“And I’ll not have Houston’s name dragged through the mud by you or anyone else,” Duncan shouted. “She wouldn’t have done what you’ve done. She’s a good girl.”
“And I’m not, is that it?” Blair asked, torn between tears and outrage.
“A decent woman wouldn’t—.”
“I’ve heard all I want to hear,” Lee said, stepping forward. “Would you leave us now? I want to talk to Blair alone.”
Blair wanted to protest that she didn’t want to see him alone, but perhaps he wasn’t as bad as all of them shouting at her.
“Would you like some sherry?” he asked, when they were alone.
“Please,” she answered, taking the glass with shaking hands.
He frowned when he saw her hands. “I had no idea that he was as bad as that. Houston’d told me, but I hadn’t imagined half of it.”
Blair drank the wine gratefully and hoped it would calm her nerves. “If you didn’t think he was so bad, why did you enlist his help in your preposterous scheme?”
“I wanted all the help I could get. I thought—correctly—that if I went to you on my own, you’d laugh in my face.”
“I’m not laughing now.”
“All right, then let’s get this settled. The invitations are at the printer’s, and all that has to be changed is your name for Houston’s.”
Blair jumped up from her chair. “Of all the stupid ideas I have ever heard, that’s the worst. Can’t you hear me? I don’t want to marry you. I don’t want to spend another minute in this dreadful town. I want to go home and I want my sister to get her fiancé back. What can I say to you people to make you understand? I want to go home!”
In spite of her good intentions, she collapsed in the chair, put her face in her hands and burst into tears. “He’s right,” she cried, “I’ve ruined Houston’s life.”
Lee knelt before her and very gently pulled her hands down. “Don’t you understand that I want to marry you, not Houston?”
She looked at him for a moment, felt his warm hands on her wrists and considered the matter, but before she could let herself be persuaded, she got up and went to stand before the window.
“You belong to my sister. Since she was a child, she has planned to marry you. She has a trunkful of linens embroidered with an L and an H intertwined. She’s never wanted to be anything but Mrs. Leander Westfield. She loves you, don’t you know that? And what I love is medicine. Medicine has been my life since I was twelve and now I’ve earned this internship and I want to take it and marry Alan and live happily ever after.”
Leander lost the concerned look he was wearing and stood bolt upright. “Alan? And just who the hell is he?”
“Since I’ve returned to this town, no one has asked me about my life in Pennsylvania. Gates shouts at me that I’m immoral, Mother just sits and sews, Houston spends most of her time ordering new dresses, and you…you just stand there giving me orders.”
Several emotions went across Lee’s face. “Who is Alan?” “The man to whom I’m engaged. The man I love. The man who is coming to Chandler in two days to meet my family and tell them that he would be honored to marry me.”
“I’m asking for that honor.”
“I’m sure that you fell in love with me after one night.” To her surprise, Leander said nothing to this.
He toyed with a letter opener on the desk. “What if I make you want to marry me? What if by the end of two weeks you want to walk down that aisle to me?”
“There’s not a chance in the world of that happening. Alan will be here soon and, besides, I told you, you belong to Houston.”
“I do, do I?” he said and, in one stride, he was across the room to her and had her in his arms.
His kiss was as draining to her senses as it had been last night when she’d pretended to be her sister. She was weak when he released her.
“Now, tell me I don’t have a chance.” He moved away from her. “Did it e
ver occur to you that this Alan might not want you after you explain why your name is on the wedding invitation?”
“He’s not like that. He’s a very understanding man.”
“We’ll see how understanding he is. You’re going to marry me two weeks from now, and you’d better get used to the idea.”