Husband Wanted (HC #1)

22: The Devil in the Detail

Two hours was a long time in a coach. Matthew was bored and his travel companions weren't helping. Simon was admiring the countryside, his gaze unfalteringly trailing the trees they passed. His fingers absently stroked the head that was resting in his lap; Phil had fallen asleep around an hour ago and remained curled up on the bench beside him. Every so often she sighed heavily, not even feigning youth in her sleep.

Matt supposed he could have turned to his other sister for entertainment, but he wasn't that cruel. Beth looked awful. She was pale and clammy, her pink dress failing to bring out colour in her cheeks and only serving to make her look more unwell. Her hands worried in her lap, picking at the nails on one hand, then the other, and then switching back to the first.

She needed a distraction, Matt decided abruptly. And he was more than happy to provide.

"Do you think the Namby estate will be as charming-" he fluttered his eyelashes "- as David himself?"

Beside him, Beth startled, her head jerking towards him as if she hadn't realised he'd been there the whole journey. "Forgive me, what..." She cast a quick look around the cabin, taking stock of where they were and who was present, as her fidgeting shifted to the second hand. "What did you say?"

"I said-" He sighed and shook his head. "Never mind." Irritation flared, and he decided that his brother did not deserve to be left in peace. "Remind me what the point of this journey is?"

Beth fidgeted to the first hand again. "We go to check on our friend." The statement was so quiet it was nearly inaudible over the sound of gravel crunched between the carriage wheels.

Simon dragged his eyes away from the countryside and nodded. "And to see if he has remembered anything pertinent."

Their brother leaned forward, genuinely interested despite himself. "So, you have not given up on the mystery of what happened between David and the Thornes?" With a wiggled brow, he sunk down further in the seat and folded his arms across his chest in challenge. "I would have thought you and Bart would have dismissed it once David left us."

Beth's picking returned to the second hand as Simon frowned at Matt. To the younger's disappointment, he seemed to have detected the goading tone and decided not to rise further to the bait. He only shook his head slightly.

"Not that we would change a thing, but I think it is clear to the Thornes that we have aligned ourselves with David – and with Thomas. I do not think we have a choice in whether we continue this. And more importantly, David has become a friend to us all. We care-" his eyes darted quickly to Beth, with only the tiniest stumble in his speech, "- for him."

Simon had clearly not had enough practice as the trickster sibling, Matt realised with a wince; his subterfuge skills were not up to scratch.

"We will at least stay the night?" he asked quickly.

The question drew a predictable response from Beth. "Of course not!" she all but shrieked, her hands stilling for the first time as they clenched in her skirts. "We will not impose, and we will not overstay our welcome. We will stop for tea, check on- check that he's alright, and then we will return home."

Matt vowed to himself there and then that he would not be making a return trip that day; another two hours trapped with his despondent sister was completely unconscionable.

In his peripheral vision, he saw Beth change again to pick at the second hand.

"Oh, for the love of-" Matt reached out suddenly and laid his hands atop hers, pressing them into stillness. "Will you stop doing that!"

His raised voice not only served to draw Beth's ire, colour clawing its way back into her face, but to wake Phil. The girl sat up slowly, stifling a yawn with the back of one hand and looking around the carriage with bleary eyes.