Page 75

T he rumbling of a carriage rolling up the driveway caused Sebastian to look up from the ledger he was perusing. He squinted through the open window, unable to credit what he was seeing.

But there was no mistaking the Shawcross family crest blazing from the stately carriage door. Nor the impish smile of his sister, Elin, who rose up just as soon as the gray horses came to a halt, not waiting for the footman before she jumped down to the ground, skirts flying around her.

Elin had never been one to wait patiently for others.

Sebastian abandoned his accounts and strode out to meet her, pushing his shirt sleeves above his elbows as the late afternoon heat settled around him.

His boots crunched on the gravel, and he squinted in the sunlight, unable to properly make out the slender young woman still seated in the carriage.

She accepted the helping hand of the footman and stepped down gracefully, an altogether different descent from that of his sister.

Sebastian’s heart stilled in his chest as the young woman soothed her skirts and thanked the footman. There was no mistaking that familiar profile, the curve of her cheeks, and the brightness of her blue eyes.

Elin had brought Lady Rose Foxton to Ember Hall.

But he had no time to react to this realization, for his younger sister was charging across the courtyard towards him, flinging her arms about his neck and pressing a kiss to his stubbled cheek.

“It is so good to see you, Seb.”

His swung her around in a circle, just as he had when she was a child of ten and he a tall youth of sixteen.

“What brings you here, Elin?” he asked as he released her.

“Now that is a tale I shall tell as soon as we have partaken of refreshment. I am half parched.” She clutched at her throat dramatically.

“And your friend?” he asked softly, his eyes drawn to Lady Rose, who still stood deferentially by the carriage with her hands folded and eyes cast down.

He tightened his lips. For years now, lovely Lady Rose had seemed anxious in his presence. And that anxiety would likely have increased given the recent rumors circulating about him.

So be it. He had long consigned his hopes to history anyway.

Once upon a time, he had considered courting his sister’s closest friend.

In his most fanciful moments, he had even dared hope an understanding might already exist between them: a connection of sorts, forged through long nights chatting by the fireside at Alnwick Castle.

But then, one Christmas, he had taken Rose as his partner for an impromptu dance in the drawing room and sensed her growing tense and stiff in his arms. Ever since that night, a chilly distance had sprung up between them.

He could not blame her. For he was judged as a bad-tempered rake, whilst she was an uncommon beauty.

A rose of the most pure and beautiful variety.

She must have divined his interest in her and was doing all she could to dispel it.

Well, he would honor her wishes. But for now, she was his guest, and he must do his duties as host.

He strode across the courtyard to greet her, offering a low bow and receiving a graceful curtsy in response.

“Lady Rose,” he said evenly. “What an unexpected surprise.”

She ducked so he could not see her eyes beneath the rim of her bonnet. “For me also, my lord. Your sister only recently made me aware of our intended destination.”

Of course. A respectable woman would not desire to be seen in his company.

Much less to be a guest at his house. Bewildered, he turned back to Elin, who was feigning an interest in the pink roses climbing over the arched front door.

The footman had pulled two small cases from the back of the carriage.

Cases which indicated an overnight stay for two young ladies with no chaperone in sight.

What were they doing here?

“Shall we go inside?” He offered her his arm and they proceeded slowly towards the house.

Elin took his other arm, meaning they made ungainly progress through the rather narrow entrance hall.

He sighed with relief as they emerged into the drawing room, and he could move away from the enticing press of Lady Rose’s hips against his.

“What a lovely room,” Elin exclaimed, circling slowly in the center, taking in the oak beams, the cushioned window seats, and the intricately carved wooden paneling.

“So peaceful. And such a beautiful view.” She walked over to the window seat, pulling off her bonnet and flinging it onto the cushion.

“I could gaze out at those fields all day.”

“There is little else to gaze at,” Sebastian replied, ignoring his own desire to gaze at Lady Rose.

“I shall ring for refreshments but take heed that we are not at Alnwick castle, nor Chatton House,” he named their family’s London residence.

“There is no army of staff here, waiting on your every need.”

“You mean you fend for yourself?” Elin folded her arms and arched an eyebrow. “I am most entertained by the notion of my dear brother cooking his own luncheon.”

“There is a cook of course. And one maid. But that is all,” he growled.

