“The price would have been too high for you,” Ian returned. Mather’s mouth hung open. He stared at Beth, who wanted very much to leap headfirst into the closest hansom cab and flee. She lifted her chin instead, standing her ground. “Mrs. Ackerley,” Mather said stiffly. “Have a care for your reputation. People might put it about that you’re his mistress.”
By people, Mather likely meant himself.
Before Beth could answer, Ian said quietly, “Beth is my wife.”
“No.” Mather’s face started to go purple. “Oh, you bastard. I’ll sue you both. Breach of contract and all that.” Beth imagined the humiliation of court, solicitors digging into her past, revealing what a horrible misalliance was her marriage with Ian.
“You came to sell,” Ian interrupted Mather.
“Eh?” Mather clenched his fists. “What do you mean?”
“The proprietor said he expected a bowl to come in as well as go out. You wanted to exchange yours for this one.” “What of it? This is a collector’s shop.”
“Let me see it.”
Mather’s dithering was almost comical. He opened and shut his mouth a few times, but Beth watched greed and desperation take over indignation. Mather snapped his fingers and his manservant handed him a satchel from the carriage. Ian jerked his head toward the shop, and they all went back inside.
The proprietor looked surprised to see them return, but he had his assistant fetch another square of black velvet, and Mather removed the bowl from the satchel. This one was different, with red camellia blossoms dancing around the outside. It was not as chipped as the other, and the glaze shone in the lamplight.
Ian lifted it, examining it as carefully as he had the first one. “It’s worth twelve hundred,” he announced. Mather’s mouth became a round O. “Yes,” he spluttered.
“Of course it is.”
Beth swallowed. If she understood aright, Mather had been about to exchange a twelve-hundred-guinea bowl for one worth six hundred. No wonder Ian derided him. That lan’s assessment was the correct one, Beth had no doubt. “I’ll buy it from you,” Ian said. He nodded at the proprietor.
“Will you handle the sale?”
“Ian,” Beth whispered. “Isn’t that an awful lot of money?” Ian didn’t answer. Beth pressed her lips together and watched Ian coolly transact a twelve-hundred-guinea sale, with another hundred pounds to the proprietor for doing nothing but standing next to them. Beth had lived with frugality for so long that to watch someone who didn’t know what frugality meant left her shaky. Ian didn’t even break a sweat.
Mather did, though, when he clutched Ian’s note in his hand. No doubt he’d rush to the bank right away. Ian left the shop without telling Mather good day, and helped Beth into the carriage. Curry handed in both boxes with a cheeky grin on his face.
“Well, that was an adventure,” Beth said. “You just gave Lyndon Mather twelve hundred pounds.” “I wanted the bowl.”
“How the devil did you even know the first bowl was there? Or that Mather was bringing the other? You’ve been in Paris for weeks.”
Ian looked out the window. “I have a man in London who keeps an eye out for pieces for me. He wired me the evening we went to the casino that there was a bowl here that Lyndon Mather had his eye on.”
Beth stared at him, feeling her life spinning out of control. “That means you would have left Paris the next morning, whether you married me or not.”
Ian looked at her briefly, then returned his gaze to the passing streets. “I would have brought you with me, no matter what. I’d not have left you alone. Marrying you was the best way of thwarting Fellows.”
“I see.” She felt cold. “Thwarting Mather was a bonus, was it?”
“I intend to thwart Mather out of everything.” Beth studied him, his strong profile turned away, his large hand resting easily on the box next to him. “I’m not a porcelain bowl, Ian,” she said softly.
He looked at her with a frown. “Are you joking?” “You didn’t want Mather to have the bowls, and you didn’t want him to have me.”
He stared a moment. Then he leaned to her, suddenly fierce. “When I saw you, I knew I had to take you away from him. He had no idea what you were worth, just like he can’t price the damn bowls. He’s a philistine.”
“I think I feel marginally better.”
Ian’s gaze wandered back to the window, as though the conversation were over. She studied his broad chest, the long legs that filled up the carriage. Her thoughts strayed to what it felt like to have his legs stretched next to hers in bed. “I suppose it will be good to stay a few nights in London,” she said. “I’ll have to buy things for Scotland—I imagine the weather is quite a bit cooler.”
“We’re not staying a few nights in London. We’re taking the night train out. Curry has arranged the tickets.”
Beth blinked. “I thought when you said ‘stopping in London’ you meant stopping for a night or two. Not whizzing in and out,”
“We need to get to Kilmorgan.”
“I see.” A cold knot formed in her chest. “What will we do once we get to Kilmorgan?”
“Wait.”
“Wait for what?”
“Time to pass.”
Beth stilled, but there was no more forthcoming. “You are maddening, Ian.”
Ian said nothing.
“Well.” Beth sat back, the tightness in her body corkscrewing. “I can see this will be a different sort of marriage than what I was used to.”
“You’ll be safe. The Mackenzie name will protect you. That’s why Mac wouldn’t divorce Isabella—so Isabella could retain her money and security.”
Beth thought of the laughing, gregarious Isabella and the pain in her eyes. “How very thoughtful of him.” “I’ll never ruin you.”
“Even if I have to communicate with you via notes through Curry?”
His brows drew down, and Beth caught his hand “Never mind, I was joking that time. I’ve never taken a night train to Scotland—well, any train to Scotland. It will be a new adventure. Will the bunks be as interesting as the compartment from Dover, I wonder?”
They arrived in the morning in Glasgow, and then the train went on to Edinburgh. When they rolled into Edinburgh, Beth looked about with hungry eyes. The city was bathed in fog but didn’t lack in beauty for all that.