A Gentleman Never Tells(6)
Two
Never mind your happiness; do your duty.
—Will Durant
Gabrielle’s heart jumped to her throat. Panic threatened to overwhelm her.
She watched in horror as her father and her fiancé’s father yelled at their footmen to catch the retreating viscount. Heavens above, she didn’t blame him for running away. If she were him, she’d be trying to get away too!
He thought she had deliberately tried to leg shackle him, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.
She only wanted to kiss him.
Gabrielle knew her father and Lord Austerhill occasionally enjoyed a smoke, a talk, and a long early morning walk in the park. But she had been too consumed with her own troubles to even consider that they might be in Hyde Park this chilly morn.
Heavens above, what had she done? But, of course, she knew the answer to that.
With a brief squeeze of her eyes, she tried to blot out the image of seeing her fiancé and her sister wrapped together in a passionate embrace in a dimly lit corridor where the Autumn Ball was being held. She feared that scene would be forever etched in her mind. How had she missed their love for each other? She had always considered herself so discerning, so intuitive, but obviously not when dealing with matters of the heart.
With what she witnessed, a different young lady might have thrown herself out a window or across her bed and cried like a fool, but Gabrielle had never been a fool… other than being foolish enough not to notice her fiancé and sister were in love. This, in turn, had made Gabrielle wish for a window. Instead, she had grabbed her cape and her faithful dog Brutus and had gone to the park and thrown herself at a gentleman!
What in heaven’s name had she done?
Watching the servants chasing after Lord Brentwood, she had to wonder if the window might have done less damage.
She didn’t know what madness had come over her, but when she’d seen the tall, handsome man standing in the swirling mist, for a moment she couldn’t breathe. He was beautiful, regal, nearly otherworldly, which could be the only reason she had forgotten all about this world and approached him. When his gaze had drifted down her face, she’d felt a quickening of something wonderful skimming along her breasts and then sailing inexplicably to the lowest recesses of her abdomen. Just remembering how she had felt when he looked at her brought the elusive sensations tingling back into her body, feelings she’d never experienced when her fiancé had looked at her.
In the distance, the sound of a body being slammed to the ground, followed by a loud grunt, cut off everything but her own distressed gasp. With a wince, she turned to see her father’s footman sprawled on top of the viscount, and Lord Austerhill’s servant pressing the innocent man’s face into the ground. Queasiness filled her stomach, and Gabrielle thought she might be sick. She swallowed past a thick throat and steeled herself for the backlash she knew wasn’t far away.
Brutus sensed her distress and nudged against her hip with his body, growling low in his throat. Out of habit, she reached down, and with a pat on his big head, assured the dog she was fine. He reached up and sniffed her hand.
“What in the name of Hades are you doing out here with that man?” her father demanded. Grabbing her upper arm, he turned her around to face him. Brutus growled again, but her father paid the dog no mind.
Feeling as if her breath was trapped in her chest, and unable to move, Gabrielle stood in mortified silence, staring at the two enraged men glaring at her. The raw fury in their faces spoke of dire consequences and suddenly rendered her speechless.
“Gabrielle!” her father said more sharply, squeezing her arm.
Her father had always been a short-tempered man, but he had never touched her—in kindness or in anger. She hated disappointing him, but there was no changing what had happened. She calmly took hold of her father’s wrist and removed his clenched hand from her arm before Brutus decided to attack. That would prove a bigger disaster than she was facing right now.
“It’s clear we’ll get nothing out of her,” Lord Austerhill spat, not bothering to hide the contempt he felt for her. “As I suspected, she is too filled with guilt to speak.”
“No, Lord Austerhill,” Gabrielle said, struggling to pull herself together. “I am not afraid to speak. There is simply nothing I have to say about my presence in the park.”
Her father shook with uncontrolled rage. “You better have something to say, young lady, and you can start by telling me what you are doing out here alone with that man.”