He held Marianne under her arms and away from him. He looked her right in the eye. “You will be quiet this instant, Marianne.”
The voice was one she’d never heard before—stern, low, and mean. To the amazement of the two adults, she shut her mouth.
Susannah looked up at the sudden utter silence. She smiled at him. “Nearly done.”
When she handed Gwen back to Marianne, the child took her doll, tugged several times on the arm, then sighed deeply, put her fingers in her mouth, and collapsed against Rohan’s shoulder.
“She’s easy,” he said. “Very easy.”
“Sometimes. Upon rare occasions. After she gets what she wants. You’ll see.”
He watched Susannah clean up the milk mess. She handed him the cloth to wipe himself off. Then he followed her from the kitchen and watched her pull on her bonnet and pelisse and, finally, straighten Toby’s jacket. She took Marianne from him and said to her little brother, “I have left Papa a note, Toby, so you’re not to worry. Mrs. Heron will come and take care of him. She told me last night.”
“Mrs. Heron.” The boy choked. Then he grinned, that blazing grin that showed a mouthful of straight white teeth, a grin that quite simply lit up the dim entryway. He said to Rohan, “She can outwager Papa. She always wins. And she gloats. I feel sorry for him.”
“Perhaps she can make him change his ways,” Rohan said. “A good woman, and all that rot.”
“Oh, no,” Susannah said as she walked out the front door, Marianne now hiccuping, her head on Susannah’s shoulder, “I imagine that she will fleece him and he will owe her more money that he can ever pay her.”
Rohan stared at the curricle. There were four of them. The curricle held two comfortably. “All right,” he said slowly. “Toby, you will be my tiger, all right?”
“A tiger? What’s that, sir?”
“You will ride standing on the back and shoot any bandits that attack us. If we are on any toll roads, you will jump off and pay the toll.”
Toby was so excited, he stammered his gratitude.
“He’ll lose most of his enthusiasm by the time he’s been standing there for two hours,” Rohan said. “It’s safe enough. Don’t fret. Now, you hold tightly to Marianne.”
Jamie suddenly appeared around the side of Mulberry House, riding a swaybacked mare that looked to be on her last hocks.
“Yes, Jamie’s now in my employ. He said that only Hera here was in the stable and she’s your horse. He’ll ride her, then take turns with Toby as my tiger.”
She said slowly even as she settled herself on the rather narrow padded bench beside him in the curricle, “You have quite taken over my life.”
Actually, he thought, she and all the denizens of Mulberry House had quite taken over his. He said, giving her a crooked grin, “Well, someone had to. If I hadn’t come along, your father would have landed all of you in debtor’s prison. That wretched roof would have fallen in on your heads. Marianne would have become a gambler. No, no, don’t say it again. I know. The poor man is merely suffering some small, insignificant reverses.”
“More or less,” she said and pulled her shawl over Marianne.
“We will take our time. It will take us three days to reach Mountvale House. When we get to Oxford, I will hire a carriage. It won’t be long.”
“I know” was all she said. She took only one long look back at Mulberry House. She didn’t see anyone. Then she settled back and enjoyed the wind pulling at the ribbons on her bonnet. He drove well.
Rohan slowed Gulliver an hour later on a sharp turn in the road. She was leaning on his arm, sound asleep, Marianne equally asleep in her arms.
He could only shake his head at himself.
Yesterday he had been a man without any ties, no particular burdens piling up in front of him. Of course, a man in his position had responsibilities, duties, but he’d been bred to them all his life. And they were duties a man could get his teeth into, duties a man could understand. Surely no man could be bred to understand this.
Jamie was whistling in the wind beside them. Toby was yelling at the top of his lungs from his tiger position, “I don’t see any bandits, sir!”
No, Rohan didn’t see any either. What he saw was a multitude of dark clouds suddenly appear on the horizon.
When a raindrop hit Marianne’s nose, she jerked awake, jumped when another raindrop hit her cheek, turned to Ro-han, and howled.
“Oh, dear,” Susannah said, coming awake with the bouncing little girl on her lap. She stared blankly up at the sky, then said, “I hadn’t planned on this. It’s raining. Oh, dear.”
Rohan sighed. What was he to do now?