Johanna Lindsay - The Heir

"I came to apologize," Mavis began. "There's no need."

"Yes, there is. I knew I wouldn't do as I said last night. I should have indicated as much to you, or at the very least offered you some doubt, so you wouldn't have left thinking the worst of me."

"What are you talking about?"

Mavis sighed. "I just wanted to savor, for a few hours at least, having the power to destroy Ophelia's happiness in my hands. And I just wanted her to know it, for a short time. She really does need to learn that the horrid things she does will come back to haunt her, and this was one instance to prove it to her."

"For a short time?"

"Yes, I intended to stop by Summers Glade today on the way back to London, to let Duncan know that he doesn't have to marry her, at least not to save her reputation on my account. For me to spread the tale of the compromising situation I came upon would make me no different from her. It's something she would do, hurting someone else just to get what she wants, and the day I start behaving like her is the day I hope someone locks me up and throws away the key."

Sabrina grinned. She would have laughed aloud in her relief, but managed to restrain that impulse. She didn't want Mavis to know just how happy she was for Duncan.

"Then you've already told Duncan?"

"Well, no," Mavis said. "I was hoping you would come with me. I rather suspect he will be annoyed with me for letting him think, even for another day, that he still had to marry that witch."

It was like having the ground open up and swallow her. Sabrina found the shock was just as bad, especially after her momentary relief.

"You didn't know the wedding had been scheduled for this morning, did you?" Sabrina asked in a dull, lifeless voice.

The immediate loss of color to Mavis's face was answer enough, but she said, "How could it be so soon? It takes three weeks just to post the banns!"

"Unless a special license is obtained, and Lord Neville apparently had one in hand long ago. Due to his advanced age, he didn't want any time wasted, once Duncan made his choice of bride. Understandable that he'd like to see a great-grandchild or two before he passes on. But in this case, the rush was to circumvent a scandal as well. After all, they didn’t know that you wouldn't say anything about what you witnessed."

"Good God, if I'd known there was a time constraint ... I confess I even considered keeping silent for at least a week, but felt that would be too long to let Duncan go on thinking he had to marry Ophelia. But I didn't think a few hours would matter overly much, when he would probably be sleeping through most of them. Oh, God, I'm never going to be able to forgive myself for this."

Ordinarily Sabrina would have tried to ease the other girl's misery, a natural impulse for her, but for once she couldn't manage to even try. It wasn't Ophelia's life that was ruined, whether she thought so or not, due to Mavis not fessing up to her intentions immediately, it was Duncan who would have to live with the results.

"Perhaps it isn't too late," Mavis added, grasping at straws. "They are married. That's too late no matter how you look at it."

"Yes, but there is still another way to get out of a new marriage, well, as long as they haven't gone straightaway to bed to consummate it, and why would they when they don't even like each other? They could get an annulment, which is certainly more acceptable than a divorce."

Sabrina couldn't manage to see that as an option. "Based on what grounds?"

Mavis waved an impatient hand. "How should I know? But I'm sure something can be suggested. Perhaps her parents haven't let anyone know how they feel about the renewed engagement. If so, then they can claim they are against it and she married without their permission."

"When they were so set on the marriage themselves?" Sabrina reminded her.

"Sabrina, you aren't helping with this skepticism," Mavis complained. "We need to at least let them know this is an option, and before any consummating gets done that would remove it as an option."

We? Sabrina wondered how she had gotten volunteered to participate in this nonsense. Mavis was forgetting that Ophelia had let all and sundry know how much her parents were for the marriage, so much so that they refused to listen to her own heart. Nor did she want to be the one to have to tell Duncan that he was stuck with Ophelia now simply because neither of them had thought to tell Mavis when the wedding was to be, when they both could have mentioned it to her last night.

The wedding party was still going on, though some of the guests were already departing. This was why Sabrina and Mavis arrived unnoticed, entering Summers Glade just as a small group was leaving, and Mr. Jacobs busy elsewhere rather than attending the door.

They weren't completely unnoticed, though. Raphael Locke, looking very handsome today in his formal wedding attire, was leaning against the open doorway to the drawing room, where most of the remaining guests were gathered, and happened to be facing the hall, having just said good-bye to the departing guests. Drink in hand, eyes a bit red—whether from lack of sleep or one too many drinks was debatable—he probably wouldn't have been standing very steadily, which was why he was using the doorframe for some support.

"I know some women like to arrive late to an event, to make an appearance, as it were, but this is taking late arriving to extremes, ain't it?"

Raphael's remark, loud as it was so it would reach them across the hall, caused both women to blush. Neither Mavis in her traveling clothes, nor Sabrina in her simple day frock and walking coat, was dressed for a wedding, which was already causing some small embarrassment to them. They had opted for haste rather than dressing appropriately, and had come here straightaway after deciding they should, so drawing further attention to them was not what they were hoping for.

Sabrina briskly closed the space between her and the young duke-to-be so she wouldn't have to shout back at him. "If you don't mind, we are not here for the celebration, if it can be called that, but to try and offer a solution that might work to cancel the unwanted occurrence. I think it's a waste of time myself, but Mavis is desperate to make amends now, so here we are, and we do not need attention drawn our way, thank you very much."

She had whispered, but in a thoroughly scolding tone, which had him grinning at her and saying, "Oh, I just love riddles. How many guesses do I get in figuring out what you mean by that?"

Sabrina tsked at him, deciding he was indeed quite foxed. "They are still here, aren't they? They haven't

gone off yet on a wedding trip?"

"If you mean the bride and groom, they are indeed still here, moping about. Ophelia was last known to be in her room pouting, and I believe Duncan has entrenched himself near to the brandy supply. If he gets married today, he's bound and determined not to remember it."

Sabrina was sure it was Raphael who wasn't going to remember today, and frowning at him, demanded, "What do you mean, if he gets married?"

"Why, that the wedding hasn't occurred yet, of course," he replied nonchalantly.

Sabrina felt her earlier rush of relief again soaring through her, but she curbed it this time. She wasn't going to leave herself open to the disappointment that was bound to follow if she was misunderstanding again what she was hearing.

"They really haven't married yet?"

He smiled at her. "No, they really haven't."

She smiled back at him, letting the relief flow unchecked now, and what a heady feeling it was. Yet it was the very last thing she expected to find here, and it didn't take long for her confusion to take over.

"Why not?" she asked him. "I thought they were all in agreement that any postponement would be detrimental to Ophelia's reputation."