Free An Heiress at Heart by Jennifer Delamere

his chin on his hands, looking at Ria as though he were at the theater and an exciting play was about to begin.
    Lady Thornborough motioned Geoffrey to another chair. “May I suggest that you sit down as well, Lord Somerville? We must allow cooler heads to prevail.”
    She phrased it as a request, but Geoffrey did not miss the implied command. This was a woman who was used to being obeyed—especially in her own home. Geoffrey did his best to suppress his agitation as he moved to the chair she indicated. He chided himself for allowing his anger to overrun the normally charitable aspects of his nature. Patience was a virtue, but the high demands of the previous weeks had caused him to run short on supply.
    “I will begin with your question, Geoffrey,” Ria said, her voice steady. “You asked why we didn’t contact you. But we had. Edward and I did send word from Scotland that we were married.”
    “We never received such a letter,” Geoffrey said.
    She frowned. “I know that now. The letters must have gotten lost, or were never posted.”
    “You didn’t post them yourself?”
    “No. We were rushing to board the ship, and had no time. Edward gave the packet of letters to a man on the docks—a sailor from another ship, I think it was. He seemed to me a rather disreputable-looking fellow, but Edward gave him the letters and the money, and he said he would post the letters for us. For all we know, he may well have discarded the letters and pocketed the money for himself.”
    “Once again we see Edward’s spectacular ability to make bad decisions,” Geoffrey said. “Was that the only time you wrote to us?”
    “Yes. We were stunned not to hear from you. We had left instructions where to reach us in Sydney. I suggested to Edward that maybe something had happened to the letters. I felt we should write again, but Edward was too proud. He said we would wait until we were properly established. He knew his family thought him incapable of succeeding on his own, and he wanted to prove them wrong.”
    “But, Ria, how on earth did you end up in Australia?” James asked. “You must tell us every detail.”
    “Of course.” She took a deep breath. “Edward and I eloped to Scotland, as you all surmised, even without our letter.”
    James smirked. “Married by the blacksmith at Gretna Green, were you?”
    “That is a vulgar expression,” Lady Thornborough said archly. “James, you will mind your manners today, if only for one hour.”
    “I beg your pardon, Aunt,” James said, although his eyes were still filled with mirth. “However, I believe a touch of levity can sometimes aid in the discussion of difficult subjects.”
    As if to prove his point, Ria laughed softly. “It’s all right.” She gave James an adoring look that, for some reason, Geoffrey found disconcerting. “In Scotland, of course, it would have been legal even if the blacksmith had done it. However, we were married properly—in the church, by special license.” She looked pointedly at Geoffrey as she said those words.
    “That is a comfort,” Lady Thornborough said.
    “Please continue,” Geoffrey said, anxious to get to the meat of her story. “We thought we had traced you as far as Edinburgh.”
    Ria nodded. “We had originally planned to go to Liverpool and take a ship to America. But we met a man who convinced Edward he could find better opportunities in Australia. So we left Edinburgh on a ship bound for Plymouth. From there we boarded a ship to Australia.”
    James leaned forward. “Did you plan to take the Sea Venture from Liverpool? That ship sank and all aboard were lost. When we never heard from you, we began to fear you had been aboard. Your names were not on the ship’s manifest, but we thought you might have used an alias.”
    “I’m glad we were not on that unlucky vessel,” Ria said with a shiver. “We might have been, if we’d kept to our original plan.” Again she looked pointedly at Geoffrey. “I suppose Edward made