The Notorious Proposal

by Terry Long

  “Who is he? Where in God’s name-” She stopped to cough and Ally squeezed her hand.

  “Does it hurt terribly? What can I do?”

  “Where did you meet him that he had you running off marrying him without my consent?” Her eyes narrowed suspiciously after that question was asked in a scraping voice. “Did he take your virtue? Was that it?” she asked bluntly, as was her nature.

  If Ally said no, she’d have to give her grandmother a good reason for her rushed matrimony. If she said yes…

  “Yes. He demanded that we marry at once,” she said lowering her heated face. God, how she hated being dishonest with Nana. Even telling half-truths wreaked havoc within her. “I’m sorry.”

  Nana must have noticed her discomfort for she said, “It’s just as well. I couldn’t have attended anyway.”

  Ally lifted her head and met her unwavering gaze. Nana looked so exhausted and weak. It twisted her heart at not being able to take the pain for her instead.

  “Is he good to you, child?”

  Swallowing a bulge in her throat, she answered, “He’s a good man.” To his brother! Ally took her grandmother’s hand and held it in both of hers. “Nana, they take good care of you here, don’t they?”

  “Perhaps a bit much, if you must know.” Her grandmother’s thin lips pursed, presenting even deeper lines along her mouth. “They treat me as if I’m a bird with a broken wing!” she said, closing her eyes when her coughing spasms took over again. When she finished, her eyes opened, exposing her drowsiness from the laudanum.

  Feeling somewhat pacified by that announcement, Ally smiled. Any place where Nana was fawned over, she liked immensely. Nana looked much older than a month ago when she was admitted to this facility. “I love you, Nana dearest,” she whispered. “Do you wish to sleep? I’ll let you rest now, and I shall return on the morrow.”

  Her grandmother smiled, and her eyes began to flutter closed. “I love you, too, my little vixen,” she returned faintly. “But I’m not sleepy in the least.” Her eyes were already shut.

  Placing a gentle kiss on her cheek, Ally watched Nana sleep. “I’m not a vixen and you well know it.” She laughed softly. How she wanted to keep talking with her. Nana was always so entertaining with her comments; she could make her worst days turn into the best.

  Ally vigilantly watched Nana sleep until Dr. Reeves scratched at the door. Rising from the chair she occupied, Ally carefully removed her hands from her grandmother’s. She made her way to the doctor who waited in the hallway. “Dr. Reeves, I’m so sorry for-”

  “It’s no matter, Miss Overton. Many of the hospital’s visitors often set free their frustration on us upon seeing their beloved hurting.” He nodded. “I suspect it is from knowing there’s nothing they can do to help.”

  “However, that’s no excuse. I am terribly sorry.”

  He gave her a warm smile. “Will you be visiting your grandmother again, Miss Overton?”

  “Yes, on the morrow. And everyday thereafter,” she vowed.

  He nodded. “Good.”

  Dr. Reeve’s gaze made Ally uncomfortably aware that something tremendous was amiss.

  “Doctor?” Her heartbeat quickened.

  He turned, making his way down the corridor.

  Ally gave pause before calling out to him again. “Dr. Reeves?”

  He didn’t stop in his urgent strides from her. “Come back, Miss Overton. I highly suggest it,” she heard him say, his voice echoing down at her a few times. When he completely disappeared from her view, he added, “Soon.”

  Riding back to Somerset Hall, Ally slowly seethed in the seats of the carriage. She promised to unleash her wrath on Michael. If he had only let her see her grandmother sooner, Nana wouldn’t be in such a poor state. A state of happiness never made one sicker.

  “Michael Langdon, you had better be prepared for me.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  “I must have told you!” Ally argued.

  “I don’t recall you telling me that you had a living relative. You told me you had a dog,” Michael said firmly as he took note of her stained cheeks.

  “I must have—”

  “Don’t challenge my hearing by reiterating that you ‘must have told me’ anything, because you did not.” Michael threaded his fingers through his hair. “I would have remembered such a significant detail. Now, why don’t you start at the beginning?”

