Chapter 4 #2
Grabbing Augusta by the arm, he pulled her into the drawing room and shut the door. When she faced him warily, he couldn’t stand it one minute more.
He walked up to her and kissed her hard, showing by his actions what he’d been unable to admit before. He put everything he felt into that kiss, even as she remained stiff in his arms.
Then she shoved him away. “Don’t,” she said, her eyes haunted. “Not if you only feel—”
“I don’t.” Catching her hands, he drew her back to him.
“You were wrong about Esther, you know. It wasn’t desire that attracted me to her.
Believe it or not, it was her flighty nature.
Father had just died, I’d just inherited the estate, and the weight of it all struck me hard.
I felt utterly unprepared for the responsibility. ”
Her face filled with understanding. Because she, too, had lost her parents young.
“I was lonely and panicked, and your happy-go-lucky sister was exactly the antidote for that. So I rather capriciously married her.” He swallowed hard. “But once I found my feet, once I grew into my duties, I realized I needed someone steadier. By then it was too late to do anything about it.”
He dragged in a heavy breath as he realized a truth he’d never dared admit to himself before.
“So when she died, I felt . . . enormous guilt over that disloyalty. Then I started having feelings for you, and I felt like I was trampling her memory somehow. I told myself that I merely desired you. That I could ignore desire, could control what I felt.”
Her hands had started to tremble in his, and he squeezed them hard. “I was wrong.” He flashed her a sad smile. “Don’t misunderstand me—I loved your sister in my own way. But it was nothing to the way I love you.”
Drawing her hands to his lips, he kissed each of them tenderly.
“I do love you, Augusta Hunt. I believe I have for a long time. That’s why I avoided answering your letters and going to Orton Hall.
I was terrified to admit how much I loved you, how much I needed you.
And I do, you know. I need you like fish need the sea, and birds need the sky.
Don’t make me face a life without you in it. ”
Though her eyes glistened with unshed tears, she didn’t throw herself into his arms just yet, instead dropping her gaze to their joined hands. “What about . . . the rules that matter so much to you? The scandal and all that?”
He tipped up her chin with one finger. “Trust me, if your idiot brother can engineer a scheme as elaborate as this one just to be with the woman he loves, I can weather any scandal and brave any gossip. As long as you’re willing to do it with me.”
At last, a smile broke over her face. “Yes, Mason, oh, yes. I can do anything to be with you.”
Never had he heard words so sweet. They made him want to leap, to run mad through the streets. He settled for kissing her again, reveling in the eagerness with which she met his desire.
Within moments, their kiss grew hotter and bolder and more intimate, and God only knew where it would have led if the door hadn’t swung open with a bang.
“Hey, that’s my sister you’re kissing!” Lionel cried. “You’d better mean to do right by her.”
As Augusta drew back with a blush, Mason sighed. Time to finish dealing with Lionel. “Or what?” Mason said. “You’re already up to your chin in hot water, lad. I wouldn’t start making threats if I were you.”
When Lionel blinked, Mason added softly, “But don’t worry. Your sister and I will be marrying.” It took everything he had to force a stern expression to his face when inside he was dancing for joy. “You, however, will not.”
A storm spread over Lionel’s face. “Now see here, you can’t stop—”
“Oh, yes, I can. If I have to, I’ll lock you up to prevent it.
For now.” When that got Lionel’s full attention, he went on.
“You will finish at Eton before you go near Miss Bowman again. In exchange, I will speak to her mother about your suit and make it clear that your intentions are honorable. If she allows it, you may start courting her daughter once you’ve graduated. ”
Lionel let out a relieved breath.
“But you will not be marrying her until you reach your majority and come into your inheritance, is that understood?” Mason snapped. “By then, you should be capable of supporting a wife.”
“That’s three years off!” Lionel cried. “If her mother won’t allow me to court her, she’ll forget who I am. She’ll find some other fellow.”
Augusta stepped forward. “If she does, then she didn’t love you enough to make you a good wife anyway.” She slid her hand shyly in Mason’s. “And you want a woman who will wait for you, who’ll walk through fire for you. Trust me in that.”
Mason smiled at her, his heart soaring. “You should listen to your sister. She’s a very wise woman.”
Augusta beamed at him, then released his hand to draw Lionel off. “And now, dear brother, we should talk about how you mean to repay my future husband for all the trouble and money you’ve cost him with this ridiculous stunt.”
As Mason watched the siblings spar, something dawned on him. Only an idiot would have let a woman as wonderful as Augusta slip out of his grasp.
So he’d narrowly missed being an April Fool after all. Thank God.