Maria wanted to argue. She didn’t have the energy to lie convincingly to people like them. They weretooclose, and it would be a difficult thing to achieve.
“Fine. I hate empty roads.”
Prudence set the water down and folded her hands.
“What are you actually angry about? The absence or the man?”
“The man,” Maria said, too fast. “No. The absence. Both.” She dragged a hand through the loose hair that hadn’t yet been bullied into order. “He hasn’t come since that night. Nicholas says he’s been sending notes to the vicar. I suppose he is busy with his duties apparently, but not time to…not time to…” She floundered.
“Not time to look you in the face,” Charity supplied.
“Yes.” Maria scowled at the carpet. “And when he was here, he barked one sentence at me like a command and left. He could have…said something else. Anything else.”
“Like what?” Temperance asked.
“Like ‘I don’t want to marry you but I will’,” Maria said. “Or ‘this is a contract and I expect you to be punctual’. Or ‘I have reasons I will not share’. At least then I would know which sort of wall he planned to be.”
Prudence rubbed her temple.
“Have you considered that he might be doing the sensible thing and staying away because he knows your brother would set him on fire if he lingered?”
“Violet would set him on fire first,” Prudence observed.
“I don’t want him burned,” Maria said. “I want…I don’t know what I want.”
Silence again.
Charity reached for the scone tray and handed Maria the least stale.
“Eat. Then tell us what’s underneath the anger.”
Maria bit and chewed. And then tried to make some sense of her thoughts, which were now flowing in all directions.
“I don’t understand him,” she said around the crumb. “He told me he would never marry. He told me I had a week, and he would find me someone. Then he offered himself as a deadline. And then he….did the thing he said he would never do. Why?”
“Because he meant the other thing more,” Prudence said simply.
“What other thing?”
“Keeping you safe,” Prudence said.
“That can’t be it,” Maria said. “If that were it, he could have given Mr. Rondell a shove and sent him tumbling into the stables. He could have told Nicholas to toss the man out.”
“He could have, but he chose a bigger solution. Does that not tell you something about his aims? And please note, I am not suggesting you owe him your gratitude for doing the obvious right. I am only saying the obvious right is relevant,” Prudence cut back in gently.
“He is relevant and I hate it,” Maria made a sound that was not quite a laugh.
“Hate is a strong word…” Prudence chimed in.
“I don’t hate him,” Maria admitted, glum. “I hate that he gets to decide the pace of the room. I hate that he said one sentence, and then everything is happening exactly as he wishes for it to be. I hate that he looked at me that night as if…” She stopped, appalled at herself.
“As if what?” Temperance pounced.
“As if I were…” Maria groped for a word that wouldn’t make her sound foolish. “A choice. Not a mess. And then he left. It makes me furious.”
Prudence’s mouth softened.
“That would do it.”