Lord Sebastian's Secret (The Duke's Sons #3)(19)

Sebastian nodded to show that he was paying attention. He did wonder what kind of battle you could fight with roses.

“Nothing could stop young Geoffrey from crossing to visit his lady, however,” said the marquess. “Not the wrath of her father or the threat of attack. And then one night as he was riding for home, a thick fog descended upon him.”

“That’s bad,” commented Sebastian. Maneuvers in the fog were a bear.

His host nodded. “He would have been wise to stop and wait for it to clear,” he went on. “But he was stubborn and eager to reach Stane again before he was missed. So he pushed on and soon wandered off the track. By the time he knew it, though, evening was coming.”

“Dark and fog,” Sebastian said. “Shouldn’t have tried it.”

Georgina’s father nodded. “No one knows what happened to him,” he added. “Geoffrey of Stane was never seen again. They searched, of course, but found no sign of him or his mount. Travelers do sometimes report the sound of hooves echoing on the trails, when there’s a fog, with never any trace of a rider.”

Emma shivered. Hilda looked around as if she’d very much like to see the specter of Geoffrey come clopping from behind one of the hills.

“His younger brother inherited,” said Georgina in a prosaic tone. “I imagine he was a better landlord than Geoffrey would have been.”

“Because Geoffrey risked everything for love, and lost?” Sebastian asked. As soon as he said it, he wished he hadn’t, because there was an odd pause, as if everyone was listening for her answer.

“Because he didn’t have the common sense to wait out a fog,” she answered. Pulling on the reins, she turned her horse and rode off along the Dyke.

The group followed, ambling along the course of the earthwork for quite a time. It all seemed much the same, with no obvious features of interest beyond its mere existence. As the sun passed the zenith and began to descend, they turned back. Fergus distributed some dry sandwiches from his saddlebags, and they ate as they rode.

The two older men fell into conversation about the estate. Emma and Hilda began a racing game. And at last, Sebastian found a chance to ride beside Georgina. He seized it, but received only monosyllabic responses to his remarks about the day and the sights. “Is all well?” he asked.

“Yes,” replied Georgina, although in truth she was struggling with the feelings roused by their embraces.

“The other day…” Sebastian began.

She waited. She was wild to hear what he had to say, but she wasn’t going to finish the sentence for him.

“In the parlor,” he added.

As if there was any other day he might mean, in the circumstances. Georgina had never minded before that Sebastian was a man of few words. It had been a pleasant contrast to London’s incessant chatterers. Now, however, she wished he would get on with it.

“I don’t know if an apology…?”

Georgina found that this wasn’t at all what she wanted to hear. “Are you sorry?”

Sebastian offered her his charming smile. “Well, if you’re angry, I’m sorry. Are you?”

She wasn’t angry. Would a proper young lady be angry? Did he think she should be? “It’s not sort of thing I do. You mustn’t think that I have ever before acted so… In such a way.”

“Of course.”

Of course he knew that? Or of course he knew he mustn’t think so? “If we weren’t engaged, I would never have allowed such…liberties.” There was a fine word, she thought. As if they had a choice to be free, instead of hemmed in by rules and expectations.

“Naturally,” replied Sebastian. “I understand. I went too far.”

“Good, then.” He didn’t look happy with this exchange. She certainly wasn’t. But she had no idea how to tell him that she’d adored what they did, and wanted to do it again as soon as possible. Providing he understood that she wouldn’t consider such wantonness with anyone but him. With him, she would consider… Well, she didn’t even know, exactly. She was open to suggestion. Instruction. Seduction? One didn’t say such things out loud.

“You know…” he began.

But she didn’t get to hear what he thought she knew. With a thunder of hooves, Emma and Hilda came galloping up. They raced in a circle around them, rousing strong objections from Sebastian’s mount and a snort from Georgina’s. “Hilda!” said Georgina as her sisters slowed to join them. It was always Hilda who instigated the uproar.

“We saw a stag,” replied the youngest Stane. “But Emma wouldn’t ride after it.”

“It would have left us behind in a minute,” said Emma. “And I do not care to jump a hedged ditch.”

“How many points?” asked Sebastian. He’d gone deer stalking at a friend’s house in Scotland. It was good sport.

Emma shrugged, clearly uninterested in the beast. “What sort of riding habits do the fashionable ladies wear in Hyde Park?” She indicated her own buff costume with a contemptuous gesture. “They must be much smarter than this.”

Sebastian certainly noticed a fine figure of a girl in close-fitting riding dress. The cut of a habit could be more revealing than a ball gown. Indeed, he’d been admiring Georgina’s enticing outline in hers. But as to the habits themselves, he had nothing to say. They were different colors. Some had bits of decoration. His brother Robert would probably have a host of opinions on this subject. Sebastian had none. “I’ve seen epaulettes on some of them,” he remembered. “And frogging.” They’d seemed to be trying for the look of a military uniform, which was odd, now that he thought about it.