  “I’ve told you! I’ve always said I wanted to go back to Dartford to see Nana, but you never listened. You even locked me in my chamber when I tried to leave. You are a brute, Mr. Langdon, and a cad…and a…”

  “Ally.” Michael sighed. Is my day going to get worse, then? First, his brother with his upheaval, then finding out his wife had taken the damn coach without informing him, and now, she stood here bellowing names at him, making all this noise. His household had never been in such a disorderly state. “Shouting names at me isn’t going to solve any problems,” he said.

  “But it’ll make me feel better, you goat!”

  He heard a snort come from behind the walls, but he couldn’t be certain. “Do carry on, then.” Leaning against his desk with his legs crossed at the ankles, he folded his arms across his chest and waited.

  “I hate you with all of my being! I will see Nana, and you cannot stop me, do you understand?”

  Nana? So, all this time, she’d been referring to her grandmother? He’d assumed it was her dog. Christ! He let out a breath of frustration.

  “Do you understand?” she demanded once again.

  “I understand.”

  Ally slit her eyes at him, her chest heaving with shallow breaths. She looked ready to shout at him again, but surprised him when she dashed toward the door instead. Just when he thought the uproar for the evening had finished, she continued over her shoulder, “I will see her. Do you understand, Mr. Langdon?”

  “I understand,” he said, feeling like a droning echo.

  “And don’t think that I’m not damn serious!”

  Michael raised his brows. His wife was cursing at him. Good thing she wasn’t cursing at his socks this time, he thought with dry humor. If his wife was “damn serious” then she’d be walking toward the foyer, and not her bedchamber. He had nothing to be worried about.

  ***

  She needed to pack her things, and she needed to get out of this dreadful place. Nana needed her. As Ally opened the tall armoire, she blankly stared at her gowns and underthings, her shawls and coats. Nothing. Not a scrap of material belonged to her.

  “I have to leave,” she mumbled. “Why must I obey his wishes when he doesn’t take mine into consideration? All I wanted was to visit Nana. Surely, that was not much to ask, considering he had dragged me to Gretna Green, practically forced me to live under lock and key, and…seduced me.” Now, she had that to add to his black deeds? If she had to be completely honest—at least with herself—she would have to admit that his seduction wasn’t terrible in the least.

  Why did Michael keep insisting that she never mentioned Nana? Of course she had! Nana was the only thing that occupied her thoughts. The man was absurd, and she was leaving him for good!

  As Ally breezed past his study, Michael’s thunderous voice stopped her in her tracks. He stood all tall and mighty, right behind her when she turned.

  “Where the bloody hell do you think you’re going at this time of day?”

  He looked angry, but he didn’t scare her any longer with his dark, brooding looks. She angrily stared right back at him. Jutting out her chin, Ally said, “I am bloody well going to Dartford, if you must know.”

  She spun in a haughty fashion and took one step when he grated out, “The hell you are.” He grabbed her elbow and turned her to face him, giving his ominous-looking expression again: penetrating gaze, turning his eyes into the blackest of coals, hard jaws, as if they’ve been glued down. It was a wonder his teeth hadn’t turned to a pile of dust by now.

  “I am. I’m going to see Nana, and I am not coming bac
k.”

  “What do you mean, you’re not coming back?” he snapped, bringing her closer to him. “Answer carefully, Ally. You’re treading on thin ice as it is, leaving the way you did earlier, without so much as informing me.”

  “I’m—you—” She scoffed.

  “I wanted to speak to you about what you heard earlier,” he said, looking quite chastised. “Only to find an empty bedchamber. Now, do explain.” He released her and crossed his arms across his massive chest, taking up frowning again, as if that would frighten her.

  “I meant,” she said jabbing a finger to his chest, “that once I leave, I’m not returning, you baboon!”

  Michael looked wounded for some reason as he returned her steady gaze. “You are not going anywhere, Ally,” she heard him say in a tone that sounded much like a plea. Though she couldn’t discern why it sounded that way. “It is nearly dusk.”

  “You cannot stop me.”

  His brows rose in that conceited fashion she hated. “Oh?”

  “No!” Ally scrambled from his arms as he went for her legs. Not again! “Put me down! Don’t you dare do this!”

