Chapter 24 #2
She had to laugh at the idea of him coming to the earl’s home to visit her though. “Good God, Falmouth would kill you if you set foot on the doorstep after what you did to destroy his relationship with Céleste.”
His face darkened and she knew she’d hit home. Yes, Sebastian, I know more of your dark little secrets, she thought and then wondered how many others there were that she didn’t know.
“So, I’m guilty of all charges I see,” he replied, and she could see the cost to his pride to keep pursuing her when he met nothing but rejection after rejection.
“Perhaps not,” she replied, relenting a little. “But I have no reason to trust you and meeting you is something I cannot contemplate after the way your father has already ruined my name.”
He stiffened at that, fury in his eyes.
“My father was the best of men,” he said, his voice harsh and implacable, his bearing suddenly showing every single generation of pride and power that came with his many titles.
“He was led into vice and until very recently I’ve never been able to understand how a woman could ruin such a good and honourable man. But now I do see.”
She gasped, appalled by his words and more hurt than she would have believed possible. That he of all people should use that against her. She took a step back, her eyes filling with tears.
“Then I suggest you get as far away from me as possible, your grace,” she replied, her words sharp with the pain of disappointment. “Before I cause you any further embarrassment.”
She turned and found Beau right behind her. He took one look at her tear-filled eyes and drew her hand into the crook of his arm, turning to stare at the duke with fury.
“Stay away from her,” he replied, his voice cold. “God help me, if you hurt her again, I’ll make you pay for it.”
“You’re the one hurting her, Beau,” Sebastian snapped in return. “You’re the one damaging her chances of making a better match, but you don’t care about that do you? For the fewer on the field the more chance she’ll marry you and you’ll get your grasping hands on her money.”
Beau clenched his fists and went to take a step forward, but Georgiana grabbed hold of his arm.
“No, please, Beau,” she begged him. “Please don’t make a scene.
” With obvious reluctance, Beau took a step back, but the two men were still glaring at each other, the atmosphere so fraught Georgiana hardly dared breathe.
“You promised to take me out in a boat, remember.”
He turned to her, his face white with restrained fury but he nodded and began to lead her back down the jetty.
“You should not go alone in the boat with him, Georgiana,” Sebastian said as they came closer, his voice full of anger. “Don’t you see, you little fool, he wants your reputation shredded so no one else will want you. Your fortune is slender enough temptation against your tenuous position as it is.”
Fury lanced through her as his words struck home. How dare he pretend to care and give advice while he slandered her in the same sentence. Slender enough temptation! Why the arrogant, top lofty ...
Before she could think of a suitably cutting rejoinder, the duke turned to walk away from them, his face dark with anger.
As he passed however, Beau deliberately turned out one elegantly booted foot and Sebastian tripped.
Too wrong footed to save himself, he plunged off the side of the jetty and ended up hip deep in the Serpentine.
“Oh, I do beg your pardon, your grace,” Beau replied with a malicious glint of satisfaction in his blue eyes. For a moment Georgiana rejoiced in seeing him getting his comeuppance, but then she realised what was at stake.
“Why you ...” Sebastian began, and Georgiana looked at him in appalled horror. I
f he caused a scene now, everyone would be talking about them. They would know she’d come between the duke and his best friend and everyone would say like mother, like daughter. She’d never live it down. She stared at him and gave the slightest shake of her head, pleading in her eyes.
Please, Sebastian, please don’t do it.
For a moment all she could see in the gaze that turned to hers was righteous indignation and hurt pride.
But then he stilled, and the tension fell from his stance.
Those dark eyes seemed to warm as he looked at her, and the rumble of laughter that came from him was throaty and delicious, and the most wonderful sound she’d ever heard.
“Beau,” he said, with a wry smile. “You will be receiving a bill from my tailor and I dare you to ever face my valet again.”
“By all means, Sebastian,” Beau returned with a charming smile. “I will put it in a drawer with all the other bills I have been unable to pay.”
They watched as he strode out of the river, the sodden material clinging to his powerful thighs in a most disconcerting manner as gasps of astonishment met him on the bank.
