Chapter Twenty-One #3
At the dowager’s statement, she spun around in surprise. “He did?”
“He did. He told me that he’d lost an enormous bet that would have cleared his coffers and Crestfield of everything, even the servants and furniture.”
“I knew it. The man just doesn’t learn, does he?” Berry’s anger toward Philip had Georgina wanting to defend him, but she kept her lips pressed together.
The dowager shook her head. “Don’t be too hard on your brother.
Philip, like you, was hurting from your father’s passing, and he did blame himself.
I’m afraid he had to lose everything before he could appreciate what it meant to truly be Lord Durham.
” She looked at Georgina. “So he married you to save Walter’s legacy. ”
Relieved that Philip hadn’t explained her own situation, she tried to reason why he would tell his mother only his own folly. “Why did he tell you that? My dowry paid the debt and all was saved.”
“I believe he wanted me to know how grateful he was to you. He said he’s lost without you.”
Berry snorted, getting a frown from her mother. “That man has never admitted to needing anyone. Truly, Mother. I love my brother, but he’s far too arrogant to admit that he needs someone…or that he’s wrong.”
The dowager rose and walked to Georgina. “It took a lot for him to admit to me that he’d lost everything. I truly believe he needs you.”
“But does he love me?” She hadn’t meant to say it aloud, but couldn’t take it back.
“I cannot say. He always hides things from me, so much like his father.” The dowager shook her head. “Will you see my son? I believe only you will know the answer to that.”
Georgina cocked her head, disappointed that Philip couldn’t even tell his mother that he loved his wife. “I will think upon it.”
The dowager sighed. “I can see that Philip has hurt you deeply. If it helps to know, I believe it hurts him as well. He never was very good at being the one at fault. I’m saddened to see two of my favorite people so dispirited and contemplating being forever apart.
If you love each other, you can find a way.
Trust me, forever without one’s spouse is an eternity. ”
The dowager turned around and kissed Berry on the cheek before she glided out of the parlor.
Georgina watched as the former Lady Durham left, feeling as if she were disappointing the dowager. Maybe she was being too selfish.
“I think you should let my brother mull over his actions for a while.”
At Berry’s pronouncement, Georgina looked at her, surprised. “You do? For how long?”
“If I had my way, I’d make him wallow in his misery for the rest of the Season.”
Georgina was so shocked that it took a moment to recognize the twinkle in Berry’s eye. “You like making him suffer. Why is that?”
Berry laughed. “Because he made my childhood almost unbearable. He was such a little king. He was always letting me know that even though he was the youngest, if anything happened to Father, he would be in charge. Sometimes, he even tried to order me around. He followed Father around like a hound, even walking like him. He was so arrogant that a couple of times I had to put him in his place.”
Curious despite herself, Georgina returned to her chair. “How did you do that?”
Berry’s smile was far too sly. “One time, when I was ten and he barely seven, we were in the garden at Crestfield when he told me that he would have to be consulted on whom I would marry. It was another of a litany of items he’d been pronouncing to me throughout the day.
For this one, though, he decided he had to climb up on the rim of the fountain and declare it.
He started walking along the rim and I accidentally bumped into him.
He fell in. You should have heard him cry at getting his clothes wet.
Even then, he was all about appearances.
I fear that’s something my father instilled. ”
Georgina could picture the scene in her mind. “Did you get in trouble?”
“Of course not. Philip may have been groomed to be the lord one day, but I was clever, and even he acknowledged that it was an accident when I pointed out the uneven brick I ‘tripped’ on.” Berry grinned, obviously feeling no guilt at all.
“You and my friend Rose would get along very well.”
“Since she’s a Curious Lady, I’m sure we would.”
They sat in companionable silence for a while, Georgina imaging what Philip was like as a child and understanding why his family’s reputation had become such a focus of his existence after he had been about to lose it all.
“Georgie, there’s just one part of this I don’t understand. If my brother married you to punish himself, why is he so miserable without you? Is it just that he knows he did something wrong? Or could it be that he truly loves you? That’s what I can’t decide.”
At Berry’s words, her chest tightened. The answer to those questions would make her decision quite easy. But she would have to talk to Philip to get the answers. She was on the precipice of the age-old chicken or the egg quandary, and she had no idea what to do.