Rogue Grooms (15 page)

“It is absolutely true, I assure you! I wanted so much for them to like me, but I feared they could not, as our lives are so dissimilar.”

“Well, I could certainly have reassured you on
that
point. Mother is very like you; she was always very independent, and quite indifferent to the high sticklers. And Emily looks as if she will turn out exactly the same.”

“Yes. They are so very
nice
, all that is welcoming! I am very relieved.”

“Excellent!” Alex lifted her hand to his lips, his breath warm and sweet through the thin kid of her glove. “Perhaps we should rejoin them?”

Georgina smiled. “Before your mother recalls her duties as chaperone, and sends Emily out here to fetch us?”

“I doubt Mother would care if we stayed out here for hours!” Alex laughed.

“Truly?” Georgina leaned just a bit closer to him, her hand still in his. “Then, perhaps we should.”

“Georgina.” He stared down at her, his eyes shining and silvery. Then his arms came about her, warm and safe and sheltering. “Blast it all, Georgie, but I cannot be a gentleman one second longer!”

His lips came down to meet hers. Georgina’s eyes widened in surprise, then fluttered closed at the delicious warmth that flooded through her like fine brandy. She looped her arms around his neck, burying her fingers in his soft curls as his mouth slanted on hers.

Oh, it had been so long! So very, very long since she had felt this way. So full of love and longing and hope. Not since Jack. Maybe not even then.

And never had she felt so cherished, so safe, as she did now, with Alex Kenton’s arms about her.

 

“Oh, my dears, there you are!” Dorothy called as Alex and Georgina appeared again in the drawing room. “I feared I would have to send a search party after you.”

Georgina laughed nervously. She and Alex had carefully straightened their attire and smoothed their hair, but Georgina feared she might still appear scandalously disheveled. Or perhaps her guilt and delight shone in her eyes?

She peeked up at Alex, and he winked at her.

Georgina laughed. She squeezed his arm gently one more time, then went to take a seat before the fire, where Dorothy was still bent over her sewing. “Oh, no, Lady Wayland! Your son was just showing me your lovely garden.”

“Lovely? Pah!” answered Dorothy. “It is quite an overgrown tangle. But once it was very nice.” She looked over at Georgina slyly. “My husband and I were especially fond of the old summerhouse.”

Georgina could feel herself becoming uncomfortably warm—and it had naught to do with the fire. “Oh! Yes. It is very—pretty.”

“I knew you would think so.” Dorothy set aside her sewing. “Emily and I were just saying we should have a party for you while you are here.”

“Oh, yes!” agreed Emily. “It would be such fun.”

“A party?” Alex asked doubtfully as he sat down next to his sister. “I am not certain that would be a good idea.”

“Oh, nothing at all grand,” Dorothy said quickly. “No great ball or anything of that sort. A great many of our neighbors are in Town, of course, but there are many left who would enjoy some cards, perhaps a little music, an informal supper. I am sure they would delight in meeting the famous Mrs. Beaumont!”

“Oh, yes, Alex, please!” Emily laid her hand on her brother’s arm beseechingly. “We have not had anyone here to dine in such a very long time, excepting the vicar and his wife. And we would not want to bore Georgina to death while she is here. She might never come back!”

Alex’s doubtful frown turned to a smile then. “Heaven forfend anyone should be bored at Fair Oak!”

“You could scarce bore me at all, Emily,” protested Georgina. “And I vow it would take a very great deal of tedium to bore me to death.”

“You
should
meet the neighbors, Georgina,” said Emily. “Should she not, Alex?”

“Oh, very well,” he agreed, much to Emily’s bouncing delight. “But no balls!”

“No!” said Dorothy. “Just supper and cards, as I said. We must invite Reverend and Mrs. Upton, of course. And Lord and Lady Anders are still at Thistle Hill, with their daughters. And dear Mr. Arnum ...”

 

“Oh, Georgina, I cannot thank you enough!”

Georgina looked over at Emily, who had lit Georgina’s way to her bedroom door. “Thank me? Whatever for?”

“For giving us an excuse for a party, of course. It will not be what you are used to, I fear, but it will be people in the house for you to talk to.”

