Chapter 15
Deborah could not be happier, though she was a bit irritated that he had not attempted to explain to her sooner.
Then again, her mother was a formidable woman and Danby could be downright frightening.
If she had been warned away by him, and not knowing Danby as she did, she would have obeyed as well.
It was no wonder Percy did not go against their wishes. Danby could see him ruined, but she did not care and once they were wed, Danby would simply have to accept that fact that she could find her own groom and that she was happy.
As Percy leaned closer, Deborah anticipated his kiss and closed her eyes just as his lips touched hers.
Her heart soared as happiness filled her soul, then she pulled back.
“You are not going to disappear again, are you?”
He chuckled and wrapped an arm around her waist and drew her close while his other held on to the cane. It would not do if the two of them toppled to the floor because his knee gave out.
“No, I am never leaving you,” he promised.
“I will stay where you are until the vows have been spoken and I have made you my wife in truth.” His sapphire eyes darkened with his statement and a thrill rushed through her body.
She recalled being on his lap and how he had touched her and had read what occurred between a husband and a wife, and could not wait to discover the promised pleasure with Percy.
She was also afraid to trust and feared that in a blink, he would be gone again.
He smoothed a thumb over her bottom lip. “What is wrong, Deborah? Doubt and fear just clouded your eyes.”
“I anticipated a future with you before, when I was on your lap and you were kissing me. I am afraid…”
“Shh.” He kissed her again. “I am not leaving you. On that you have my word. You are my heart and have been. I just wish…”
“Wish what?”
“That I had not allowed your mother or the Duke of Danby to intimidate me.”
“Yes, well, as much as I would like to agree, I cannot fault you for that. Danby has ruined people before.”
“I should have stood up to him.”
Deborah nearly giggled because Danby stood inches above many men, which likely added to his intimidation.
“It does not matter,” she finally said.
“It was a year and a half lost.”
“Then I will force you to make it up to me.”
Percy chuckled. “How will I do that?”
“By kissing me.” She grinned. “And dancing with me at every ball.”
“I promise…no, I swear that we will waltz at every entertainment, even when there is no dancing.”
“Then we would simply look foolish,” she returned.
“To which I have no objection.”
He did truly want her and love her and had since she had been on his lap.
“I do love you Deborah and I have for a very long time.” He leaned forward and kissed her again. This time it was not chaste but heated and devouring and she had to hold on to his upper arms to keep from falling when her knees threatened to give out.
“Good morning you two.”
Deborah jumped away from Percy, nearly losing her balance only to find Peter standing at the entry to the library.
Percy stiffened. “I will not stand by this time. I love your sister and I intend to marry her.”
“Stand by. What do you mean?”
“It is of no concern,” Peter answered, staring at Percy.
Oh, she used to be able to read Peter’s moods very well, but this was the first time she was uncertain. There was a challenge, and humor and…she wasn’t certain what but Percy had taken up a defensive stance and was once again clutching the cane so tightly that his knuckles turned white.
The same had happened the night before, and her stomach tightened.
Percy had never answered who had broken his nose, and it had been a person, if Tilson was to be believed due to the state of Percy’s face. She knew that it had happened after he left her that summer and before the Season because that was when she first noticed the minor flaw.
Tilson had called on Percy after he returned to London, but the only place Percy had been, to her knowledge, was her home where he had been prevented from telling her goodbye after his departure that had suddenly come about because Peter wanted him gone.
“How did you break your nose?”
Percy blew out a sigh. “Who do you think broke my nose?”
“Peter?” She asked only for clarification because she already knew. His knuckles had been bruised at dinner that night and he had made an excuse of hitting his hand in the stables.
Percy nodded.
“Why would you do such a thing?” she demanded of her brother.
“Because he saw me kissing you. After he sent you way, he planted me a facer and warned me away from you, and from his house. He no longer trusted me and the friendship was over.”
She was going to kill him. She did not care that it was Christmas, she was going to kill her brother and make Johanna a widow.
“You should have explained.”
“He did not give me the opportunity,” Percy informed her. “Each time I tried, he struck me.”
“He hit you more than once?” she nearly screeched as she started to cross the room to Peter.
Peter put up his hands and took a step back. “I was convinced that he was trying to seduce you.”
“In Peter’s defense, had I come across my sister sitting on the lap of a suitor, kissing as we had been, I likely would have done the same.”
Deborah whipped around and faced Percy. “Without asking for an explanation?”
“Yes, well, gentlemen can be rather protective.”
“Fools, you mean.”
“Do not be angry with Peter.”
“Oh, I am beyond angry.” She stomped over to Peter. “How dare you decide something for me.” She drew back her fist then struck her brother in the face. “How does that feel?” She attempted to hit him again but Peter grabbed her wrist.
“I was wrong,” he said simply.
“Yes, you were and you should have told me.”
He glanced past her shoulder to Percy. “I assumed his interest was not in courtship.”
“You could have bloody well asked!” Deborah practically screeched, which Percy took as a lesson to also have a conversation with Deborah and never assume anything.
“Happy Christmas,” Hannah announced as she stepped into the library. “I am so happy to see my siblings getting along.”
The sarcasm was not lost on anyone in the room.
“I assume she now knows what you did?” Hannah asked Peter.
Deborah whipped around to stare at her sister. “You knew? Why did you not tell me?”
“I only just recently came by the information and wanted to determine how you might feel about Shrewsbury first. If you no longer cared for him, then there was no reason for you to know.” She grinned.
“Peter wasn’t the only one who saw the two of you…
um…kissing in your favorite reading place that summer.
