Lord Sebastian's Secret (The Duke's Sons #3)(5)

Georgina’s father held out a hand. Sebastian took it and found his fingers pressed in a firm grip. “Welcome to Stane Castle,” said his host.

“Thank you, sir.”

The marquess gestured. “This is the family. Except Edgar. He’s off on a walking tour of Hadrian’s Wall with some university friends. Met everyone, have you?”

“Yes, sir,” said Sebastian.

“Good, good.” The older man frowned. “He still has his hat and gloves. What sort of hospitality is this? Where’s Fergus?”

“You sent him and Dennis out to measure the Dyke at Knill,” said Hilda.

Sebastian puzzled silently over this sentence. He thought perhaps there were dykes in Holland, but that didn’t seem to apply.

“Ah, yes.” The marquess nodded. “Well, where’s Mrs. Trent, then? We must get our guest settled in properly.”

“I sent her to Leominster to see about more meat,” his wife replied. “For the dogs,” she added when the others looked at her. She frowned as if this should be obvious.

It was a bit like gazing into the face of the largest pug, Sebastian realized. Without thinking, he glanced down to compare. Yes, his hostess looked rather like her dogs. He glanced quickly away. Not a thing to mention, obviously. Or be seen to notice.

“We’ll take him to his room,” Hilda piped up. “We know which one it is. Come on.” She came over and tugged at Sebastian’s sleeve.

He waited for objections to this unorthodox proposal. Why was Georgina so silent and distant? Had she seen him compare her mother and the dogs? Did she think him rude?

No one spoke, so he followed the two girls up the stairs into a paneled corridor. They led him to a bedchamber at the back of the modern wing of the castle. His portmanteau sat on an old-fashioned four-poster bed inside. The comfortable room also boasted a wardrobe, a dressing table, and two armchairs drawn up before the hearth. Hangings and a carpet of deep blue lent a bit of color.

Georgina’s sisters came right in with him. Emma lingered by the door, but Hilda plumped down in one of the chairs. “You’re going to marry Georgina soon, aren’t you?” she said.

“Er, early September,” replied Sebastian.

“That’s weeks away!” the girl exclaimed.

He couldn’t help but agree. He’d seen no reason to wait so long. At least, he hadn’t before he arrived here. No, he still didn’t. He was just a bit startled by the unusual family. He’d met Georgina in such a conventional household. He supposed he’d expected more of the same.

“Where will you live when you’re married?” Hilda asked.

It occurred to Sebastian that she sounded like someone deciding whether to buy a horse. But that was ridiculous. What was wrong with him? “I have to be in town a good deal for my duties,” he said. “We’ll take a house there.”

“London,” sighed Emma. “I daresay Georgina will go to all sorts of parties and balls and…everything.”

“As many as she likes,” Sebastian assured her.

“And there are dressmakers and shops and…people,” said Hilda. “All sorts of people.”

“Do you like history?” asked Emma. She fixed him with a fierce stare.

“Me? No.” In Sebastian’s experience, history involved thick tomes and incomprehensible lists and other things that regularly defeated him.

“Good!”

In the silence that followed this emphatic approval, he eyed his two young companions. Both were golden-haired like Georgina, with the same pale skin and willowy frames, though that slenderness was still gawky on Hilda and just beginning to show a hint of Georgina’s allure in Emma. Their faces bore the promise of similar piquant beauty, with large, expressive gray-green eyes and chiseled lips.

All three Stane daughters resembled their father in frame and coloring, but Sebastian could see something of their mother in the sharpness of their glances. The younger ones seemed as intelligent as his intended. He didn’t know why that should seem unsettling. He admired Georgina’s quickness very much. He wondered where she was right now, and why she hadn’t given him just a hint of what was to come before this visit.

Her sisters stayed on, silently gazing at him as if he was a zoo animal. How could he politely be rid of them? “Shouldn’t you go?” he asked finally. “It isn’t really proper for you to be in my bedchamber?” It came out as a question, because Sebastian realized that he had no certain notion what this household might consider proper.

“You’re our brother,” replied Hilda. “Practically.”

“Yes, but, ah, you need to give me time to unpack and…so on.”

“You hardly have any luggage,” observed Emma.

“My valet is on the road with the rest of it.”

“Your valet,” echoed Hilda, seeming to savor the word. “Is he very high-nosed and particular? Will he despise us dreadfully?” She appeared to hope so, for some reason.

“What?” Sebastian was feeling perfectly bewildered. It seemed to him that nothing had made sense since he set foot in this place.

“We’ll go,” said Emma.

“But…”

“Come on, Hilda. It’s too soon. You know Georgina said so. And we promised.”