A Bride for the Prizefighter - Alice Coldbreath Page 0,91
on the subject, he sighed. “I am in your debt, Mrs. Nye,” he said tightly. “Something that does not sit easily with me, in light of your current company. But if you will not allow me to make reparation or alleviate your suffering—”
“Again, Sir Matthew, I must remind you that you mistake my situation.”
He shook his head. “You are a stubborn woman, Mrs. Nye.”
“I thank you for your concern,” she said, bobbing him a curtsey. “But I must now humbly beg your leave. Urgent business awaits me.”
Sir Matthew held out his hand and Mina shook it. He held it for a beat longer than necessary and Mina looked up at him in surprise. “I must then remain a debtor to you.”
Mina pulled her hand from his. “Pray do not give it another thought, Sir Matthew,” she said and turning on her heel, abruptly left the room. As she wrenched the door open, she came face to face with Reuben’s ginger beard as he straightened up guiltily from the door. “Reuben?” she addressed him in startled accents.
“Yes ma’am,” he stammered.
“Do you have some message for me?”
“No ma’am,” he said, his eyes avoiding hers shiftily. “I’m just going out back now, ma’am.” Mina stared after him as he shambled off, and then she made her way thoughtfully back to the kitchen.
She had just opened the sack of potatoes when the door burst open and Nye stood on the threshold, chest heaving. Mina dropped her paring knife and stared up at him. “Now what’s happened?” she demanded in exasperation as he slammed the door shut behind him. Really, was she to get no peace this morn!
“Care to tell me what that was all about?” he demanded, gesturing over his shoulder as Sir Matthew’s curricle bowled out of the yard.
Tamping down her irritation at having to rake over the whole thing, she forced herself instead to remain calm. “Sir Matthew Carswell called in,” she said. “To tell me he did not care for his ward to be associated with me anymore, but that he considered himself in my debt. Something he was most put out about.”
Nye continued to watch her narrowly. “So, he didn’t ask you to run away with him, then?”
Mina spluttered, retrieving her knife, and sitting in her chair. “Of course not! Where on earth did you get a preposterous idea like that?” He remained tight-lipped, but at the furious look in his eye, she realized something. “Reuben!” she gasped. “He was listening at the keyhole! Well of all the—”
“So, he did, then?” Nye burst out furiously.
“Of course not!” she seethed. “Reuben could not follow the conversation clearly if that’s what he thought. He asked me out for a drive to St Ives…” She paused at Nye’s fresh explosion of wrath. “Naturally I declined his invitation as I was far too busy.”
“Because your husband would damned well forbid it!” he corrected her hotly.
“Well, as I never entertained the notion for even an instant, I did not think it through that far,” she admitted.
“And that was it?” He shook his head. “I don’t believe it.”
Mina sat up indignantly. “What do you mean, you don’t believe me?”
“Reuben said you had to remind him you were a married woman. Even you wouldn’t be so outraged at the idea of a mere drive to St Ives!”
“Even I?” Mina fumed.
“Stop trying to distract me,” Nye thundered. “Why did you have to remind him you were married, tell me that!”
“I—because, you were right,” she told him helplessly, then saw his gaze ignite. “Not about that!” she said hastily. “But he did want to offer me a position as Cecily’s companion. You remember? You asked me if he had before, but at the time, I thought it extremely unlikely and—”
“That bastard,” Nye snarled.
“Nye!”
“Next time he comes calling, you do not see him without me being present, am I understood, Mina?”
“I highly doubt that he will ever—”
“Mina!”
“Oh, very well, you unreasonable beast!”
A footfall in the doorway, had them both spinning around and to Mina’s embarrassment, she found Jeremy leaning against the doorjamb with an amused look on his face. “Dear me,” he drawled. “Marital discord - this place is starting to feel like a real home from home!”
“What do you want?” Nye growled. “We’re busy.”
“So, I see. I just wanted to see if it was true what I heard in the village.”
“What’s that?” Nye asked sharply.
Jeremy’s eyebrows rose. “That you’re hosting another fight here this week.”
“Wednesday,” Nye replied abruptly.
“Who’s appearing?”
Nye looked exasperated. “We’re in the middle of a discussion!” he