The Decadent Duke (47 page)

“How clumsy of me. Forgive me, Georgy.”

She smiled sweetly. “Accidents happen. Please excuse me, gentlemen.”

Upstairs, she rang for Jenny. “I've had an accident. Perhaps if you soak it in some cold water, the stain won't set.” Her maid helped her from the gown, and she kicked off her slippers and hurried into her dressing room. Georgina knew exactly which dress she would change into.

When the vision in the pale green empire gown with the low décolletage appeared, the men gave her a round of applause.

“Thank you, gentlemen. This dress is John's favorite.” She smiled her secret smile. “I believe dinner is served.”

By midnight, the last guest had departed. The dinner had accomplished its mission. William Pitt had accepted Charles James Fox's invitation to join the Whig Opposition Party. The two men made a pact to become increasingly critical of the government's policies when parliament opened two days hence.

“That was a shameless display of wanton behavior. You flaunted yourself like a bold young hussy. I forbade you to wear the first gown, so you deliberately donned the green one that revealed your body even more blatantly.”

She shrugged her shoulder. “I contemplated coming down naked.”

“Stop it! You love nothing better than playing the spoiled, precocious hoyden. Your family encouraged you, but I will not. I demand your obedience, Georgina.”

“Obedience?” She planted her hands on her hips. “Perhaps your angelic Elizabeth obeyed your demands. Georgina Gordon will not.”

“We will not discuss my first wife.” His tone was dangerously forbidding.

Her fury flared. “One more word and I will take down her portrait from over the fireplace and smash it to smithereens!”

Georgina's temper was high, and it gave her satisfaction to see she had provoked his anger. She had always wondered what it would take to goad him into unleashing the controlled fury that lurked beneath his polished surface.

He saw the flash of her green eyes. “Stop behaving like a wild little hellcat.”

She drew her lips back from her teeth. “Make me!”

He grabbed her by her shapely shoulders and shook her fiercely.

“Bloody brute! You've wanted to give me a thrashing since the first day we met. Is this how you kept your first wife in line?”

Her words provoked the guilt he had buried beneath the surface. John's hands dropped to his sides as he tried to leash his rage.

“I refuse to play second fiddle to any woman—dead or alive!”

She turned on her heel and ran through the adjoining door into her own bedchamber. She pulled off her diamonds and stuffed them into their black velvet boxes; then she gathered them up and returned to the master bedchamber.

Georgina dropped them onto the bed. “Keep your bloody Bedford diamonds.” She slapped his arrogant face. “I'd rather have a child than all the jewels in Christendom. But I'm not good enough for your precious seed!” She stormed from the room, slammed the door, and locked it.

John stood motionless for a full minute, stunned by her tirade. Then he strode to the adjoining door and rattled the knob. “Open this door.
Now!
” The savage tone of his voice warned of violence if she dared to disobey.

Georgina chose to ignore the warning. “Go away! I cannot abide imperious, domineering men who think they have God-given dominion over their wives.”

John's inner demons took control. The frame splintered as he kicked in the heavy door and left it hanging by one hinge. He stalked across the room and towered above her. “Never lock a door against me again. You may choose to sleep alone—I would never force myself on an unwilling female, but there will be no locks between us,
now or ever.
”

Georgina raised a defiant chin, but she knew she had pushed him to the limit of his control. She felt a measure of relief when he strode from the room, but her heart ached with rejection. She undressed slowly, hung up the exquisite green creation and wondered how something this lovely could cause such unhappiness.
I always knew John was a dominant, controlling devil, but I thought my love would change him.

She climbed into bed and glanced toward the master bedchamber. The ominous silence made her shudder.
Am I willing to do battle with him every time I want

my own way?
She hesitated, on the brink of tears. Then Georgina dashed away her tears, swallowed the lump in her throat, and thumped her pillow.
Yes, and yes again. I have the temperament for it!

