Lord Sebastian's Secret (The Duke's Sons #3)(6)

“Oh, all right.” The youngest Stane jumped up and moved toward the door. “We’ll be seeing you all the time anyway,” she said brightly as the two girls departed.

Sebastian stood in the middle of the room, gazing at the closed door. Too soon for what? What had they promised? And why should the idea fill him with foreboding? That made no sense, surely.

Alone in the front hall, Georgina silently berated herself. She should have had a better plan for Sebastian’s arrival. But there’d been no way of predicting when he would come, or where the servants would be at any given moment. Her parents were always sending them off on strange errands. Which they often prolonged. Staff members at Stane enjoyed such expeditions, or they didn’t stay on.

She wondered what Sebastian was thinking right now. She’d scarcely spoken to him. Had he thought her unwelcoming? She’d been terribly glad to see him—just so occupied with the way things were unfolding. Papa with his dagger… What had Sebastian made of that? She told herself she was being overly sensitive. Or was it cowardly? All families had their oddities. Hers might be a bit more eccentric than most, but she’d heard stories of worse. Wasn’t there some earl in Cornwall who kept a pig in the house?

An image of the Duke and Duchess of Langford rose in her mind. In the few times they’d met, she’d thought them perfect in every way. They were admired, even revered, leaders of society. Sebastian’s oldest brother, Nathaniel, was a pattern card of virtue. His younger brother Robert was elegant and witty and charming, a model for young aspirants to fashion. She didn’t know any of the others well, but she supposed they were equally worthy and decorous.

Georgina realized then that the Greshams had intimidated her. Somewhere deep down she’d formed the idea that Sebastian would expect a family like his own. And so she’d been afraid to try to prepare him for her unique, maddening, beloved Stanes. Yet this was where she came from; these were her people. If she and Sebastian were to marry, he had to accept them. And why had she thought if?

She turned toward the stairs. She had to see him, talk to him. He must be feeling… Well, she didn’t know what he was feeling. And she needed to. Desperately.





Two


When the knock came on his door a little while later, Sebastian answered warily. He was delighted to find Georgina in the corridor outside. She’d tied a straw bonnet over her golden hair and carried a shawl over her arm. “I thought you might like to see the gardens,” she said.

“Yes, absolutely.” At last he would be able to talk to her.

She led him around a corner and down a stair he hadn’t noticed. She didn’t speak as they traversed a stone corridor that several times went up a few steps and then down again in the stitched-together building. Her silence worried him, and he tried to think of the best way to break it.

Before he could, she opened a small door and stepped outside. Following, Sebastian saw that they’d emerged near the ancient tower at the far end of the place. A path led under an archway twined with roses and into just the sort of secluded shrubbery he’d hoped for. A few steps into this sheltered walk and the castle was invisible. Georgina stopped and turned to him. He scanned her face, partly shaded by the brim of her bonnet. Was she distressed? He couldn’t bear that. “All well?” he asked.

“I hope so.”

What was he to say to that? Unlike his brother Robert, Sebastian wasn’t fond of oblique conversations. In fact, he detested them. It was all too easy to misunderstand when people began hinting and saying one thing when they meant another. As far as he was concerned, double entendres simply meant twice the chance of confusion. But then, words had always been one of the least trustworthy elements in his life.

Georgina looked up and held his gaze. Her eyes, that clear gray-green, were bright with intelligence. He could fall into them, trusting that all would soon be explained. Sebastian forgot whatever he might have been about to say.

She came closer, put a hand on his arm. “Is all well with you?”

Her beautiful lips parted a little. Sebastian couldn’t resist. He bent his head. She didn’t draw back but leaned a bit closer. He closed the tiny distance between them and kissed her.

In the whispering refuge of the shrubbery, Georgina slipped her arms around his neck and moved into the kiss. Sebastian pulled her close, the feel of her body against him a tender flame. It was all he’d anticipated on the ride up to the castle—the freedom they’d never had in London. He savored the sweet taste of her and let his hands roam a little, exulting when he made her breath catch with a daring caress.

All too soon, she pulled back. Sebastian was disappointed, but resigned. They couldn’t continue like that for much longer without going beyond the line. He smiled down at her. They were both breathing more rapidly.

Georgina put her hands to her cheeks as if to press back the heat that bloomed there. “Oh,” she murmured.

Sebastian was rather proud of the dreamy softness in her eyes. A delicious future reeled out before him.

“I-I wanted to talk to you,” she said.

He was glad of it. He hadn’t liked her silence during his arrival and introductions.

“About my family,” she went on, her voice steadying. “We live so deep in the country here. There aren’t many neighbors close by. I’ve thought that the isolation encourages people to…delve rather deeply into their particular…interests.”