“A method?” Stephen was getting angrier by the minute. It seemed that everything that came out of Owen’s mouth seemed to be worse than the last.
What had Maria seen in him?Or perhaps he had just been so good at wearing a mask that Maria had not noticed.
“It is surprisingly simple,” he smirked. “I make a promise to them, and they agree to go with me down a road north.”
“Gretna?” Stephen said, surprised.
“Mm.” Owen smiled, “Romance is a language women behave as if they’ve never heard and then translate fluently overnight. You promise a girl a wedding; she meets you at midnight.”
Owen was laughing now, and Stephen suspected that he must be under the assumption that such behavior was impressive to him, that somehow it was a testament to what a true man he was. It could not be further from the truth, however. Stephen could only scowl at what he was being told.
“You promise them marriage, in hopes that they meet you at midnight?”
“It’s thrilling for them, too. I assure you. They always think of themselves as modern heroines, free from the troublesome bother of parents, uncles, and settlements. A night on the road in an inn with a lock on the inside and the matter is settled,” Owen concluded, looking pleased with himself.
Stephen could have dropped the reins for how steady his hands had suddenly decided to be.
“Settled?” he questioned.
“For me,” Owen said, and laughed, “You see, the trick is to sleep just past the border, where the road breaks into a clutch of inns. You let her hear the talk so she feels the Scotland of it, and then you rest. She thinks it is prudent. ‘We shall be married first thing, Owen,’ she whispers, as if I would object to such sensible measures. And then in the morning….”
He spread his hand as if displaying a magic trick. “...I am gone.”
Stephen felt his blood come to a boil, but he maintained a calm facade. In his mind, he was already imagining what it would feel like to knock Owen out cold.
Restrain yourself,Stephen told himself decidedly.
“You leave a girl alone, without marriage, her name spent, in a town that does not know her, with no more protection than the innkeeper’s mercy?” Stephen said instead.
“She is not truly ruined, if we like precision,” Owen clarified with a laugh. “She went to Scotland; people assume the rest if she returns. But she will not confess the real stupidity of the thing, not to a father or a brother who will kill her with their pride. She will say we were wed and then discovered a disagreement and leave the particulars to gossip. It is an elegant solution. No harm done to me. Very little to her, if we are honest. She learns what she wished to learn. The better sort even thank me, later, for the experience.”
Stephen wanted to hit the man so cleanly that the world would not see the motion. He imagined it and then placed the fantasy back in its box because murder in daylight among dogs is frowned upon, even out of season.
“I do not make a habit of lecturing strangers about their souls,” he said. “But you are not describing experience. Rather, you are describing theft.”
“Only to the women that offer, Your Grace,” Owen looked amused. “For me, it is rather an enriching experience. Keeps life exciting, if you will.”
“Youpromisedmarriage to take what you wanted without paying for it,” Stephen replied.
“How pious,” Owen said lightly. “Forgive me; I mistook you. I had heard otherwise and thought that you might not draw such an issue with my methods.”
It boiled Stephen’s blood even more so that somehow Owen thought that the two of them were similar in any manner, and that he lacked principles.
“You heard that I am careless?”
“Something to that effect,” Owen nodded. “I do not think it is a bad thing, really. Some selfishness is required for a happy life.”
“You have heard wrong,” Stephen replied through gritted teeth. “It may be possible that I am careless about myself. But I am not careless with those who are smaller than me.”
Owen snorted.
“Women are hardly smaller than you think, Your Grace. They run households and entire dynasties of gossip. Spare me the chivalry, if you will. We are both men here, and we may speak candidly.”
“Chivalry is show,” Stephen said. “I prefer rules and principles.” He turned his head at last and let Owen see what he generally kept to himself.
“Here are mine: I do not seduce women to leave them lonely in rooms they do not know. I do not borrow a vow I won’t keep. If a woman means to sin, I allow her the courtesy of naming it.”
“You cannot expect me to believe you’ve never…” Owen was laughing now, as though he could not believe a word that was coming out of Stephen’s mouth.