When Georgina opened her curtains, she saw a falling leaf and knew autumn had arrived. She murmured the words of an old Celtic spell, “September blow soft, till the fruit's in the loft.”

She glanced toward the master bedchamber with its adjoining door hanging in shards. She heard no movement in the other room, and knowing John was an early riser, knew he would already be downstairs working.
I'll never enter that room again until my husband apologizes to me. He may not love me, but by all that's holy, he will treat me with respect or this marriage is over.

She went upstairs to Johnny's bedchamber. The door stood open, and she quietly watched him as he struggled to close his trunk. His shoulders slumped with hopeless resignation, and she sensed an aura of infinite sadness about him.

Her smoldering anger suddenly rekindled and blazed anew. She withdrew as silently as she could, then rushed headlong down the two flights of stairs and marched into the library, ready to do battle.

“And while we're at it, you might as well know that he isn't going back!”

John sat immobile behind his desk. Georgina spoke as if they were still in the midst of a battle royal, and most likely they were.
“Who
isn't going back
where
?”

“Johnny isn't going back to that wretched Westminster boarding school. He already knows more than those idiotic professors whose claim to fame is turning titled young men into utter snobs.”

“Which school do you suggest, pray?''

“No school. I want him to remain at Woburn with me. I can't bear to see him so unhappy. You can hire tutors for him. He needs love more than he needs lessons in Latin.”

“Don't we all,” John said with irony.

“Like it or not, I'm going upstairs to tell him to unpack.”

John didn't try to stop her. This summer he had watched Johnny come out of his shell as Georgina had lavished her love on him. He knew how lonely his youngest son was at school and had toyed with the idea of keeping him at Woburn. Now that he knew his wife was amenable to such an unconventional arrangement, John felt immense relief.

He walked down to the stables and told the coachman that the plans had changed. He would not be driving to London today. John saddled his horse, intending to ride out to make sure all the hay fields had been harvested. It would give him time to think about the accusations Georgina had thrown at him last night. He admitted that their angry row had been as much his fault as hers.
Jealousy makes me too possessive of her. I'm jealous of her love for Francis and fearful that she might find other men attractive. The thing I don't understand is why she thinks I have tender feelings toward Elizabeth. I can't bear to say the woman's name. I think the time has come for me to confess that my first marriage was a living nightmare.

 
“Johnny, you are not going back to Westminster. Let me help you unpack your trunk.”

He stared at her, not quite believing. “Are you sure I don't have to go back to school? What about Father?”

John may not love me, but he most certainly loves Johnny. I'm certain he will do what is in his son's best
interests.
“I suggested he get you tutors. He didn't refuse.”

Johnny threw his arms around her. “Georgy, you're the best mother in the world!”

She glanced at his breakfast tray and saw that he hadn't eaten a thing. “Why don't we go downstairs and have something to eat? Then we'll take the dogs for a run. The leaves are starting to fall—we won't have many more glorious days like this one.”

He smiled from ear to ear. “It
is
a glorious day!” He stroked his cat's ears. “Come on, old girl.”

On the way to the breakfast room, they were joined by one of the greyhounds. The Abbess hissed at him, and his tail went between his legs. Georgina and Johnny laughed because she was able to hold her own against the tall hound.

After the pair had eaten, they called the dogs and set off on a long ramble across Woburn's parkland. “Maybe I will sit in with you on some of your lessons, Johnny. My spelling is atrocious.”

“Perhaps we can read some books together. I think I'd like to try Jonathan Swift's
Gulliver's Travels
.”

They walked for about two miles, whistled for the dogs, and started back. The greyhounds ran ahead of them all the way to Woburn. In the front garden the dogs spotted the Abbess sharpening her claws on the trunk of an ancient oak, and together they made a mad dash for her. Outnumbered, the tabby cat ran up to the top of the tree to escape.

“Damn you, dogs! We take you for a walk, and this is the thanks we get.” Johnny was upset that they had chased his pet.