“What about Knowles?” Elin challenged.

“And Knowles,” he allowed. “And a man to help with the grounds and the stables.” Who may not be best pleased to see his duties almost doubled by the addition of another two horses, he realized. “I came here to escape society, not entertain it.”

He cleared his throat. “You have a great deal of explaining to do, Elin.”

“All in good time.” She smiled implacably. “Rose, come and sit down, please. You look as if you might stumble to the floor at any moment. I’m sure my brother will do the decent thing and ring for tea. He cannot have forgotten all the rules of polite society in just six months.”

“I have not forgotten the rules. It is only that I have not recently been obliged to live by them.” Nonetheless he walked over to the mantlepiece and pulled on the bell rope, all the while doing his best to ignore Rose as she lowered herself onto the very edge of the chaise lounge.

Her blue eyes skittered nervously from left to right, no doubt judging the unfashionable furnishings and finding them wanting.

Sebastian hadn’t previously minded the lack of elaborate trappings, quite enjoying the simplicity of Ember Hall’s wooden furniture and plain drapes. But now he saw it all through different eyes, eyes that were accustomed to the elegance of the very grandest London houses.

“I have enjoyed my solitude,” he added snappishly.

“And you shall enjoy it all the more for the interruption we provide.” Elin spoke with the calm assurance of the wealthy, well-brought-up young woman she was, making Sebastian feel gauche and ill-mannered in comparison.

He walked over to the opposite window and looked out at the trees until his irritation calmed.

Rose finally spoke up. “I can understand why you have enjoyed your time here. I have not seen much of the area. But what I have observed of the countryside is most pleasing.”

He spun around before she could look away. “Really?” A swell of unanticipated happiness rose in his breast as her gaze met with his.

She nodded, the slightest of smiles playing around her lips. “It is such a change from the bustle and clamor of town.”

He cleared his throat. “Exactly so.”

Joan, the maid, chose that moment to carry in a silver tray of tea and sandwiches, and Elin made a great show of cramming as many into her mouth as possible, abandoning her veneer of gentility in her haste.

Sebastian watched Rose pour the tea, finding her graceful movements soothing.

When she held a cup out towards him, their fingers briefly touched, and a frisson ran all the way up his arm.

Blast it. This would never do.

His solitude from society had, by necessity, inflicted a sentence of chastity upon him, leaving him as overeager as a green youth in the presence of a beautiful woman.

Sebastian took his tea and settled himself on a window seat, as far from the chaise lounge as he could decently situate himself without causing offense.

The sun burned his back through the window, doing nothing to improve his mood.

He sipped the hot beverage and settled his gaze upon his sister until she finally replaced her cup and saucer, folded her hands in her lap, and cleared her throat.

“You wish to know why we have arrived unannounced?”

His mouth twitched. “That would be a good place to start.”

Elin turned her face fully towards him, her eyes beseeching. “We need your help.”

Oh, he was familiar with that look. His only sister had used it on him countless times over the years.

He gave her a sarcastic smile. “You must be desperate indeed to travel so far north and seek assistance from a social pariah such as I.”

“We are.” Elin nodded solemnly, making no move to contradict him.

Sebastian turned his attention to Rose. “What do you have to say, Lady Rose? I can scarcely imagine what scheme my sister has embroiled you in.”

Rose’s cheeks turned pink and her hand, still holding her cup and saucer, began to tremble. “I’m afraid I am the one at fault, my lord. I am the reason we are here.”

Sebastian instinctively got to his feet, but before he could take a step, Elin had leaned over and taken the cup from Rose.

“Would you like to tell him, or shall I?” she asked, abruptly but not unkindly.

Rose took a breath. “Elin has been most helpful. Without her aid, I would be facing a most untenable match.”

Sebastian slowly sat back down. He had expected to hear some jape of his sister’s making and it took him a few seconds to make sense of Rose’s words. As silence stretched between them, Rose took another ragged breath.

“But it was a mistake to involve others in my misfortune. Forgive me. I shall make my own arrangements from here.”

“Rose, don’t be ridiculous.” Elin shot her a reproving glance. “What are you going to do, pray? Walk to Scotland?”

Sebastian’s eyebrows rose beneath his hair, but Elin swept on.

