Chapter 43
Chapter Forty-Three
Sebastian excused himself from the gossipy woman and waylaid a passing servant for a glass of champagne. Across the dancers, Isabel still stood where he had left her, Harry Dempster at her shoulder, engaged in conversation.
He began to make his way around the floor, pausing for the most cursory of greetings, only to find his way barred by Freddy.
‘Our Isabel and your old chum seem to be getting on well, don’t they?’ Freddy leaned forward and said in a conspiratorial whisper, ‘I have heard that the good Colonel is a little stretched for cash. Perhaps a widow’s jointure would be useful?’
Sebastian scowled. ‘That is insulting to both of them, Lynch.’
Freddy held up a hand in protest. ‘I merely meant they make a handsome couple.’
They did. Even Sebastian had to concede that there was something about both of them that seemed matched.
‘I think Isabel is entitled to some happiness in her life,’ Sebastian replied stiffly.
‘Watch yourself, Somerton, Lady Kendall is heading this way and she has her eye on you,’ Freddie said.
The crowd parted to let Lady Kendall pass. She approached him in a miasma of perfume that threatened to choke him.
‘My dear Lord Somerton.’ She held out her hand and he bowed low over it.
‘Lady Kendall, may I say you look enchanting tonight.’
Sebastian’s eye was drawn to the magnificent sapphire necklace and he wondered about her late husband.
He must have left her well provided for.
As if guessing his thoughts, she smiled and her hand went to the sapphire necklace, letting the perfect stones fall between her fingers as they played in the light of the candelabra.
‘Thank you, Lord Somerton. Oh, Mr. Lynch, I didn’t see you there.’
‘Lady Kendall. Your servant, ma’am,’ Freddy said.
Lady Kendall spared him a quick smile and a cursory acknowledgement of his presence before turning back to Sebastian as the band struck up the next dance.
‘A waltz, Lord Somerton? My card is quite free.’
Sebastian opened his mouth to protest but she had already taken his arm, and he had no choice but to lead her out onto the floor.
Despite his protests to Fanny, he could dance, quite well.
The pain was not so much physical as emotional.
Dancing always brought back memories of the ball in Lisbon, where he had met Inez.
For once, Inez was forgotten as the familiar rhythm took them both around the dance floor. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that Freddy had led his sister out, moving with a grace and elegance that surpassed any of the other men.
Lady Kendall glanced at the Lynch siblings, and a small frown puckered her eyebrows.
‘Quite why Anthony put up with Freddy LynchI never understood. It was almost as if the odious creature had some hold over him.’
‘They were cousins,’ Sebastian said without conviction.
‘If there is any family resemblance, I am afraid it eludes me. I did ask him once but he changed the subject.’ Lady Kendall smiled up at Sebastian. ‘On a more pleasing subject, Lord Somerton, your sister is a picture tonight. You must be very proud of her.’
Lady Kendall indicated Connie on the arm of the pimply young man.
He hadn’t seen much of his sister over the past week but he had been aware, from the accounts that were crossing his desk, that a veritable army of dressmakers, hat makers, shoemakers and glove-makers had been kept very busy.
If the green dress was any indication of her new wardrobe, their efforts had been well worth it.
She looked as if she had been born to the life.
He brought his attention back to Lady Kendall, who continued, ‘You have quite a treasure there. I shall look forward to presenting her in London and I will not take no for an answer, Lord Somerton. A pearl such as your sister cannot be left to moulder in the country. I take it she has a dowry?’
‘Really, Lady Kendall—’ Sebastian began to protest, but Georgiana Kendall laughed.
‘It was a foolish question. I am sure you will see your sister properly provided for. I think an earl at least for Constance.’
‘God help the earl who has to put up with my sister. But in all seriousness, Lady Kendall, I will never force Constance to wed against her will,’ Sebastian said.
‘What romantic notions you have, my lord,’ Georgiana Kendall said. ‘Very well, we shall have to find an earl for her to fall in love with.’
The dance ended, and before she had left the floor, Lady Kendall had been claimed by another.
‘I thought you said you didn’t dance!’ A gloved hand insinuated itself around Sebastian’s elbow and he looked down at Fanny. ‘I must insist on the first dance after supper, Cousin Sebastian.’
Masking his annoyance, Sebastian filled in Fanny’s card. Glancing up, he saw Isabel slipping out of the doors to the terrace. He excused himself from Fanny’s cloying attentions and followed her.
