A Daring Liaison(66)

“Did she ever speak of me?”

Georgiana considered how to answer the question without hurting his lordship’s pride. “She never mentioned names, Lord Carlington, but occasionally, when she was melancholy, she would speak wistfully of a young man for whom she had a deep love.”

“Ah.” He sighed. “Was she often melancholy?”

More often than Georgiana wanted to admit. She would not strip her mother of her pride, even in death. “Only on occasion. She kept herself quite busy, you know.”

“Did she? What sort of thing occupied her time?”

“Me.” She laughed. “I fear I was not always biddable.”

“And I fear that is a continuing problem,” Charles said, putting his spoon aside. “Georgiana has a very strong will.”

“Ah. A strong will serves a girl well. Had Caroline a stronger will...”

She would have liked to hear the end of that sentence, but Charles broke the awkward pause. “’Twas all I could do to persuade her to marry me on the morrow.”

Lord Carlington looked surprised. “You are to wed? So soon?”

Georgiana felt the now familiar heat of a blush rising to her cheeks as Charles answered for them both. “Not as suddenly as one might think, Carlington. Georgiana and I have been long acquainted. Sadly, I had not been able to catch her between husbands till now.”

Lord Carlington guffawed. “Well done, Hunter! Keep after your quarry until she is yours, eh?”

“If you want something badly enough, it is the only path.”

The next course was served and conversation flowed easily. Lord Carlington seemed interested in the details of Lady Caroline’s daily life, and in her illnesses, as well. Sooner than Georgiana expected, a strawberry ice was served and dinner was over.

Lord Carlington held her chair for her and they retired to the library.

“I hope you do not mind joining us for brandy, my dear,” he said. “I should have invited some ladies to keep you company.”

“I do not mind in the least,” she said, taking his arm.

The library, a cavernous room with floor to ceiling bookshelves and fireplaces at both ends, was softly lit and inviting. She could not help thinking that Caroline would have enjoyed being mistress of such a house.

Then the thought struck her. Could Lord Carlington be her father? Had he and Caroline...

Lord Carlington led them to a grouping of chairs near one of the fires and indicated where they should sit before going to a side table to pour brandies for himself and Charles. “Would you like tea or wine, my dear?” he asked her.

Still puzzling the sudden notion that this man might be her father, she needed something stronger than tea. “Wine, if you please, Lord Carlington.”

He brought her a glass, then sank into his chair with a contented sigh. “I suppose, by now, that you have guessed that I was a little in love with Lady Caroline.”

She glanced at Charles and noted his grin. “I wondered at your uncommon interest.”

“I wrote her many times after her accident, you know. She ceased to return my letters after a while, begging me to get on with my life, and without her.” He drank deeply and stretched his legs out toward the fire.

“I am sorry, Lord Carlington,” Georgiana said.

“No. She was right, of course. Had she not pushed me away, I’d still be waiting for her.”

She and Charles exchanged a glance and she surmised they were thinking the same thing—that Lord Carlington had not gotten on with his life. He had never married. And, in his own way, he was still waiting for her.

“Was she...was she badly scarred, my dear?”

“I loved her. To me, she was beautiful. But to the outside world, she would have been...hideous. Only her eyes were unaffected. They were beautiful eyes, I recall.”

“The most beautiful ever I saw,” he agreed. “I wish she had not hidden from me.”

“She hid from everyone, my lord. She wore a veil even around the servants. I think her Abigail and I were the only ones who saw her without it.”

“Did she ever speak of me?”

“She spoke of her years growing up, her days at school, and then of her life after the accident, but she did not speak of the short time between. That is why I was so very surprised when I found this with her final instructions.” She pulled the little packet from the reticule dangling at her wrist and leaned forward to present it to the earl.