“Nonsense! I am sure it will be vastly agreeable. You must only let me know if I can be of any help in the arrangements.”

“Oh, no! You are here to enjoy yourself. Mother and I will see to everything. But perhaps...” Emily hesitated.

“Yes?”

“Perhaps—you would loan me a gown? Everyone here has seen my old evening frocks, and Mrs. Jones in the village could never create anything as lovely as your gowns.”

Georgina laughed. “Oh, Emily! I would be more than happy to loan you any gown you choose.”

“Truly?”

“Truly.”

Emily threw her arms about Georgina impulsively, and kissed her cheek. “I
am
glad you have come to Fair Oak, Georgina! Good night.”

“Good night, Emily.”

As Georgina sat down at her dressing table to remove her earrings and hairpins, she couldn’t help but smile at her own reflection in the mirror.

“Yes,” she told herself. “I am quite glad I have come to Fair Oak, too.”

Georgina leaned over her sketchbook, tears of helpless laughter streaming from her eyes as she watched Emily cavorting around the morning room with Lady Kate. The two of them raced from one end of the room to the other, Emily holding Lady Kate’s chew ball high above her head while the terrier barked wildly. Finally, Lady Kate gained the advantage, leaping up on Emily’s skirts and knocking her back onto a chair.

Lady Kate seized the ball, and pranced about victoriously.

“Oh, you naughty dog!” Emily gasped. “Give me back that ball this instant.”

Lady Kate replied by laying down, dropping the ball between her forepaws and grinning up at Emily.

Dorothy was giggling into her handkerchief. “Emily Kenton! Here Georgina will think I have raised a hoyden.”

“Certainly not,” said Georgina. “Lady Kate is impossible to refuse when she wishes to play.”

“Indeed she is,” answered Emily. “But I am quite done in now, Lady Kate. You must find another playmate. Perhaps you should have gone off to the farm with Alex.”

“She would have enjoyed that,” Georgina said. “However, she would have made herself impossibly dirty, and been completely unfit for polite society.”

“Never! Lady Kate, you will never be unfit for
my
society,” Emily protested.

Lady Kate barked joyously, and jumped up into Emily’s lap.

“Good girl, Lady Kate!” Georgina praised. “Now, if you will just stay there as you are, I can finish my sketch.”

“Oh, yes! Of course.” Emily straightened her skirt, and tugged Lady Kate into the proper pose. “Is this right, Georgina?”

“Perfect.” Georgina took up her charcoal again.

“You know, I really ought to have gone to the fields with Alex, to tell him what everything is. I have been watching over them these three years,” Emily mused. “But this is ever so much more fun!”

“I should hope so!” Dorothy cried. “I never liked you mucking about the farm, even if there was no one else for it. And you should be helping with the guest list for our supper.” She waved about the sheaf of lists she had been bent over on her lap desk.

“Oh, Mother, you are doing an excellent job all on your own,” said Emily. “I do think, though...”

“Sh!” said Georgina. “I am trying to capture just the right curve of your cheek, Emily. No talking at present, if you please.”

“Of course,” replied Emily, then snapped her jaw shut.

Lady Kate barked.

“You must be quiet, too, Lady Kate,” admonished Georgina.

Lady Kate lowered her muzzle to her paws with a sigh.

Georgina resumed her work, humming a happy little tune as she traced the pretty lines of Emily’s face. She had been quite absurdly happy ever since she had woken that morning, and had floated through her toilette and breakfast. She had soared when Alex kissed her hand before he rode out, and she still felt rather light and silly as the morning moved toward luncheon.

And all because a man had kissed her in the moonlight!

But not just any man—Alex. Alex had kissed her!

She had not felt so very giddy over a mere kiss since Jack Reid had slipped her behind the chicken house at Miss Thompson’s School, and placed his lips on hers so quickly and furtively.

She had been almost eighteen then. She was thirty now, almost thirty-one. Surely it was quite absurd for a woman of her years to be so giddy over a mere kiss!

Yet it had not been just any kiss. It had been wonderfully thrilling, and sweet, and dear. Surely she deserved this happiness, this moment of soaring delight? Surely she had earned it with all her years of loneliness.