“It’s all a terrible mess, brother. Rose is one of this season’s most desirable debutantes, but her stepfather is insisting she marry that boorish Earl of Folton. I swear he’s seventy if he’s a day. It’s all to write off a gambling debt. And I think she deserves better than that. Don’t you?”

“Undoubtedly,” Sebastian managed. He recalled the Earl of Folton was a short man with a red face and a waddling gait. The thought of his beady black eyes roving over lovely Rose was enough to make Sebastian’s toes clench.

“We have run away,” Elin declared dramatically. “Much like yourself.”

Sebastian placed his own cup and saucer on a side table, careful to keep his emotions in check. “What would you have me do?”

“Ah.” Elin smiled and sat back in the chaise lounge, crossing her legs and making herself comfortable. “That is more like it.”

His sister then chose to take great interest in her tea, abandoning Rose and Sebastian to awkwardly avoid one another’s gazes.

“I intend to find work as a governess,” Rose spoke up, her voice quiet but strong. “I believe my family name and excellent education will hold me in good stead. Upon my next birthday, I will inherit a small settlement from my late father. This will enable me to live quite comfortably.”

Elin sat up violently, sloshing tea into her saucer in the process. “Not quite comfortably ,” she corrected her friend. “It will enable to you eke out an existence.”

Rose swallowed but did not back down. “Better to exist on my own terms than to be miserable in a marriage.” Her eyes widened at Elin. “I thought we agreed on that point?”

“I don’t disagree.” Elin waved her cup expansively. “I just think we should be realistic.”

Sebastian drummed his fingers on the cushioned seat. As much as Rose’s tale affected him, he still could not fathom what role he was expected to play in this. Nor how his involvement could cause anything but further harm to a young woman he much admired. He cocked an eyebrow at Elin.

“Must I drag it out of you?” he asked, mildly.

Elin smiled. “Is it not obvious?”

“Not to me.”

“Nor me,” Rose chimed in, confirming his suspicion that his sister had concocted whatever harebrained scheme she was about to regale them with all on her own.

Elin clasped and unclasped her hands. “Rose has an excellent dowry and an equally excellent reputation. However far she runs, she will always be at risk of her stepfather’s avarice.”

The prospect pained Sebastian, but he could only nod and wait for Elin to get to the point.

“Unless of course, her reputation was to become sullied.” Elin looked at him expectantly.

Rose gasped and covered her mouth with her hand. Silence stretched across the room once again, broken only by the ticking of the clock on the mantle.

“You cannot mean what I think you mean,” Sebastian managed not to splutter.

Elin frowned. “I mean that Rose only needs to be seen with you, in public. Given your recent fall from grace, her reputation will be irreparably damaged.”

Sebastian breathed shallowly as his racing pulse came back under control. “I see.”

Rose looked up at him, her blue eyes filled with anguish. “I would not seek to involve you in any scheme which compromises your good name.”

“His good name is already ruined.” Elin sat back dismissively. “But it doesn’t matter. Sebastian is a wealthy duke. He has no need of a good name.”

“That is true.” He could not deny it.

“And he has no wish to marry, in any case.” His sister was relentless. “He has cited this so often that we have all begun to believe it.”

Sebastian tightened his lips. “Again, you are correct.” But he still wished she would not adopt such a patronizing tone, especially in front of Rose.

“Will you not help my oldest friend?” Elin implored.

Sebastian stroked his chin. “There is a flaw in your plan. Ember Hall is a place of solitude. No one is likely to see you, however long you might stay.”

“Which is precisely why we should spend tomorrow in Hawkesmere.” She glanced at Rose to explain. “It is a fashionable spa town no more than an hour’s drive from here. There, you are bound to be seen.” She grinned at them both, clearly delighted with herself.

Rose sat as still as a mouse, her eyes fixed firmly down.

“It is but one day out of your life, Sebastian,” Elin cajoled.

“Sister, you are insufferable.” He sighed. “But I can see a strange kind of logic in your plan.”

She squealed in delight. “So, you agree?”

“Not without the say so of Lady Rose.”

Rose slowly lifted her eyes to his, the vulnerability in her gaze causing his heart to squeeze in his chest.

“I say thank you, my lord.”

Elin clapped her hands together. “Then it is settled.” She raised her teacup in a triumphant toast. “What fun we are going to have.”