“I'll put the dogs in the house. You try to coax her down.”

When Georgina returned, her heart went into her mouth. Johnny was halfway up the tree. “Come down! Your father would have a fit if he saw you.”

“But she's afraid to climb down. She tried, but lost her nerve. She made the mistake of climbing too high.”

“Please come down, Johnny. I know you're brave enough to climb to the top, but if you get hurt, I will be blamed.”

“But I can't leave her up here. It's the worst feeling in the world to be afraid.”

“Yes, I know. Only those who've experienced fear know what it feels like. If you come down, I'll go up and get her.”

“Do you know how to climb a tree, Georgy?”

“I climb like a monkey. Just watch me.”

Reluctantly, Johnny came down. When his feet were safely on the ground, Georgina called the cat and tried to coax it down. When it refused, she hiked up her skirts and began a slow ascent. She left the main trunk and climbed out on a limb, just below where the cat sat huddled. She reached up and lifted the Abbess into her arms.

Suddenly, there was a loud crack. Terrified by the noise, the cat sprang from her arms and headed down on its own. The large branch on which Georgina was standing split from the tree, and she felt herself falling. She tried to grab another branch, but it was too brittle to hold her. She dropped like a stone. Her head hit the ground with a sickening thud, and she lay limp and unmoving.

Johnny was horrified. “Georgy! Georgy!” He fell to his knees and touched her face, but her eyes were closed. “Wake up! Please, wake up.”

Johnny saw his father riding toward the stables. He got up from his knees and started to run. “Father! Father! Come quick!” Tears streamed down his face. “I think Georgy's dead!”

John vaulted from the saddle and ran toward his son. vWhere is she?”

“She fell from the big oak!” He was breathless from running.

John saw her crumpled form lying on the ground, and his heart jumped into his throat. He went down on one knee and bent over her. “Georgina ... Georgy ... can you hear me?” She lay unresponsive and fear knotted his gut.

He lifted her shoulders, ran his palm over the back of her head, and felt a huge duck egg. He was slightly relieved that there was no blood, but worried that she had hit her head hard enough to render her unconscious.

John gently lifted his wife and carried her to the house, dimly aware that Johnny was babbling something about his cat. “Is she alive? Father, is she alive?”

“Yes, Johnny. She's breathing, but she's lost consciousness. Open the front door for me.”

John carried his limp burden through the reception room to the sitting room, and laid her gently on a couch. Georgina's maid, Jenny, and an alarmed Mr. Burke followed them into the room.

“What happened?” the steward asked.

“She fell from the big oak.” John began to feel her limbs for broken bones. His dark face was grim.

“It's my fault.” Johnny was as white as a sheet. “She was trying to rescue my cat from the tree,” he told Mr. Burke.

“I can't find any broken bones,” John told Burke, “but she could have internal injuries. She fell fifteen or twenty feet.” He cupped her cheek and tapped it gently. “Wake up, sweetheart.”

John removed her walking boots and rubbed her feet. Her lack of response made fear spiral inside him. “We'd better have the doctor. Would you ask the head groom to fetch him, Mr. Burke?”

Johnny went on his knees beside the couch. “Please wake up, Georgy. Tell us where it hurts.”

John could clearly see his son's face was stricken with guilt. “Jenny, take him to the kitchen and get him a drink. He's just underfoot here. And bring me a bowl of water and a towel, please.”

When John got the warm water, he bathed Georgina's face in hope of reviving her, but she remained limp. “Jenny, go and see if Cook has any smelling salts.”

The maid came back with a small bottle, which he unstoppered and held under his wife's nose. When Georgina did not react, he found it difficult to control his alarm. Though he was calm on the outside, on the inside he was filled with panic. He slipped his arm beneath her shoulders and lifted her so he could cradle her in his arms. She felt so small and so fragile that it tore at his heart.

“My love, my little love, open your eyes,Vhe begged softly.