Chapter Twenty-Six
Georgiana
“Faster, Jane.” I pulled everything out of my armoire, my rampant heartbeat in my throat. The last trunk waited open on the floor. Already, she had all my shoes stacked in the bottom.
“Miss Wood, this is all so rushed. Are you sure—”
“I want to go home.” I felt ill, dizzy like I’d had too much wine.
Rushed, to be sure, but it was better this way.
No time to think. No time to feel. Her Grace had understood.
After hearing the story relayed from Maggie, it felt almost like she wanted me to go.
Like she agreed that I was doing more harm than good here.
I placed the last of my face creams and hairpins in a little box, then set it in the trunk.
Jane folded dresses furiously. “I never want to return to London again.”
“Her Grace said the carriage should be ready soon.” Jane laid the last gown on top. “She’s sending another maid and a footman to journey with us.”
I nodded, eyes watery as I looked about the room. I had already emptied drawers and filled the smaller trunk on my bed with trinkets.
I supposed I should be grateful Lord Reynolds had given me the excuse I needed to leave.
I didn’t want to, but now, it was clearer than ever that I should.
Lucas deserved better than a girl who courted judgment and whispers, who took every wrong turn no matter how well-intentioned.
Thank heavens it had happened before either of us had said anything we could not take back.
On the bedside table, I’d left a little leather box. Lucas’s grandmother’s ring.
Returned, finally.
We’d had our final outing, after all. Planned or not. And it had certainly been one for the papers.
Jane locked both trunks, and we did a final spin about the room.
“I shall have the men carry these down as well,” Jane said from the window. “I see the carriage now.”
A knock rapped on the door.
“Don’t answer it,” I begged Jane, but she strode around me anyway and opened the door.
“Your Grace,” she said.
I froze as she stepped aside for him. I could not have prepared myself for the sight. The blood. The bruising. I sucked in a breath.
“Georgiana,” Lucas said.
“Your face,” I whispered as I hurried toward him. I’d seen him defend me. Heard his yelling, the gasps from the onlookers. He’d done it all for me. I fell into his embrace.
“Are you . . . leaving?” His voice faltered.
“Lucas, your eye.” His arms were around my waist as I lifted a finger to the drying blood along his brow. I traced down his temple, wincing as I noted the split in his lower lip. “What happened?”
“Reynolds and I had a conversation. He will never hurt you again.”
“You shouldn’t have done that,” I chided him. I grasped his arms, firm and unyielding and warm as they held me to him. “Lucas, sit down. Jane, get us water, please.”
She rushed out of the room.
My gaze washed over his face, tracking every cut, every bruise, every fleck of dried blood I had caused, and it pained me to my core.
I wanted to cry, seeing him like this, but his hold felt so secure.
I felt so safe as he tightened his arms around me and held me together.
Wounded himself, but here to heal. I did not deserve it.
“Why did you—”
“I love you.” He spoke the words like they were timed, like if he did not release them he might very well explode. His eyes studied mine. “I love you, Georgiana.”
His words squeezed my heart, sliced it into shreds. Like fireworks in my chest and smoke in my eyes. I love you too, I wanted to cry. But I couldn’t release the words and tie myself to him. Not when binding our hearts would cost him the future he’d planned for.
He pressed his forehead against mine. “Don’t leave.”
I swallowed down the lump forming in my throat. I’d thought by coming here I could erase the past, that things could be as they once were. A second chance for friendships and finding my place.
Instead, I’d continued on the same path as before. I’d hurt the person I cared most for.
“But look what I’ve done to you,” I whispered.
Jane rushed back in, pouring water into the basin. I took a rag from her hand and dipped it in with renewed purpose. Lucas waited on the bed as I wrung out the cloth, then I sat beside him, and gently worked away the blood.
“Is the doctor coming?” I asked.
He nodded, studying me.
“Good. You’ll need a stitch or two.” I thumbed his brow.
“This was not your fault, Georgiana.”
I shook my head. Of course it was. “But it happened. By tomorrow, everyone will be talking about it.”
Lucas held my wrist. “So we’ll stay in. Avoid them. Read books, learn a duet, whatever you like, until the whisperings have run their course.”
A lovely thought. Perhaps we could wait them out.
It was only a game, after all. But what then?
My last public kiss had been the real scandal, but this time had proved that Society would never truly forget my past. I could smile and converse with them, but they’d always be watching, waiting for me to take another wrong turn.
They were vultures waiting for prey, and I would no longer entertain them.
“This past month has taught me so much about myself. I returned to London thinking this life—London Society—was what I wanted. But it isn’t. I do not enjoy it as I thought I would—the games, the dinner parties—it is all so exhausting.”
“I understand.” He nodded, swallowing. “I have several estates in the country. Do you remember, at the Waymonts’, we spoke of Tinlow Court? Let me take you there. In a few months, Parliament will have adjourned—”
“I want to go home, Lucas.”
“Then I will come with you.”
I took the ring box from the bedside table and handed it to him. I softened my voice, and the truth we’d both known all along. “You are the Duke of Marlow. You are bound to your duty. To the dukedom. This, and London Society, will always be your life.”
His jaw worked, gaze set upon the little box in his hand. “Last night you said you wanted more too. Is that not true?”
“Lucas—”
“Please, Georgiana.” His eyes reddened.
“Because I love you,” I whispered, “I will not stay. You need more than what I can give you.”
“You are wrong. I need exactly you.” He took my hand and placed the box in my palm.
“Give me time, and I will prove it to you. Stay, and let me court you properly. I will burn every gossip paper that comes within arm’s reach of this house.
I will snuff anyone who so much as blinks wrong at you.
Whatever you need, I will do. Only tell me.
Tell me what you need, Georgiana. I need you to stay. ”
“I do not doubt you,” I whispered, gently setting the ring box back on the bed. “But I know a truth you have still yet to learn. Remember what I told you in the passageway, and again in the stables?”
“I cannot control another person, nor their mind.”
I nodded. “You deserve someone who makes all this easier. Someone stronger than I can be.”
“It is time to go, Miss Wood,” Jane said from the door.
“Do not leave me.” His voice broke.
I shook my head. “Not you, Lucas. Never you.” I leaned in and kissed his cheek. “I must go. Please forgive me.”