  “I need some peace, woman, and you are not giving me any,” he told her as he glibly lifted her off her feet, and carried her up the staircase like a sack of wheat over his shoulders.

  Once again, her husband locked her in her chamber. Ally didn’t know whether to shout at him, or at her own stupidity for informing him of her plans. Of course, he wouldn’t let her leave; he’d probably think she and Victor had made arrangements to meet somewhere when they spoke alone earlier. Wasn’t Victor always the reason her husband didn’t let her outside the property?

  “I hate you, Michael Langdon, do you hear?” She didn’t doubt that he hadn’t. “I hate you!” she added for good measure.

  ***

  “Matthews,” Michael called as he reached the bottom on the staircase.

  “Sir?”

  The man appeared in a bat of an eye. Michael pinned him with a long, hard stare. He needed some answers.

  “Milord, let me explain. Earlier this afternoon, when Master Victor was here, milady wanted to go somewhere peaceful. As did I.” He added the last piece with an unapproving glance. “I couldn’t disrupt you, sir, for you were rather busy in addressing your situation at the time, so I, after much contemplation, agreed to her wishes. I knew that she would be out of harm’s way with the coachman.”

  “Send me Gregory and any damn footman who accompanied her.”

  “Right away, milord.”

  Indubitably, that should straighten things out, for Ally spoke-no, shouted-not a spot of sense the moment she returned from God knows where. As he tried to pry information, it only enraged her more. She accused him of something that had to do with a hospital and her grandmother.

  Entering his study, he leaned against his desk and briefly shut his eyes. He needed to sort things out. When Victor had returned to his apartments, distraught and unmanageable, not to mention sotted, Michael ordered his footman to keep watch on him. Victor had threatened Matthews for a full bottle of brandy as soon as Ally strode out that afternoon.

  “Sir,” Matthews said from the door. “Gregory and John were the ones who accompanied milady this afternoon.”

  Michael crossed his booted foot and nodded for them to enter. “Gregory, where did my wife ask you to take her?”

  The coachman shifted his weight from one foot to another when Michael gave him his full attention. “To Dartford, milord. I dropped her off at Dartford’s Finest Hospital, right at the front door, sir. I didn’t leave until she was inside.” The height of his anxiety was severe, as Michael detected his unstable gasp for air. The coachman began to sweat all over the marbled floors of his study.

  “You did nothing wrong, man,” Michael said, trying to ease his burden. “Now, did she inform you why she wanted to stop there?”

  “No, milord. She only asked me to go there before she entered the coach. And I did as I was told, sir.”

  Michael nodded and moved his gaze to the footman. “John.”

  “Yes, milord,” the man answered, visibly shaking in his boots.

  Michael wondered why the hell everyone acted so bloody afraid of him. It wasn’t like he’d flog them. Heaving a breath, he asked, “Did my wife tell you anything before she entered or left the coach? Did she mention why she wanted to visit this hospital?”

  John bobbed his head. “Milady said she was visiting her grandmother and a Doctor…” He paused and averted his eyes to the ceiling in thought. “Reeves. Doctor Reeves, she’d told me.”

  Michael pinched the bridge of his nose.

  “Get my horse ready.”

  “Yes, milord,” both the coachman and footman answered in unison as they bowed low. They looked relieved as they bolted out, as if Satan were at their heels.

  “Where do you wish to go, sir?” Matthews inquired at the door with his hands clasped behind his back.

  “I’m going to Dartford.”

  Tonight, Michael was going to get some answers. First, he was going to seek out a Dr. Reeves, and next, a grandmother, Nana. And he’d be damned if there wasn’t one or the other.

  Chapter Nineteen

  The throng of bustling nurses gave momentary suspension when Michael stepped inside the small entrance hall in Dartford’s Finest Hospital. Everyone gawked at him as if he were some peculiar creature.

  “Sir, may I be of any assistance?” an attractive nurse with large brown eyes slurred, casting him a cheeky smile and two dimples to go with it. She reeked of spirits.

  “Miss. Is Dr. Reeves in the facility?”

  “Yes, sir, he is.” She bobbed her lashes.

