The Heiress - Lynsay Sands [101]
“Very well,” he said, finally, and then glanced to Richard and Robert. “If you two will see that the carriages are prepared, I’ll pay our bill and have the chests brought down. Let’s be quick. I should like to catch up to them before they marry and I am forced to make Suzette a widow.”
Chapter Fourteen
I’m surprised, Danvers, that you didn’t stop to speak to Richard before he and Langley left.”
Suzette heard her father make the comment, but paid it little attention, her gaze staying trained blindly out the window as she tortured herself with memories of her time with Daniel. If only she’d done things differently, it would be him in the carriage with her instead of Jeremy, she thought and then grimaced at her own traitorous mind.
Her thoughts had been terribly uncooperative for the entirety of this journey so far. The fact that—despite her father’s dallying—the men hadn’t managed to return before they departed, told her that while Richard and Robert had obviously taken their time at trying to talk Daniel into going through with marrying her, he hadn’t been convinced. And frankly, if he needed convincing, she didn’t want him. He wasn’t the man she’d thought he was if he would turn her away as he had.
At least that was what Suzette had told herself as they’d ridden away from the inn in Danvers’s carriage. Of course she’d changed her mind back and forth several times since then. She loved him and would take him any way she could have him. She hated him for rejecting her and never wanted to suffer the humiliation of seeing him again. She hated herself for not behaving more decorously and for driving him away with her passion. And then she would return to loving him and taking him any way she could. It was exhausting and simply left her feeling lost and tired, because the reality was he didn’t want her and she was going to marry Jeremy.
The very thought brought tears to her eyes and Suzette blinked rapidly to try to drive them off. Perhaps if she closed her eyes, she could pretend Jeremy was Daniel to help her get through the ceremony tomorrow, Suzette thought, and then frowned. At least she assumed it would have to wait until the next day. Surely, it would be too late when they arrived in Gretna Green, and they would have to take rooms at an inn and wait until the morrow to be married?
“Why would I speak to Richard?” Danvers said finally. While he’d tried to sound indifferent and unconcerned, something in his voice caught her ear and Suzette turned to glance his way, noting that the constant thumb twiddling that he’d been doing since they’d got into the carriage had stopped. His fingers were now clenched tightly together as he returned her father’s stare.
“The two of you are friends, are you not?” Cedrick Madison asked as she turned her gaze out the window again. “I seem to recall you being there at the club and then the gaming hell this last time I lost so much.”
“You remember that night?” There was definitely wariness in Danvers’s voice now and Suzette wondered idly why that was, but didn’t really care.
“Bits and pieces. Enough to recall that you and Dicky appeared quite chummy,” Lord Madison said grimly, his hand massaging his cane handle. It was a sure sign that he was agitated, but then he’d been agitated since finding out she was going to marry Jeremy.
“We are friendly acquaintances only,” Danvers muttered.
Suzette turned her gaze his way again, noting that his face was turned to the window and his thumbs twiddling around each other once more.
“How did you find out about my markers?” her father asked next.
“I told you, Cerberus gave it to me in lieu of payment,” Jeremy answered shortly, his charming