AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Don’t.” The word was out before Georgiana could think.
“But I remember—”
“Louie,no.” Georgiana met her sister’s deep blue eyes, mirror images of her own.
Louisa pressed her lips into a hard line for a moment. “I was only going to say that he was nice to me.”
Georgiana bowed her head. “He was,” she said softly.
“It makes an impression on a child, when an adult treats you with respect.”
She glanced up and found her sister looking at her with pity. “I know.”
“Will you ever tell me what happened between you?”
As Georgiana pondered the question, her father’s voice came to her, thick with unspent tears.
I’ve made a mess of things, Georgie. But there’s hope for us yet, all thanks to you. The viscount has offered to help.
Could she tell her sister the truth? How she had nearly given in to Captain Harris during the most impetuous, passionate moment of her life, even though it meant breaking a promise to her father and throwing her family’s future into disarray? And how she learned only the very next evening at Lady Wrenhew’s ball that their entire courtship had been a sham? She had meant nothing to him. He had only been after her money. Money that hadn’t actually existed.
“I don’t know, Louie,” she sighed.
There must have been something telling in her expression, because this time her sister offered no objection. Only a sympathetic gaze. “You wait here. I’ll get us some lemonade.”
Georgiana nodded absently. Once Louisa disappeared into the crowd, she moved to a nearby pillar and ducked behind a rather large fern. She leaned against the cool marble structure and closed her eyes, but it offered no respite. All she could think of was that awful moment eight years before when her illusions had been shattered and ground to dust under the heel of the captain’s polished leather boot.
She had gone looking for him at the ball to reveal her impending engagement to the viscount. It had been a last, desperate attempt on her part to gain the courage she needed to defy her family. To confirm for herself that their embrace the previous night had truly meant the same to him as to her. Then she had noticed him in the card room, standing with his back to the doorway with another gentleman she didn’t recognize. Before she could enter, he began to speak:
That was a close one, eh, Harris? The Fox girl is a pretty piece, but I hear she doesn’t have two pennies to rub together.
Yes, Henry had replied in a bored tone Georgiana had never heard before. It was snide. Ugly. And made of all the qualities she thought he was too decent to possess.I barely escaped without a scratch.
Might have been worth it to get a few from her though!
As she slowly backed into the hallway unnoticed, her eyes had burned with unshed tears and shame. She waited there in the dim light a moment longer, hoping for something else—a kind word, an explanation, an admission of regret—but instead she learned there were other ladies he planned to propose to. Georgiana had not warranted more than a sentence.
She returned to the ballroom on leaden feet, where her soon to be announced fiancé would be waiting for her impatiently. She hadn’t yet realized this was an ingrained personality trait. How incredibly stupid she had been, to think that her engagement would hurt the captain. That she could ever possess such power over him, even for a moment. But as powerless as she was, she had gotten her revenge in the end. Georgiana made sure the two other women he was pursuing knew he was only a callous fortune hunter. And he had left London shortly afterward. Alone.
“Hiding from someone?”
Georgiana opened her eyes and found the very same man invading her thoughts now peering down at her. She immediately straightened away from the pillar. Viscountesses did not slouch.
“Of course not.”
A corner of his mouth lifted. “It rather looked that way.” Then he leaned a little closer. “Don’t worry. I won’t tell anyone.”
Was he actuallyteasingher? Oh, but that was dangerously appealing. “I was only feeling a little tired,” she insisted. “So I was waiting here while Louisa fetched some lemonade.”
“Ah, well, then she appears to have gotten distracted en route.” He gestured with his chin.
Georgiana turned and spied Louisa in the middle of a small crowd, telling a story with her usual vigor while everyone laughed. Not a glass of lemonade was in sight.
“Oh,honestly,” she grumbled.
He then held out his arm. Georgiana eyed it as if he was offering her a steel trap and not a common body part. Reggie or Louie must have sent him over here. That was the only explanation. And a thoroughly depressing one at that.
Just as the moment began to turn awkward, she took it with a resigned sigh. “Lead the way, Captain. Or should I say ‘set sail’?”
