Page 84 of Scandal’s Daughter

Beau just stared back at him. “I’d burnt my last boat,” he said with a twisted smile, adding only, “You should have killed me.” Before turning his head away.

With relief Sebastian saw that the doctor was none other than Alperton. At least they could rely on him to keep his mouth shut. Georgiana moved from Beau’s side to let the doctor get to him, and after a moment’s hesitation, ran into his arms, sobbing.

“Oh, Sebastian, whatever are we to do?”

He drew his arms around her, holding her tight.

“I don’t know, love. I ...” he began and then stopped, clutching her tightly. “God forgive me, but I wanted him dead. If he had taken you from me ...”

Georgiana clung to him, shaking her head.

“I’m here. I’ll never be anywhere else, but I don’t want him to die. Sebastian, he was desperate.” She looked up at him, her lovely face stained with tears. “The men he owes money to, they’ll kill him. That’s why he said he’d ...” She stopped and swallowed, clutching at his waistcoat. “He said he’d rather you killed him than ...”

He held her as she sobbed against his chest. Their attention was taken, though, by the men lifting Beau and taking him upstairs. Alperton turned and came to them, his face grave.

“Will he live?” Sebastian asked, feeling as though his voice came from a great distance away.

The doctor nodded. “For now, certainly. The wound of itself is not serious. It’s missed bone and organs, but it’s the infection that may follow that will be the devil of it. I swear to you I’ll do my best though, your grace.”

“Please,” Sebastian said. “Please do everything.”

Alperton grasped his arm and squeezed. “I’ll do everything I can to keep him alive and you out of another scandal.”

Sebastian nodded, too exhausted to explain it wasn’t only the scandal he feared. Beau had been like the brother he’d never had. He knew he could never forgive him for what he’d done in taking Georgiana, but the idea that he might be responsible for killing him pulled at his heart.

“Come.” Falmouth strode over to them and steered them into a room that proved to be a library. Somehow the earl had taken over and a fire had been lit and he forced a glass of brandy into each their hands.

“We need to get you both back to London,” he said as Lord Nibley entered the room, looking as ashen faced as Sebastian felt. “Nibley here will swear you were both in his company all evening if it comes to it. The doctor has also agreed that ... if the worst happens, Beau contracted an illness of some description and it aggravated a heart condition no one knew about. There will be no scandal. Do you hear?”

“Oh, God,” Sebastian said, rubbing his hand over his face. “I pray it doesn’t come to that.”

“Don’t we all,” Falmouth snapped. “You’ve plunged us all into the deuce of a tangle, Sindalton!”

It was too much. Sebastian threw his glass at the wall and lunged at the earl, shoving him hard against the wall.

“He abducted her, Falmouth. He was going to force her to marry him!” he yelled. “I wanted the bastard dead! What would you have done if it had been Céleste?”

To his credit the earl didn’t so much as flinch and waved away the men who came bursting through the door as Georgiana exclaimed in horror.

“I wouldn’t have missed,” the earl said with a grim smile, breaking the tension. Sebastian snorted and let out a breath before allowing his hands to fall from Falmouth’s neck.

The earl readjusted his cravat and sent his men out of the room again.

“I do understand,” he added, giving Sebastian another glass and a sympathetic look. “More than you might imagine.”

“That’s not all though,” Georgiana said, her voice little more than a whisper.

The three men turned around to look at her. Her arms were clutched around her shivering frame, the elegant white muslin dress stained red with Beau’s blood. She looked over at Sebastian, her pretty eyes so full of fear that he hated himself for having dragged her into this mess.

He crossed the floor and took her hands, steering her to sit down beside the fire.

“I-I told you I was in trouble,” she said, looking wretched as tears ran down her face.

“It wasn’t Beau threatening you?” he demanded, wondering what the hell else could stand between them. Hadn’t the fates had enough? Did every generation of their family have to suffer for their parent’s unhappy marriages?

She shook her head. “Beau would never have hurt me, Sebastian, you know that. B-but my uncle, he would. He did.”

“What?”