He didn’t look at anyone, just left the room and the deafening silence. Sucking in a deep breath, he walked out into the night and headed for the stables, hoping that at least the idiot said sorry to his sister.
Chapter 27
He’d stood up for her, and to Gabriel. Not many people did that. Actually the two people who had were right here in this inn. Daniel and Dimity. Neither of noble birth; what did that say? Both had now left the room, and she was alone with Gabe, her big angry brother.
She gripped the sides of her chair with both hands to keep from following Daniel. Abby looked at her plate instead of the mess she’d made of Gabe’s shirt. Hopelessness welled up inside her. Desperation that Daniel not leave her again, and yet knowing that of course he would.
Everything was such a mess.
“God, Abby.” The words were a low growl. “Can you ever forgive me?”
Shock held her silent.
“I understand how you must feel about my actions. I’m not entirely sure what I was thinking to have said what I did.”
“I want to forgive you, and as you are my blood, one day in the next ten years I may do so. Now, tell me what Father said to you?”
Gabe was a mess. His necktie was twisted, his hair all over the place, and his chest was smeared in gravy.
“Abby—”
“I am not a child to be protected, Gabriel. When will you see that? I am a woman, with my own thoughts and enough intelligence to grasp many things.” Perhaps there was no need for the sarcasm, but it made her feel better.
“I never doubted your intelligence.” He looked at her, his eyes filled with shadows she could not read.
“You don’t let me breathe.”
“We protect you; it is our way.”
“I understand you think you need to, but surely you can see that it is stifling me.”
He picked up his drink. Abby ignored hers, as her head was just starting to clear and the throb in her temples was not pleasant.
“And yet even though we have protected you, there is Dillinger.”
She was not speaking about that, not to him.
“Tell me what Father said to you, Gabe.”
“His last words to me were that I must ensure you are always happy and marry well to a man of noble blood. I also had to promise to keep you safe at all times. He made me vow to do this as he lay there dying, Abby.”
The breath squeezed out of her lungs.
“I agreed, and perhaps I am overprotective, but when a parent asks something of you with his last breath, you tend to take it seriously.”
“Oh, Gabe.”
They sat there looking at each other, the distance seeming so much more than the few feet that separated them.
“So you see why I am the way I am. I would have always protected you, sister. I love you, and that will never change, but Father added another layer to that.”
“He had no right to do so,” Abby said softly. “He had no right to put that on you, Gabe, or the others. No one person can control another’s destiny.”
His smile was small. “When did you grow up?”
“Clearly when you weren’t looking.”
“Will you try and forgive me… us for what we did?”
“Why did you go to Daniel’s brother and speak that lie?”
Gabe toyed with the stem of his glass, the large gold ring on his finger catching the candlelight. It had been their father’s. A lion’s head, with the mane twisted around the band. In the center sat an emerald.
“I saw the way you looked at each other, how familiar you were with him. I saw the threat he presented.”
“Why must he be a threat?”
“Abby.” He sighed, but instead of answering her, he asked a question of his own. “Will you tell me how that happened, when to the best of my knowledge you have spent no time with him?”
Abby wasn’t sure this was the time for that much honesty.
“I promise not to get angry, but I think we must have honesty now, Abby. I will try to be so with you if you will with me.”
“During the day, I cannot leave the house with Mrs. Secomb dictating my every move.”
“Surely she is not that bad?”
“She is worse, Gabe. I have tried so many times to tell you how much I dislike her, and yet you never listen. I am not a child. I do not need watching every minute of the day. I could walk out with a maid, and yet I am saddled with a footman and Mrs. Sourpuss. She sits outside my door when I am in my room, in case I leave and she doesn’t know it. She questions my every move when we are from the house.”
His mouth kicked up on one side. “Mrs. Sourpuss? Is that what we’re calling her now?”
“Dimity and I do.”
His fingers tightened around the glass. “I have no doubt your piano teacher who is now masquerading as a companion is involved.”
“Dimity treats me like the adult I have become, Gabe. She is my closest friend and a woman of great sense. You dislike her merely because she does not bow to your every whim.”
“I do not expect people to bow to my every whim.”
“Of course you do. You’re an earl and used to it; you just can’t see that.”
“So I am pompous too?”
“Shall we say managing?”
“Much better. Now tell me how you met Dillinger.”
She knew he wouldn’t take it lightly, but she would speak no more lies.
“I have left the house a few times after you and the others have departed for your evening’s entertainment.”
He didn’t explode as she’d thought he would.
“Surely you do not think I will be upset if you attend a literary salon or poetry reading, Abby? Of course I would rather you had told me, but see no problem with this as long as you took Mrs. Secomb with you. What events
