She laughed. 'Just a gentle drive, to exercise the horses! Seriously, where are we going?'
'I am perfectly serious.'
'Oh, are you, indeed?' she retorted. 'And we shall be back in good time for dinner, no doubt!'
'No, my darling, we shall not,' he said. 'We are not going back at all.'
She stared incredulously at him. 'Not – Miles, stop bantering me! It is too ridiculous! You cannot suppose I'm such a ninny as to believe we could drive all the way to Reading in a curricle-and-pair!'
'Oh, no, of course I don't! We are only going as far as to Chippenham in the curricle. My post-chaise is waiting there, to carry us the rest of the way.'
She still felt that he must be trying to hoax her, but she began to be uneasy. 'And what do we do when we reach Reading?' she asked.
'We get married, my very dear.'
'Have you run mad?' she demanded.
'Well, I don't think so!'
'Miles – Miles, you are joking me, aren't you?'
'I promise you I was never more in earnest. I can't show it to you at the moment, but I have a special licence in my pocket.'
'Oh, how dare you?' she gasped. 'Stop at once! If you think I am going to elope with you –'
'No, no!' he said. 'This isn't an elopement! I'm abducting you!'
She tried to speak, but dared not trust her voice.
'I thought it would be the best thing to do,' he explained.
That was too much for her self-control; for the life of her she could not help bursting into laughter. But when she managed to stop laughing, she said: 'Oh, do, please, take me home! How could you think I would consent to such a shocking thing?'
'My dear girl, you don't consent to an abduction! You consent to an elopement, and I knew you wouldn't do that.'
'You told me once that you thought an unwilling bride would be the very devil!' she reminded him.
'If I had thought that you were unwilling you wouldn't be sitting beside me now,' he replied.
'But I am unwilling! Miles, I won't – I can
't! Oh, I believed you understood!'
'I did. You said you wouldn't marry me for a great many reasons which were most of them quite idiotish, but you also said that you couldn't seek your own happiness at the cost of Selina's and Fanny's. Well, you have the right to make a sacrifice of yourself, but I'll be damned if I'll let you sacrifice me!'
After a moment's stricken silence, Abby said remorsefully: 'I never thought of that! Would it – would it be – ?'
'Yes,' he said. 'It would!'
'Oh, if only I knew what I ought to do!' she cried wretchedly.
'You don't, but I do. So don't argue with yourself any more! You haven't any choice in the matter, you know. That's why I've forcibly carried you off. It makes it much easier for you, don't you think?'
'Miles, you are the most impossible, disgraceful – Only think what a scandal there would be!'
'What, you don't imagine that any member of your family would breathe a word about it, do you? No, no! The marriage was private, of course! I expect James will think of some excel
lent reason for that.'