She stood leaning her gloved hands on the parapet wall, looking out over the gardens, lit for the festivities with brightly coloured lanterns. He came up softly behind her.
‘It’s cold out here,’ he said.
She started and looked around. ‘Oh, Sebastian. I didn’t hear you.’
‘What were you thinking about?’
She shook her head. ‘I do not like large gatherings of people.’
‘I must agree with you,’ Sebastian said. ‘I will be glad when this evening is over.’
She turned to face him, the light from the windows catching an impish smile on her face.
‘You dance very well for a man with a French musket ball in his leg.’
Sebastian returned a rueful smile. ‘So Pierce says. He has been giving me tuition.’ He paused. ‘I would like to dance with you.’
‘Oh, I think I have scandalised the matrons enough for one night just by my presence. Perhaps Lady Kendall will oblige you again.’ She paused and looked up at him, her eyes, unreadable in the dark, scanning his face. ‘I’m curious, Sebastian, what do you think of Georgiana Kendall?’
Sebastian blew out his breath while he struggled to find the right words.
‘It’s all right, Sebastian, you don’t have to be polite. She quite literally swept you off your feet, didn’t she? You know, if circumstances had been other than what they are, I would have liked to have been her friend. In fact, I admire her.’
‘Do you?’ he said, unable to hide his surprise at the echo of the words he had heard from Lady Kendall.
‘She has turned her widowhood to her advantage. It is said she has even caught the eye of Prinny in her time.’
‘The Prince of Wales?’
‘Her secret is keeping them dangling.’
‘Is that what turning widowhood to advantage means? I think your plans for a school have more to recommend them than being the mistress of rich and powerful men.’
‘There is not much in life for a lone woman. In the absence of social charms, a school is the best I can hope for.’
He shook his head and said in a voice husky with emotion, ‘I think that you have so much more to recommend you than a woman like Lady Kendall.’
He reached out to touch her cheek, and she leaned against his hand.
His thumb gently stroked the line of her jaw and, when she didn’t draw back, he tilted her face up to his and ventured a kiss.
Their lips met in a brief touch, and when she didn’t withdraw, he slid his hand around the back of her neck, his other hand sliding around her shoulders, drawing her nearer to him.
She gave a deep shuddering breath and brought her hand up to rest on his chest, not pressing him away but slipping up around his neck. He drew her into the shadows, away from the light of the ballroom.
‘Isabel,’ he whispered into her hair. ‘I think it is quite possible that I am falling in love with you.’
He heard her sharp intake of breath, but she made no attempt to pull away from him. He breathed in her now familiar scent of rosemary.
‘Sebastian, this is utter madness. We barely know each other.’
‘I feel like I have known you a lifetime, Isabel. I have confided things in you that I have shared with no one else.’ He kissed her forehead, the skin beneath his lips soft and warm. ‘Unless I am a complete fool, I don’t think my feelings are unrequited.’
‘Sebastian, I—’
‘Bas, are you out here?’ A shadow fell across the terrace as Matt stepped outside.
Sebastian swore under his breath. He jumped apart from Isabel and strode to his brother, throwing an arm across his shoulder and turning them both back towards the ballroom before Matt could see with whom he had been trysting.
‘Apparently, you are supposed to lead us into supper. Fanny’s in a terrible tizz,’ Matt said.
‘Who am I supposed to lead into supper?’
‘I think Fanny is expecting you to do the honours with her.’
‘In that case, I shall find Mrs. Bracks. She is an agreeable old thing.’
One look at Fanny’s sulky mouth confirmed Matt’s opinion that she had been expecting him to lead her into supper.
He let out a sigh of relief that he had negotiated that particular trap.
Harry Dempster substituted for him and Fanny looked a little cheered as he paid her the attention she craved.
The niceties of who would be seen to escort whom into supper quite defeated him.
He was relieved to see Isabel on Matt’s arm.
She caught his eye and smiled, the secret smile of a person who knew something that no one else in the world except Sebastian would understand.
Sebastian could hardly concentrate at supper, his head full of thoughts of Isabel and that brief, private moment on the terrace. For the first time, the memory of Inez receded, and all he could see was Isabel’s serene oval face.
Plans for a proper wooing and courtship jostled through his mind. He would be everything to her that Anthony had failed in, and he would make her happy. From that first moment when she had leaned over him in the hospital, he knew he had found his soul mate.