Yes. Of course she had!

“Of course,” she murmured aloud.

“Did you say something, Georgina?” Dorothy asked.

Georgina looked up from her sketch, startled. “What? Oh, no. I just have the tendency to talk to myself when I am working. It is of no matter.”

“Ah. Well, I think I have finished our guest list at last!” Dorothy straightened her papers with an air of great satisfaction. “I do so want everything to be perfect. This will be our first supper here in a long time.”

“Of course it will be perfect, Mother,” said Emily, shifting a bit in her chair. “How can it help but be?”

 

Later that afternoon, when Dorothy and Lady Kate had gone off to take an après-luncheon nap, Georgina and Emily sat out on the sunlit terrace to play a game of Beggar My Neighbor.

As Emily turned over a queen, and Georgina handed over two of her own cards, Emily said, “It must be great fun to be in Town at this time of year.”

Georgina shrugged. “I suppose it is, yes. There are certainly a great many balls and routs, and it is very good for my business! But I will tell you truly, Emily, the balls are generally so very crowded one can scarce breathe, let alone move or talk.”

“Is there nothing fun about it?”

“To be sure! Gunter’s has delicious ices, and there is always someone dressed absurdly at the opera to lend amusement. But I really only go there to see my dear friends, the Hollingsworths.”

“Lady Elizabeth Hollingsworth? Who is an artist, too?”

“Yes. We met at school, and have been good friends ever since.”

“We often read of her and her husband in the papers. I should so much like to meet her.”

“And so you shall! I am sure the two of you would like each other very much.”

Emily handed over three cards when Georgina turned over a king, and said slowly, “I suppose you prefer Italy to England.”

“In many ways I do. It is warmer there, for one,” Georgina laughed.

“Then, you would not care to marry an Englishman?”

Georgina looked up from her cards, surprised. She had not at all seen where this conversation was leading. Was Emily afraid Georgina would not marry Alex? Or was she afraid that Georgina
would
? “I think that I would perhaps feel differently if I had family in England.”

Emily nodded, apparently satisfied. “I am sure you have many suitors in London.”

“A few,” Georgina answered carefully. “Though I would scarce call them
suitors
. Admirers, perhaps. None that I would take seriously.”

“How lovely it must be to have so many admirers,” Emily said wistfully as she sorted through the cards she had won.

“But you must have every young swain of the neighborhood at your feet. Such a lovely girl as yourself,” answered Georgina. “I wager you could have your choice.”

Emily shook her head. “We don’t often have the chance to go to an assembly or a supper. And when we do, there is a distinct lack of eligible beaux!” She laughed. “There is always Arthur Hoenig, of course. His father would be more than happy to be allied with the Kentons, but unfortunately, poor Arthur has smelly breath and spots!”

Georgina laughed in turn. “Oh, Emily! I know you must have better prospects than that. Is there no young man you find to your liking? No one handsome and charming?”

“Well ...” Emily hesitated. “Once there was—someone. But that was long ago. I was just a child.”

“Really? Will you tell me about it?”

Emily nodded. “When I was just twelve, our neighbor, the Earl of Darlinghurst, returned from India, where he had been for many years.”

“And you admired this earl?”

Emily’s eyes widened. “The earl? Lud, no! He was fifty if he was a day, and sunburned to a crisp. It was his son. David.”

“Ah. I see. You had a
tendre
for this David?”

“Not a
tendre;
I was just a child, of course. He was practically grown up, and scarce noticed me, except to pull my braid and tease me a bit. But he was so very handsome, quite the most handsome man I had ever seen. He had a voice like—like nothing I had ever heard. So rich and sweet, like a cup of chocolate.”

“What happened?”

“It was a great scandal. You see, the earl had married an Indian woman. The daughter of a maharaja, so they said. She had died soon after their son was born. So David was half-Indian.”

“No!” Georgina gasped, fascinated.

“Yes. I fear it was not quite comfortable for them in the neighborhood. He was an earl, so people felt they
had
to receive them, of course. But they were not exactly friendly to them, especially David. My parents stood as their only true friends. I believe that is why they returned to India, after little more than a year here.”