Whereas I anticipated a betrothal or at least for you to confide in me, our brother removed him from the premises, though I had not been aware of that fact then.
I had thought Percy had taken advantage and left so I decided to hate him until I was told otherwise. ”
“Is that why I was invited?” Percy asked as he limped forward, leaning heavily on his cane.
“Yes. As soon as I knew that Deborah would be joining us, I made the arrangements.”
“So, is there to be a courtship or betrothal?” Wingate asked as he joined his wife.
“Ah, she knows?” Sam, her brother, said as he joined them.
They all knew but nobody had bothered to tell her. Not even Percy had explained Peter’s part in his leaving until pressed, except, she really didn’t blame him. However, one of the three siblings standing before her could have said something in the three days that she had been here.
Or even sooner! How long had they known?
“There is not going to be a courtship, nor is there going to be a betrothal,” Deborah announced. Percy’s eyes widened and his smile slipped.
“I thought we just agreed—”
“—We did,” she cut him off. “But, since my family, mother and Danby included, have a habit of manipulating our lives, I am not leaving anything to chance. Therefore, I am going upstairs to pack my belongings.”
“You are leaving?” they all asked in unison.
“We are leaving,” Deborah clarified. “Shrewsbury and I.”
“We are?” he asked.
“Your reputation,” Hannah began.
“Will recover since we are bound for Gretna Green.” She then swept from the room leaving them gaping behind her.
It wasn’t until she reached her chamber that she fell on the bed and realized that she had not asked Percy if he was willing to marry her so soon.
Percy had no objection to leaving for Gretna Green, but he had also been rather shocked at Deborah’s reaction to Peter and her other siblings. He’d never heard her raise her voice before and she was the calmest of her siblings. She liked to sit and read, but she had just yelled at them.
Then again, could he really blame her. They all knew what had happened and the purpose of his being there, yet nobody had bothered to tell her.
Such manipulation would make him angry as well, except he was quite happy about the intervention.
Further, he was not deterred from wanting to marry her and the sooner the better.
They had been forced to wait long enough, for which he accepted part of the blame.
He should have ignored everyone and approached her last spring, then perhaps this would have already been behind them.
He also realized that he should probably pack but he did not think that Deborah would want to wait on him.
With a chuckle, he started for the door so that he could ask a footman to have his carriage brought around only to find Peter standing in the doorway.
“So, help me, if you strike me again, I will not hold back and return in kind what you delivered to my person the last summer I visited you.”
Peter chuckled and strolled forward.
“I do wish to apologize for the way I asked you to leave.”
Percy snorted. There was no asking. “Yes, well, had you allowed me to explain,” Percy reminded him.
“When I saw my sister on your lap, I lost all reason.”
“I had not noticed,” Percy offered dryly.
“It was the first occasion I had to be worried about one of my sisters or realize that there were men who might be interested in them.”
At one time Percy couldn’t imagine why anyone would want either one of his sisters, but that was also when he was younger.
“I told you that I loved her,” Percy argued.
“I assumed that it was because you did not want me to kill you.”
“As if I would lie about something so important.”
“Upon reflection, I know that I should have attempted further insight, but it took me days to get over my anger, and what I saw as betrayal of our friendship. By then, you were gone and when you showed no interest in Deborah the following Season, I knew that I was correct.”
“Because your bloody family would not allow it!” Percy yelled and was once again thankful that he and Deborah would be settling far away from her siblings and His Grace.
“I also came to realize that my sisters are fiercely independent and have minds of their own,” Peter continued.
“Last winter I learned that Tabitha enjoyed morning walks in Hyde Park with only her maid as protection.” Peter pushed his fingers through his hair.
“Anything could have happened to her and I had not known.”
“Sisters do have a tendency not to remain safely where we wish,” Percy grumbled.
His own sister, Bethany, had decided to travel from London to Kent last winter, on her own, with only the driver and a couple of footmen, and had rescued the Duke of Claybrook who was trussed up and left in the middle of the road.
After being forced to share a room at an inn for a few days, they had no choice but to wed, though Bethany did not seem to have any regrets.
“Then, this past Christmas I watched as Tabitha found more confidence in herself and fell in love with Viscount Straffen. I would have guarded her more closely, chaperoned, if I had realized, but then I stopped and observed. He made her happy. She made him happy so who was I to decide who she should court?”
“You are correct. It is not your decision, Peter,” Percy agreed.
“Just as I had no right to attack you without giving you a chance to explain.”
“You are correct.”
“I was going to speak with you on the matter this past spring, but then I needed to find a way to court Johanna, then rescue her…by then, you were gone from the Season.”
“Is this your way of apologizing to me?” he finally asked.
“Yes. Deborah was hurt after you were gone without saying goodbye. I tried to tell her that it was for the best and she only grew angry with me. It took her all summer to determine that it was for the best and since you had finally found the answer you sought there was no reason for you to remain.”
Percy closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose.
“I was wrong and I am sorry.”
“I will be honest, my forgiveness will not come easily,” Percy admitted. “You were my friend and should have known better and you hurt your sister in the process.”
“I am aware.” He held out his arms, leaving himself vulnerable. “If you wish to hit me, I will not stop you. Break my nose as I did yours. It is what I have been told should happen to me.”
Percy frowned. “By whom?”
“The Duke of Danby and he is less happy with me than you are.”
Percy doubted that such was possible. Further, it made no sense since it was Danby who wouldn’t even allow a dance.
Deborah was correct, her family had manipulated them both. They were better off heading to Gretna Green and then he would take her to his family’s estate in Wales and only visit her siblings when she was ready to do so.