Lord Sebastian's Secret (The Duke's Sons #3)(89)

Scanning the rest of the dinner table, Georgina met Sebastian’s blue gaze. It was like coming to rest after some exhausting task, or bubbling with laughter at a shared jest. For a while, she lost herself in beatific visions of the future.

The meal wound down without any noticeable disruptions. At the marchioness’s signal, the ladies rose to retire. Joanna excused herself in the corridor outside the dining room and headed toward her own chamber. The rest of them started upstairs. But on the upper landing, Georgina’s mother was met by a servant, who bent to murmur to her. “I must check on Nuala,” she said in response. “Do go on without me. I shan’t be long.” She hurried off toward her workroom.

“Nuala?” asked the duchess.

“One of the dogs,” Georgina replied. She did not add that Nuala was on heat, or try to picture the scene her mother would face. She was just glad it wasn’t taking place in a public room.

“Ah, yes.”

They entered the drawing room. Hilda and Emma went to sort out some sheets of music for later. Violet and Ariel sat together by the fire. Georgina had started over to join them when the duchess said, “May I speak to you?”

“Of course.”

“Let us sit over here.”

The older woman drew her into a far corner of the large room, well out of the others’ earshot. A quiver of apprehension went through Georgina. She hadn’t done anything wrong. Had she? No, of course she hadn’t. She glanced sidelong at the duchess, always the epitome of cool elegance. She could find no clue about what was to come. The thing was: one didn’t expect her to simply chat.

“I don’t mean to be abrupt, but the wedding is tomorrow.”

Georgina nodded. They sat in facing armchairs, turned a little away from the other women.

“And I wanted to speak to you privately.”

The duchess seemed uneasy, which was ominous. “Of course.” What could this be about?

“I didn’t have much opportunity to talk with you after your engagement was announced,” the duchess said. “The season was nearly over. We were packing up to leave London. And I wasn’t sure…”

Georgina began to be really alarmed. Any matter that could unsettle the Duchess of Langford must be dire indeed. Did she not want the marriage to go forward? Did she have some criticisms of the Stane family after all? A fire of rebellion rose in Georgina. She’d fight even this formidable woman for Sebastian!

“I couldn’t make up my mind what was right,” the duchess said. She frowned at the carpet. Georgina watched her. You could see traces of Sebastian, of all the Gresham brothers, in her burnished hair and chiseled features. “I felt I must say something.” The duchess paused again, then seemed to make up her mind. “There are people who think Sebastian is dull-witted, but he isn’t.”

Relief flooded Georgina. If this was all. “I know,” she said.

Sebastian’s mother leaned forward, her blue gaze intense. “He lets his friends rally him about it. And his brothers. Playing the big, slow cavalryman. It’s…charming of him, I suppose. Although sometimes I could just shake him.”

“I know,” said Georgina. If Sebastian said he was stupid one more time, she might consider doing that herself.

“But in truth, he’s as quick as any of my sons. In his own way. You mustn’t be deceived by the…the act he puts on. I do wish, sometimes, that he would stop it.”

“I know,” said Georgina a third time. She leaned forward and put a hand on the duchess’s knee to get her full attention. “I know.”

“You…you do?”

The uncertainty and worry in the older woman’s expression were a kind of revelation. If the Duchess of Langford had such doubtful moments, then everyone must, now and then. It gave Georgina an odd sort of hope for the future. “He told me everything,” she said.

“And what is everything, exactly?”

“You don’t know?” Georgina blinked at her in surprise.

The duchess sighed and sat back in her chair. “I know that Sebastian is all too ready to accept harsh judgments of his intellect. Without putting up much argument. I have observed, all his life, that he is…less adept with words than Robert, say. Or any of the others, really. But it is not everything—to be glib.”

The last sounded like a cry from the heart, and Georgina agreed wholeheartedly.

“He finds the words eventually,” the duchess continued. “If he doesn’t give up trying. And I did not mean to criticize Robert, who is a marvel of wit.”

Georgina nodded, remembering times when Sebastian had seemed positively eloquent.

“I know that Sebastian hates reading,” the duchess continued. “I do not believe that he simply isn’t interested, as my husband thinks. Sebastian won’t speak about it. Or, no, he turns every attempt to mention the matter into a joke. In his bluff, I-am-only-a-simple-soldier role. I do get so weary of that pretense.” The older woman fell silent, gazing at Georgina.

Now, she hesitated. They’d agreed that Sebastian’s admission was their secret. She couldn’t reveal it, not even to his mother. She longed to reassure the duchess—which was an amazing position to be in, she marveled. But what could she actually say?

“I would never ask you to betray a confidence,” the duchess said, her tone full of reluctant understanding.