Lord Sebastian's Secret (The Duke's Sons #3)(87)

“What?”

“To be with someone who knew everything about me and still loved me.” He turned his head to kiss her shoulder.

“Everything about you is wonderful,” she replied.

“No, it isn’t. I’m not like you, perfect in every way.”

Georgina got up on one elbow to gaze down at him. “I’m not, you know, Sebastian.”

“As far as I’m concerned, you are.”

“You’re setting me up to disappoint you. And I’ll hate that.”

“After the last two days?” Sebastian was incredulous. Did she still not understand what she’d done for him? “You never could, if we lived together a hundred years.”

With a tremulous smile, she snuggled up against him, her head on his shoulder. Sebastian tightened his arm around her. This was happiness, he realized. It filled him like a fine champagne, fizzing in his veins, making him pleasantly dizzy, though not the least fuzzed. Somehow, against the odds, he’d found his way to it. He only had to make certain he never let it get away.





Twenty


The Gresham family arrived at Stane Castle in a cavalcade late the following afternoon. From their various locations, they had met in Cheltenham and traveled the rest of the way into Herefordshire together.

Sebastian and Randolph stood in the drive to greet them. They’d had some warning from a servant who spotted the line of carriage and riders from the outer gateway. “The whole troop,” said Randolph. He’d been restless since Miss Byngham’s ritual.

The leading traveling carriage pulled up before them, with another just behind. Alan, Nathaniel, and Robert, riding beside the vehicles, dismounted. Three other carriages, laden with luggage and attendants, were directed to a side entrance by one of the grooms.

The door of the first carriage opened. The Duke of Langford emerged, then turned to offer a hand to his duchess. She took it with a smile and stepped lightly to the ground. As his father surveyed the castle with his customary urbane assurance, Sebastian wondered yet again whether he’d ever achieve such confidence. He’d often despaired. But suddenly, now, he almost thought he might, someday, with Georgina at his side.

Their mother embraced them one by one. “How are you, my dears?” she said.

“Very well, Mama,” replied Sebastian. “Never been better!”

The buoyancy of his tone earned him an interested smile.

“Great heavens, what’s happened to Violet?” said Randolph.

Sebastian turned to find that his brothers’ wives had stepped down from the second carriage. And while Alan’s mate Ariel was charmingly familiar—a small, curvy figure with silky brown hair and skin like ripe peaches—Nathaniel’s new viscountess bore almost no resemblance to the dowdy young woman Sebastian had last seen at their wedding a few months ago. She was sleek and fashionable and…he groped for a word. Regal? The last time they’d spoken, he and his brothers had just left her future husband stranded naked with a wolf skin, Sebastian remembered. Abruptly, he wondered what tricks his brothers might be planning to play on him.

“She has come into her own,” answered the duchess, “and brought Nathaniel along with her.”

It was one of Mama’s typical remarks. Sebastian had no idea what she meant. “Where’s James?” he asked as three brothers and two wives joined them in front of the castle entry.

“Sailed away to the ends of the earth,” replied Robert.

“He sent his apologies and best wishes,” added Nathaniel.

“The navy gave him a new command?”

Robert shook his head. “No, he’s quit the navy. He married a beauty from a tropical island, with piles of treasure and her own ship. They’ve gone off to be rovers.”

“Rovers?” said Randolph. “You sound like a boy’s adventure tale.”

“Don’t I, though?” replied Robert cordially. “It was the young lady who tried to shoot him.”

“That was an accident,” said Ariel. “Mostly.”

The newcomers all seemed to understand this. He and Randolph had apparently missed a good deal. Sebastian looked forward to catching up. And it was very pleasant to be amid a jostling of brothers once again. But he was conscious of the Stanes waiting inside the great hall.

“Sebastian will be wanting to present his new family,” said Violet, as if reading his mind.

“Will he?” murmured Randolph, giving Sebastian a sidelong glance.

Sebastian hoped no one else had heard him. And knew that hope forlorn. His mother, in particular, had ears like a bat. “Yes, come inside,” he said heartily, turning to open the door.

The yapping began as the duchess crossed the threshold.

“Good God, you weren’t joking about the dogs,” murmured Nathaniel in Sebastian’s ear. “Where’s the Hindu gentleman? I hope he hasn’t gone.”

“You’ll meet him at dinner,” replied Sebastian out of the side of his mouth.

Georgina came forward, and Sebastian thought he might burst with pride as she greeted his family and then presented her own with graceful ease. Wanting it all to go well, Sebastian tried to catch every word in the babble of talk that arose then.

“Welcome to Stane, Duchess,” said Georgina’s mother. “Drustan, stop that at once!”