The Headstrong Ward by Jane Ashford

Author:Jane Ashford
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Published: 2014-08-14T19:31:57+00:00

Eleven

The following morning, Anne went riding in the park with Edward. They had agreed upon this appointment at the end of an unsuccessful search at Almack’s, in the hope that one or the other of them might think of a new scheme during the night. The day dawned fresh and clear, with air so cool and crisp that Anne could almost imagine that she was in the country again, and as she put on her dark blue riding habit, she said to herself, “We will solve this problem today; I’m sure of it.”

And in fact, Edward’s first words to her were, “I have hit upon something!”

She hurried down the stairs to join him in the front hall, but nothing more could be said until they had mounted their horses and started toward the park, the groom following at a distance. “What is it?” she asked then, easily holding her fresh mare alongside Edward’s mount.

“It is the simplest thing. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it last night.”

“What?”

“Well, we want to see the Branwell married to someone else, don’t we?”

“Yes, Edward. Do come to the point.”

“Give me a chance. Now, there is one very simple way of ensuring that she must do so.”

“What?” said Anne impatiently again.

He gestured with his free hand. “We will arrange for her to be stranded overnight with the chap, someone we don’t like. A bit of work on a carriage wheel ought to turn the trick. And then, you see, they will be forced to…” He trailed off in the face of Anne’s wide, horrified gaze. “What’s the matter?”

“The matter? Edward! You cannot be serious.”

“Why not? The thing’s a certainty.”

“We could not be a party to such a shocking trick. I am…I hardly know what to say to you. How could you suggest such a thing?”

Edward moved his shoulders uneasily under her accusing stare. “I thought you wanted to separate her from Laurence,” he said defensively. “This would do it, with the least trouble and sure success. I don’t see why you’re cutting up rough about it.”

“Don’t you?” She continued to gaze at him.

He shifted uncomfortably again and looked away. “It is unusual, of course, but…”

“Edward!”

“I was only trying to help,” he burst out. “This was your scheme, and I think you might be more grateful for my ideas. I wasn’t the one who decided to meddle.”

Anne opened her mouth on a blistering rejoinder, then shut it again. He was right. The original plan had been hers. Edward’s suggestion was outrageous, but perhaps her calm assumption that she knew what was best for Laurence, a man eight years her senior, and her headlong plunge into his affairs, was just as wrong. Edward’s impossible scheme showed her the folly of her own actions. “You are right,” she said, bowing her head. “How could I be so arrogant as to think I could order Laurence’s life better than he? I rushed in without thinking again, and made my usual muddle.”

“No, here, I say, Anne. I didn’t mean—”

“We will forget the whole matter,” she interrupted.

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