Lord Sebastian's Secret (The Duke's Sons #3)(40)

“That I had eloped.”

Hilda nodded. She did look contrite.

“And they all simply believed you.” This was the part of the rigmarole that bothered Georgina the most, that her family should trust the word of Hilda—a known scamp—over her own history and reputation.

“They didn’t at first,” admitted her sister. “I had to say you’d left a note. And that I’d burned it because of the scandal.”

“You…you what?” Georgina could only gape at her.

“Later, I set fire to a sheet of notepaper in my bedroom fireplace and then showed Mama the ashes.” She seemed proud of her ingenuity.

“Ashes. Mama.”

“Actually, Mama was the one person who kept on doubting,” Hilda added. “Papa was much easier.” Under Georgina’s accusing gaze, she grew petulant. “Well, it seemed like something you might do.”

“Elope?” Did her sister actually think her so lost to all sense of propriety?

“Go off and abandon us,” Hilda replied. “Like you did for the season in London. Without caring a whit whether we went mad from boredom.”

“Even you cannot think that makes any sense.”

Her sister wilted under Georgina’s glare. “It was a good story,” she muttered, almost too softly to hear. “Like something out of a novel.”

“It didn’t occur to you to worry about us?” Georgina asked.

She received a blank look in return.

“When we couldn’t be found?” she continued. “When there was no sign of us near the waterfall?”

“Well, I…” Clearly, Hilda hadn’t reckoned with this aspect of the matter.

“I had a serious accident. I hurt my leg quite badly. Sebastian was injured trying to climb out of that ravine. We could even have been killed.”

At long last, Hilda looked guilty. “I didn’t think of that,” she said in a small voice.

“You were too concerned about covering up what you’d done.”

“I suppose so.” Hilda hung her head.

“And you also didn’t consider the fact that you would make me very angry.”

Hilda’s head came up like a hound catching an unfamiliar scent.

“So angry that I wouldn’t wish to have you in my household.” It was harsh, but Georgina felt she had to make Hilda understand the enormity of what she’d done. “If you care so little for me, why should I want you near me?”

Her sister looked stricken. “You wouldn’t… I do care for you. Of course I do. You are my sister.”

“Yet you didn’t think of me at all as you plotted this. Only of yourself.” Her sister started to speak, but Georgina forestalled her with a quick gesture. “You know the servants will have been gossiping. Some garbled tale will get out to our neighbors, and then on from there. Perhaps even to London next season. I will have to endure all sorts of whispers. And how am I to face Sebastian’s brother when he arrives?” Not to mention recover the good opinions of his family, Georgina thought with real trepidation.

“But it’s settled we are to go with you!” Hilda exclaimed.

“This is your only response to what I have said?”

“I’m counting on you!”

“I know you are,” replied Georgina gravely. “But why should I wish to help you after this?” The flare of apprehension in her younger sister’s eyes made her feel like a beast. Extreme measures seemed required to get Hilda to listen, however.

“I’m sorry!” her sister cried. “I’ll make it up to you, I promise. I’ll talk to Lord Randolph. He won’t blame you.”

“There’s no need for that.” Afraid she’d gone too far, and not wanting to imagine such a conversation, Georgina added, “Please just be more patient and…conventional.”

“I’m not very good at being patient,” said Hilda.

As if that had not been noisily evident since her sister was two years old, Georgina thought.

“Or conventional, I think.”

“Hilda just…don’t do anything.”

“But I’m sure I could explain to Randolph why I had to…”

“No!”

Hilda pouted. Her inclination to hatch plots seemed to have overcome her remorse in record time. Georgina left her sister sitting chin in hand, pondering. She had the uneasy sensation that she hadn’t improved the situation, only expanded its scope.

What was she going to do after she was married? Georgina wondered as she walked along the corridor toward her room. Because she had no doubt that Hilda would simply show up on her doorstep if no other arrangements were made. She would run away from Stane to get there, thinking herself up to whatever obstacles she might encounter. Anything could happen to her.

Georgina sighed. It wasn’t that she objected to inviting her sisters to stay in her new household. It was just that she’d rather wait a while—six months or so, say. She wanted time for her new life to settle a bit, to anchor herself solidly as Sebastian’s wife.

A thrill ran through her at the silent phrase. With it came vivid memories of their intimacies on the bed of bracken Sebastian had made for her. She was so eager to be Sebastian’s wife, so happy in her choice.