Chapter 17
“Wherein plans are revealed, and the fates laugh with glee.”
Sebastian looked up as Beau strolled into the room unannounced and without so much as a knock.
“Do come in,” he drawled, tucking the sleek red curl he had been staring at with dejection into his desk drawer and out of sight.
Beau paused and looked at him, one blond eyebrow arched in surprise. “I have,” he replied, before going and helping himself to Sebastian’s best brandy.
“It’s not even noon,” he pointed out to Beau who just returned a bored look and sat down in front of his desk.
“I’m celebrating,” Beau replied with a smug expression.
“Oh?” Sebastian closed the ledger he’d been quite at a loss to make tally for the past two hours as a certain sweet country girl and her unruly red hair kept intruding on his thoughts.
He was dangerously close to breaking and returning to Cornwall, for he didn’t think he could bear not to see her again.
“Yes, I believe I have discovered the means to my salvation.”
Sebastian blinked and tried to drag his mind away from an October day and a Titian haired beauty spread out among the autumn leaves, and back to Beau’s news.
“Oh?”
Beau sighed and shook his head. “You said that already.”
“I did?”
“Good God, man,” his friend snapped, clearly exasperated.
“Will you snap out of ... of whatever this is!” He ran a hand through his thick blond hair and slouched back in the chair, glaring at Sebastian.
“You’ve not been fit for man nor beast for weeks now.
You can’t have her, and you know you can’t, so bloody well let it go. ”
“I would if I could, damn it!” he exploded in return.
The unfairness of it all, the longing to see Georgiana, the pressure of the past weeks, of his mother’s hysterics and her determination they were all to be brought to ruin had worn on his last nerve.
“What do you know of love?” he demanded. “You’ve never cared a damn for anyone but yourself. I can’t forget her, I ... I can’t.”
He stopped, appalled by his outburst. Sebastian hadn’t meant to admit that to Beau, and he certainly hadn’t meant to abuse his best friend for no reason. He sighed as he saw the look in his friend’s eyes. His face had that guarded, shuttered-up quality he wore for everyone but Sebastian.
“Forgive me, Beau,” he said, hearing the exhaustion behind his words. “I had no right to say that and ... and I know it isn’t true. You have always been ... the very best of friends.”
Beau snorted in disgust, though he seemed to relax a little. “No, I haven’t. Far from it, and you well know it. But you are and I don’t expect to hear you of all people call me out for it.”
Sebastian laughed, relieved that he’d been so easily forgiven. “To tell the truth, it’s been the most damnably awful few weeks.”
“I suppose a broken heart will do that to you?” Beau replied, curiosity lurking in his blue eyes. “You really think you love the girl?”
“I don’t think it,” he replied with a crooked smile. “I know it. I have never felt this way before. It’s like all the air has been sucked out of the world and I can’t breathe anymore.”
Beau grimaced with disdain and picked a tiny piece of lint from his perfectly tailored sleeve. “How terribly uncomfortable. I must make sure I avoid it at all costs.”
“You do,” Sebastian replied laughing. He grew serious again as Georgiana’s lovely face drifted back to mind. “I can’t get her out of my head,” he admitted.
“You must, unless you would offer her a carte blanche?”
Sebastian smiled as he imagined the look on Georgiana’s face if he dared to offer to keep her as his mistress. “I don’t think she’d take that offer very kindly,” he said, shaking his head with amusement.
Beau gave an impatient tut of annoyance.
“Well, you must think of something because I can’t stand all this moping about, it’s revolting.
Just imagine what your mother would say if you told her you intended to offer for a doctor’s daughter with no name and no fortune.
Good God, that would be the spasm to end all spasms. You might actually kill her! ”
Sebastian buried his head in his hands. “Right at this moment she might actually welcome the idea, as it’s far from my only problem.”
“You’re not serious? What else can have ... oh!” Beau trailed off.
He watched as Beau fell silent and thought he detected a slightly guilty air about him.
Sebastian narrowed his eyes, leaning over the desk to better scrutinise the angelic countenance in front of him. “You’re up to something unspeakable!”
He was given an eye roll as Beau finished his drink and stood to pour another. “Oh, very well,” he replied. “But you go first. Tell me why your darling parent is having the vapours now, though I think I can guess.”
“I’m damned sure you can. Fix me one of those,” he added, pinching the bridge of his nose as a headache began to bloom behind his eyes.
“The blasted scandal rags are full of Lady Dalton, The Siren! So, the whole bloody scandal is going to be raked up again, just at the moment I’m out to find a wife and mother is convinced the chit is somehow going to ruin me like her mother ruined father.”
