Despite the urge, Eden didn’t turn to glare at her. Instead, she sought out Percy. When she spotted him, her spirits descended further, right down into her toes. His face looked like a thundercloud.
“Genevieve, would you mind terribly fetching me a glass of lemonade?” she asked as he approached.
Beside her, Genevieve groaned, but got up.
“What happened?” she asked when Percy drew near.
He stood with his back to the room, blocking her view and that of those behind him. “I told him quite simply that I intend to offer for you. I thought my being so direct would dissuade him, but he appears quite determined to have you. He said your parents have already agreed to grant him your hand.” The words were clipped and angry, and his gaze was as hard and black as obsidian.
“What? But that cannot be,” she breathed. “Neither of them has spoken to me—”
“Did you really expect them to?”
Her eyes began to smart. “Yes, actually. That they have not considered my wishes is utterly unacceptable. This is the eighteenth century, and we are a civilized nation. As an Englishwoman, I’ve the right to decline any offer of marriage. Papa can withhold his blessing if he chooses, but he cannot force me to wed if I do not wish it.”
Percy reached out and grasped her hand. “Then allow me to ask you now, here, in front of all these witnesses and put an end to this charade.”
“I won’t be twenty-one for another two months,” she said, shaking her head and fighting back tears as she withdrew her hand. “The law is on his side—I cannot marry without his blessing until I am of age.”
“Then you will come with me to Scotland?”
Closing her eyes tightly, she nodded.
“Eden…before we agree to this, I need to know that your feelings for me are—”
“Eden?” It was her stepmother. She watched as Catherine rudely shouldered her way in beside Percy. “Come, we are leaving.”
Answering his unspoken question with her eyes, Eden rose. “Coming,” she told her disgruntled chaperone. Thus it was that she left his house with an agreement to elope to Gretna Green and no plan for how to get there.
Her gaze fell on a bewildered Genevieve as she passed her by on the way out, and hope kindled once more. She’d sent a letter to him through Genevieve once. She would do it again.
Chapter Thirteen
How dare they do this to me? Eden fumed in silence as their carriage rolled away.
“Eden, I don’t want you to see Lord Tavistoke anymore,” said Catherine. “I hereby retract my consent for him to call on you.”
“Why? He has done nothing to—”
“I need not explain my decision,” her stepmother interrupted. “And don’t expect your father to support you, should you attempt to go around me. He and I are in agreement.”
“You needn’t explain your decision?” Eden’s voice rose along with her indignation. “I am nearly twenty-one, not a child. I have every right to know why you are doing this!”
“Despite your claims to worldly wisdom, you are yet naïve,” her stepmother replied with infuriating calm. “You have no idea how the world functions. Tavistoke is a threat to your reputation at a time when it can be ill afforded. You ruin your other prospects by associating with him. I won’t suffer it the more. He is forbidden to see you. If he shows up at our door, he will not be received.”
Something inside Eden’s chest tore, and she found it suddenly difficult to breathe. Still, she managed to gasp her objection. “What has he done that has you so set against him?”
“I have it on good authority he paid a call to Lady Sotheby earlier this week.”
“What has that got to do with anything?”
“You should ask yourself just such a question, my girl. Your ignorance has come far too close to bringing about your ruination. There is rumor he and that woman had an affair some years back.”
“I already told you I am well informed concerning his past.”
“Yet you seem remarkably oblivious to his present,” snapped Catherine. “The rumor does not stop there. Some have claimed that one, possibly more, of her children are in fact his get. When he attended Sotheby’s funeral, he was seen walking with her youngest apart from the ceremony. Their manner was quite familiar.”
“He was friends with the family. He remains so. What of it?”