Although desperately relieved that he’d not made a scene she was still utterly furious about his earlier remarks.
Because of it, Georgiana allowed Beau to help her into one of the boats, despite knowing Sebastian was probably right. She shouldn’t go with the notorious marquess, but if the high-handed, top-lofty duke thought so little of her ...
Oh, but she was enraged and hurt, and she’d do as she damned well pleased. But she couldn’t take her eyes from his dripping figure as people crowded around him to discover what had occurred.
“That wasn’t a very gentlemanly thing to have done, Beau,” she scolded, as he handed her into the boat. Though privately she thought it was exactly what the smug devil had required.
“Oh, hush,” he replied, snorting, settling himself down and picking up the oars. “You loved seeing him plunge into that cold, muddy water, and don’t pretend you didn’t.”
She sat back in the boat with a sigh and admired the bunch and glide of his powerful shoulders under the exquisite cut of his superfine coat.
The sun glinted off his golden hair and she thought she had never seen a more beautiful man.
But still her eyes drifted to the bank and the large dark figure of his friend disappearing into the shadows.
Georgiana trailed her fingertips in the chilly water and wished life wasn’t so complicated.
Her heart still wanted Sebastian, but she was so very angry and hurt at his treatment of her, and his cruel words.
That he could blame her mother entirely for the affair, as though his father had possessed no will of his own, and then would compare the two of them in such a way. That had been beyond hurtful.
He’d meant to hurt her too. But then the way he’d spoken of his father, he’d clearly idolised him.
In that she supposed she’d been lucky. She’d never known her parents, for good or for bad, so she’d been saved the heartbreak of losing them.
Hers had been a gentler loss, though just as enduring.
For although she’d never felt the lack of love through the kind attentions of her aunt and uncle, she had always wished she had known her real parents.
She’d seen the loss in Sebastian’s eyes though, the fury at the idea his father could have been in any way responsible.
He must have been eleven or twelve, perhaps, when his father had died.
An impressionable age for any young man and devastating to lose the father he’d clearly idolised.
The idea softened her heart a little as she realised how dreadfully angry and hurt he would have been, and clearly still was.
“You’re very quiet, Eve.”
She looked up and found Beau watching her. Shaking the water from her fingers she sat up a little straighter and turned her attention back to him.
“Just wool gathering,” she replied, smiling and feeling bad for not giving him her attention.
“Ah, yes,” he said, amusement pulling at the corners of that sensual mouth, a mouth made for kissing and decadent pleasures, she thought, and then scolded herself for thinking it at all.
He smirked, as though aware of her train of thought, before carrying on.
“It must take a lot of thought I suppose, the question of whom to marry.”
“Well of course it does,” she replied, tutting at him. “Though what on earth makes you believe I was thinking about who I’m going to marry?”
“A wild guess,” he replied, his tone dry.
She looked across the water, glittering in the spring sunshine as more people took to the boats and wandered up and down the banks of the river.
“Oh look!” she exclaimed, as the huge blue and gold striped balloon began to ascend into the azure skies.
They watched for a while as the balloon rose higher and higher.
“What a marvellous view they must have from up there,” she said, shielding her eyes from the sun with one hand. She looked away, blinking, as Beau grimaced.
“I’d rather keep my feet on the ground,” he muttered.
“Oh?” she replied, laughing at him. “Are you not very adventurous? How disappointing.”
He raised one eyebrow at her, a look in his blue eyes that made her skin prickle with awareness.
“Oh, but I am extremely adventurous, darling, more than you can possibly imagine,” he replied, his voice all silk sheets and candlelight as a slow smile curved over his mouth.
She blushed, only too aware of what he was referring to and then gasped as small trailing branches dragged past the sides of the boat and they disappeared behind the curtain of a willow tree.
“Beau!” she exclaimed. “Take us back out immediately, people will think ...”
“People will think I’m taking advantage of the moment to kiss you,” he supplied for her, settling the oars in the rowlocks. “And they’d be quite right.”
He shifted and she squealed as the boat dipped violently to one side before he settled beside her on the narrow seat and put his arms around her.