“Ah,” Beau handed him his glass and a sympathetic expression. “Yes, I do see. But ... it may be that I can help you there.”
Sebastian paused with the glass halfway to his lips. “What the devil do you mean?”
“Well,” his friend said, winking and raising his glass at him. “It’s an ill wind ...”
“Oh, for the love of God, do stop talking in riddles. You know it drives me insane when you do that.”
Beau chuckled, his blue eyes glittering with calculation. “Well it just so happens that The Honourable Miss Georgiana Dalton is an heiress and I have every intention of making her my wife.”
Sebastian stared at his friend, the words seemed to circulate his brain, but it was taking longer than usual to accept the meaning of them.
“You ... want to marry her?” he replied with care, wanting to be sure he’d really understood as the enormity of it hit him.
Beau pursed his lips, a thoughtful expression making him look more bloody perfect than usual.
“Want to is perhaps giving the matter a little too much force,” he replied with perfect sincerity.
“I don’t want to marry anyone. However, seeing as I am probably days away from point non plus and some of my creditors are really not the kind of men who take kindly to being told my pockets are to let .
.. then yes, I most certainly will do all in my power to marry her as fast as I may.
They say she’s rich enough to buy an abbey you know, and gifts like that don’t fall into your hands every day. ”
“She would be your wife, Beau. The daughter of the woman who ruined my life, who killed my father and tore my family apart while the ton looked on and gossiped. You would marry her?”
Sebastian found he’d got to his feet without somehow noticing it. His fists were clenched with rage as the ferocity of his words rang around the room.
Beau met his gaze, his expression placid but there was something in his eyes that gave him pause.
“I’m sorry, Sebastian, truly I am. If I had any other choice, I swear I would take it.
But heiresses are thin on the ground, and please don’t think I overstate the case when I tell you I am . .. in trouble ...”
Sebastian sat down again as his anger fell away. He stared at Beau and for the first time he could ever remember he thought he saw fear in his eyes.
“Your father?” he queried, though he knew what the answer would be.
“For God’s sake, Sebastian. When will you get it through your head that the bastard hates my guts? He would laugh himself to death if I got carted off to debtor’s prison, I assure you. Though frankly I’d be lucky to get there after some of the callers I’ve been forced to receive recently.”
“Christ, Beau!” Sebastian shouted and pulled out the desk drawer, fully intending to write his friend a banker’s draft there and then.
“Don’t you dare!” Beau sprang to his feet, his eyes almost feverish. “I won’t take it, damn you. I made this bloody mess and I’ll get myself out of it. I won’t take a penny from you so don’t try to give it to me or we will most certainly fall out.”
“You can pay me back, you bloody fool, with interest if it will make you happy!”
“No!”
The two men stared at each other as Sebastian tried to force down the anger that was bubbling in his chest.
“So, you would rather marry that ... that creature than borrow money from me?”
Beau let out a small bark of laughter and the fight seemed to go out of him. “I assure you it isn’t any great sacrifice on my part,” he said with a wry smile. “She is perfectly adorable and very beautiful, and I would dare to suggest - nothing like her mother.”
Sebastian gave an incredulous snort, despite the fact he’d thought it quite unlikely she was cast in the same mould himself.
“I’ll never be able to receive you both here.”
Beau shrugged. “Not while your mother lives perhaps, no.”
Shaking his head in frustration, Sebastian folded his arms, staring at Beau, trying to understand him, which was something he had never fully been able to do. “What makes you believe things would be any different when she’s gone? Why should I receive her?”
Beau just met his eyes and smiled. “Because you are the fairest and most forgiving person I have ever known.”
“Don’t try to fob me off with Spanish coin,” he replied, his tone gruff, though he was pleased by the compliment, nonetheless.
“You might be able to use that silver tongue to bed whomsoever you please, but don’t think you’ll bamboozle me into believing you marrying Lady Georgiana is anything other than a recipe for utter disaster. ”
“Well at least if I marry her the ton will stop looking so hard for gossip, especially if you can bring yourself to acknowledge her at least.”
“I have every intention of giving her the cut direct,” he replied, his tone brooking no argument, no possible point of discussion.
He heard Beau’s sigh of disappointment. “Yes, I thought you might.”
“You know ... she might not want to marry you; did you ever consider that?”
Beau gave him a smirk. “Of course, it’s possible,” he allowed, though the twinkle of amusement in his eyes made it clear he thought it unlikely.
Sebastian snorted, outraged if not surprised. “God, you’re an arrogant devil.”