  Dread rushed through his veins. If there was a Dr. Reeves, he was sure as hell there would be a grandmother, Nana. Damnation! What have I done?

  He waited for the nurse to tell him where the doctor could be found or that she’d go fetch him, but she simply stood there smiling at him. “Miss?”

  She blinked several times before seeming to focus on their discussion. “Won’t you come with me? I’ll take you to him, myself.”

  Michael nodded.

  As she led them through the corridor, she kept whirling around as if checking to see if he still followed. Seeing that he did, she cast him large smiles, then resumed her saunter down the hall. She turned one last time, to Michael’s vexation, before crashing into someone. “Pardon me,” she murmured. “Oh, Doctor! You’re just who I sought.”

  “I beg your pardon, sir, are you Dr. Reeves?” Michael asked the man straightforwardly. He didn’t have idle time to squander.

  The old man nodded his gray head once. “I am.” He sent the drunk nurse with an annoyed wave of his hand. Once she left, he asked, “How may I help you?”

  When he looked up and gave his full attention, Michael asked, “Do you happen to have a patient whose granddaughter calls her Nana, currently in your care?”

  “Well, as a matter of fact, yes, I do. Why do you ask, sir?”

  Michael’s shoulder muscles tensed. “How long has she been in the facility?”

  “I’m sorry, sir, but—”

  “She is my wife’s grandmother.”

  The doctor didn’t look convinced. He remained tight-lipped.

  “Ally Overton is my wife.”

  Gray brows shot up. “Miss Overton is married? She hadn’t mentioned it.”

  “We’d only just wedded. Michael Langdon,” he said with a quick nod.

  “Langdon,” the doctor repeated thoughtfully. Discarding the soiled hand cloth in a nearby bin, he suddenly looked up at Michael with curiosity. “Aren’t you the fellow who just purchased forty percent of a shipping company? What was it…?”

  “Beaker’s Shipping.”

  “Ah, yes, Beaker’s! My nephew’s father-in-law looked into purchasing a few percentages, but he wasn’t fast enough. He said Langdon, along with a couple others snatched it all.” He chuckled. “My, but you’re just a young man! Do you know how overwrought he wo
uld be to find out he’d lost his dealings to such a young fellow?” His eyes glinted, and a smile appeared on his face.

  “I would be willing to work something out with him,” Michael said, retrieving his card and presenting it to the doctor. “You may send him to see me at this address. I am willing to negotiate. Now, if I can just—”

  “What an extraordinary young man you are! First, you purchase an expensive,” the doctor said, and hurried to add, “but highly excellent device the hospital could use repeatedly. Then, you make a very charitable contribution so we can secure supplies. And now, personally taking a loss so that my nephew’s father-in-law could make an investment in what is known to be a spectacular shipping company. I’d say—”

  As the doctor rambled on and on, Michael pieced his words together. “How much did I contribute, doctor?” he asked, feigning lack of recollection. “I fail to remember the exact figure.”

  “Fail to remember? How could you have forgotten such a generous contribution?” Doctor Reeves laughed. “Well, let’s see...the piece of extraordinary apparatus we prearranged from the Continent for your wife’s grandmother totaled five hundred pounds. And then, there was the additional funds you’ve given your wife to bestow on us, which would make it all of six hundred and fifty pounds. A very generous contribution if I must say so.”

  Michael’s chest contracted, making it almost painful to breathe. Ally gave it all away. She didn’t keep a single shilling that he’d arrogantly dumped on her. What an idiot he was! Everything he had believed her to be proved wide off the mark. Everything he’d said was outright wrong. He’d never been so erroneous about anything in his entire life. Ally was an innocent, kind, and gentle woman- the kind Victor always declared her to be.

  “…so we don’t have to wait for specific supplies to come in,” the doctor said, his words swirling in the back of Michael’s mind, barely registering.

  “May I see my wife’s grandmother?”

  “Certainly, Mr. Langdon.”

  Following the doctor down a few corridors, Michael vowed he’d make it all better for them, for both Ally and her grandmother. He would make sure they were together, and happy, and Ally would forgive him for his blunder. Wouldn’t she?