying Mr. Green, and David had given me a simple way to be rid of him once and for all.
I turned to Mama. “He’s telling the truth.
He came to the cottage the night before we left and asked me to marry him. ”
“And you accepted him?” Mama asked. “A fourteen-year-old boy? I don’t even remember seeing him that summer. When did you have a chance to meet?”
I ignored her first question, grateful she’d asked a second. “He often came to help me on my visits to Lord Murphy’s tenant farmers. He would carry the basket.” Thank heavens, Mama hadn’t seen him then. Some boys looked like full-grown men at fourteen, but David hadn’t been one of them.
David stepped forward and took Mama’s hand.
“Your daughter was a ray of light in an otherwise very dark childhood.” He looked at his sister.
She bowed her head and looked away from everyone.
“I couldn’t allow that light to leave without at least asking for her to become a permanent part of my future.
I knew I was too young to marry. But now I no longer am, and so she has returned.
Do you think she would have come here otherwise?
Without even speaking with Mr. Preston about how long you would be able to stay? ”
David was quite convincing. His sister watched him intently, her light eyes narrowing at his explanation.
When she looked at me next, it was to take my measure.
Everyone else in the room had seemed to take a side, either in excitement for what was happening or, as in the case of Mr. Green, all-encompassing aggravation.
But Miss Tate was uniquely undecided. Of course she was.
David wasn’t in need of protection, his announcement did nothing to help him, and Miss Tate didn’t care a whit for me; we’d only just met.
She had eyes only for her brother. If anything, she should be as unhappy as Mr. Green.
Mrs. Preston strode over to David and patted his cheek.
“Congratulations, Mr. Tate. I remember Miss Atwood and how delightful she was that summer. You did well to ask her when you did; otherwise someone else would have snatched her up. I guess now we all understand how she managed to stay unattached so long.”
“That’s why you haven’t accepted anyone?” Mama sputtered. “You were engaged this whole time, and you never told me? Do you know how much I’ve worried?”
Mr. Green kicked the back of the chair I had been sitting on until recently. “I cannot believe the way this woman has misled me for years. It’s disgraceful.”
“Mr. Green.” David’s voice was icy. “I’m going to tell you this once kindly, and if I need to say it again, I will not be so kind.
Have a care for how you speak of Anna. Or of any woman, for that matter.
I highly doubt she bestowed any special favors upon you over the past years.
It is your own folly if you looked upon common human decency and saw it as encouragement. ”
One of the veins in Mr. Green’s neck looked as though it might burst. But he sized up David’s arms and general youth and must have thought better of aggravating him further.
Instead, he turned to me, his eyes stopping briefly at the point where David’s and my hands touched.
When his eyes met mine they were furious.
“I hope you never set foot in Derbyshire again, for you won’t receive any sort of welcome from me or the rest of the county. ”
“I am aware of that, Mr. Green.” I smiled at him and tightened my hold on David’s hand, which he immediately returned with a squeeze of his own.
This was going to be a mess to sort out once Mr. Green left, but it was worth it to hear him say he was finally done pursuing me.
My chest felt light enough that I could fly out the window.
David ran his thumb quickly over the top of my hand before dropping it and striding to the door. He opened it and looked at Mr. Green expectantly. Mr. Green narrowed his eyes and, seeing no support, even from Mama, stomped out of the drawing room. A moment later, the front door slammed.
I waited for David to tell everyone it was all an act, but it didn’t happen. We stood there looking at each other. My heart swelled with gratitude for this man and what he had done, but he must be panicking. It was up to me to tell everyone the truth so no harm could be done to his name.
“Mama . . .” How would I start? She looked up at me expectantly, and although I could tell she was put out not to have been privy to this pretend engagement, I also knew she was scared enough to have asked Mr. Green here.
But there was nothing to be done about it.
I couldn’t entrap David. He had too much of his life ahead of him.
He might even already have someone in mind whom he would like to marry. “None of this—”
“Mr. Preston,” David interrupted. “I haven’t actually had time to hear Miss Atwood’s reply to my proposal. I wonder if I could borrow a private room for a moment of her time. Assuming Mrs. Atwood and Anna are willing?”
My heart sped up at his words, but not in the way it had when Mr. Green had asked the same thing. Alone, with David?
“Of course,” Mr. Preston said. “You may use the library for a few minutes. Would that be agreeable, Mrs. Atwood?”
Mama looked to be in shock. Her eyes widened when her name was called and then seemed to process what had been said. “Yes, I suppose that would be all right.” She glanced at David. “But afterward, I would also like to speak with you.”
I shook my head. “That won’t be necessary, Mama.”
Mama’s hands flitted about, and she walked up to me and leaned in. “I know us being here means you must have already made up your mind to marry him, but I know next to nothing about the man. I think it is only proper that he speak to me as well.”
“Certainly,” David said. “I will speak with you directly after I have a word with Anna, that is.” He held out his arm, solid and so very different from Mr. Green’s. Mr. Green’s arm had been a way to claim me. David’s was an invitation. “If Anna will join me.”
Anna. That was me. I wasn’t certain what we needed to talk about in private, but I had no objections to being alone with him in the library. I took his arm. My hand wasn’t shaking, at least. That was something.
He gave Mr. Preston a short bow, then led me out of the dining room. He walked directly down a corridor and to the library. I suppose as a neighbor, he knew the house well enough to find it. Opening the door, he motioned for me to step inside the unlit room.
I did.
And then he closed the door behind us.