Page 89 of The Blacksmith

“You must respect me. And I say she will not go with you.”

Lance could not change this man’s thinking any more than he could change his own father. They believed differently about Idalia’s role, a woman’s role—and the earl’s beliefs were likely as deeply rooted as his own.

But he could try, at least, to make him understand his thinking.

“You said Idalia has ideas for the market. Are those more valid than the ideas she has on where to go? How to live?”

“You push your luck, smith.”

He did indeed.

Then again, he’d been doing so from the first moment he stepped foot in Stanton Castle, and it hadn’t failed him yet.

“I am the same man to whom you pledged your support. And your daughter’s hand in marriage. Trust that your judgement is sound, and I will not disappoint you.”

Lance silently thanked Guy for his lessons on logic and argument. Without them, he’d have already been tossed from the chamber.

As Stanton continued to glare at him, he took a sip of the fine red wine.

Lance was sure the earl would rebuke him again, but when the door slammed open behind him, both men turned to stare.

Idalia had arrived.

“Please do not be angry with him,” she said to her father, his dark expression as fierce as she’d feared it would be. She’d been on her way down to the solar when Dawson caught up with her.

She was prepared to continue when Lance caught her eye. He shook his head ever so slightly. At first she thought he wanted to silence her—a thought that summoned a spurt of anger—but she quickly remembered Lance was not her father. He was attempting to tell her something.

She trusted him, so she stopped talking and waited for her father to respond.

“He tells me you plan to accompany him?”

Her father dared her to refute the words, but she would not.

Did he know Lance had been in her bedchamber?

“We’ve not discussed it in great detail just yet.”

Or even a wedding. They’d been otherwise occupied.

“You will not go with him.”

Her shoulders slumped at his tone. His words, as always, were final.

Idalia looked at Lance as she moved toward him. Forgetting to be embarrassed after what had passed between them, she thought instead of all he’d endured at the hands of his father. It was true hers could be difficult, but he had never once raised a hand against anyone in their family. Never would. But his treatment had hurt her in other ways, and the time had come to stand her ground.

Instead of bowing her head, as she’d normally do, she raised her chin. “I will go with him,” she said, speaking as if she were the earl instead of merely his daughter. “You’ve given your blessing to him, a man you hardly know. Now give it to me, your daughter, whom you know is capable.”

She spoke the truth and had proven as much during her mother’s illness.

“Let her go.”

They all turned at the sound of her mother’s voice.

Entering the room, the countess strode up to her husband. She smiled at Idalia and Lance, offering her encouragement.

This was certainly not the first time the countess had disagreed with her husband, but it was only one of a few times she’d done it so openly. It was simply not her mother’s way.

“She will be in danger,” her father said, his voice betraying his typical stalwart manner.