Page 46 of Gabriela and His Grace (The Luna Sisters #3)
The room was silent except for the steady tick of the clock on Ana María’s escritoire. Unable to help herself, Gabby narrowed her eyes at the countess, who stared back at her almost gleefully. The anger fled her body, however, when Sebastian’s knuckles ran up and down her arm.
Several gazes darted to the movement of his hand, before swinging up to move between her and Sebastian. Gabby did her best to keep her mien impassive, even as she revived under his touch.
Sebastian cleared his throat. “Whether Miss Luna and I were embracing is no one’s business, my lady. What an affianced couple does is not for public consumption.”
Gabby wasn’t sure how she contained her gasp.
All she knew was that the roaring in her ears drowned out the exclamations of surprise and the enthusiastic congratulations.
It felt to Gabby as if she were separated from the excited activity occurring around her by a veil…
that is until Sebastian gently set his hand on top of hers.
The warmth of his palm jerked her to awareness, and she looked up to meet his earnest gaze.
Thankfully Sebastian answered the flurry of inquiries about their courtship and engagement. Gabby could only sit with a half smile on her face, pretending for all in attendance that she was the glowing future Duchess of Whitfield.
But Gabby wasn’t glowing inside. Instead, a muddled mess of anger, impotence, and triumph coalesced like a ball of fire in her chest. Sebastian had announced to all in attendance that they would marry, but he hadn’t once asked her if she wanted to marry him.
She almost choked on a laugh when Gabby realized no one had bothered to ask whom her chaperone had been for the voyage back to London, and shouldn’t that relieve her? Yet she was irked, for apparently it did not matter; marrying a duke erased all her supposed sins.
At that moment, she met Ana María’s gaze, worry lines fanning from the corners of her eldest sister’s eyes. But ever a proper hostess, Ana María held her silence and turned to accept the congratulations of another well-meaning guest.
“When will the wedding be?” Mrs.Anderson asked, her bright smile encompassing Gabby and Sebastian.
“We have not discussed the details yet, but the banns will be printed soon enough,” Sebastian replied, his fingers squeezing Gabby’s.
“I’m excited to begin planning,” Lady Yardley interjected, clapping her hands together. “It’s going to be a beautiful affair, and Gabby will be a beautiful bride.”
A startled giggle slipped past her lips. Her, a bride?
Sebastian’s grip tightened.
“And not only will you be a bride, you’ll be a duchess.” Lady Natalie’s mouth curved into an approximation of a smile. “Congratulations.”
Gabby thought she murmured her thanks, but she couldn’t be certain.
The next twenty or so minutes passed in a blur, but somehow her sister and Lady Yardley were successful in ushering their visitors out the door, and Gabby found herself facing the women, who wore matching expressions of worry.
Vaguely she realized that Gideon had left his study and now stood just inside the threshold of the drawing room, his arms crossed over his chest and his mouth a slash of displeasure as he faced Sebastian.
“So the ton believes you’ll marry.” Ana María wrung her hands together. “But what do you want, querida?”
“What does she want? Darling, Gabby doesn’t have much of a choice.” Lady Yardley scoffed. “She was seen kissing the duke. If she doesn’t marry him, she’ll be ruined.”
“Whitfield, I asked you to keep an eye on Gabby,” Gideon proclaimed, his inflection just short of a growl, “not put your hands on her.”
Gabby wasn’t sure she’d ever seen Gideon so angry, and her affection for her new brother grew. Still, she couldn’t allow Sebastian to take the brunt of the blame for their current predicament, when she was just as much at fault. Exhaling a deep breath, Gabby stepped forward.
“I kissed the duke just as much as he kissed me. So please do not—” She paused, turning to meet Sebastian’s gaze. “Do not paint him as some sort of villain when I was a willing participant.”
Ana María closed her eyes and sighed, while the viscountess signaled a footman for a drink. Sebastian grasped her hand, his thumb sweeping back and forth over her knuckles.
“So what do we do?” Ana María finally asked, looking to Gideon, then Lady Yardley, before landing on Gabby and Sebastian.
“I think,” Sebastian spoke into the building silence, “that it would be kind of you all to give Miss Luna and me a moment to speak privately.”
“I daresay you’ve already had plenty of private moments,” Gideon grumbled, his eyes narrowed on the duke.
A bark of laughter burst from Gabby’s lips, and she crossed to her brother-in-law, wrapping her arms around his waist. After a surprised pause, Gideon returned her embrace.
“I can’t express how much I appreciate your defense of me, but I promise I’m fine.” Gabby dropped her voice to a whisper. “Le tengo carino.”
The fight fled Gideon in a long exhale, and a small smile lit his face. “Bueno.”
Stepping back, Gabby pivoted to her sister and the viscountess. “The duke and I need to speak, and then we can discuss what our next steps should be.”
Her sister reluctantly nodded as she looped her arm through Gideon’s. “Estella should be up from her nap anyway, so we’ll return shortly. Come along, my lady.”
Lady Yardley’s scowl encompassed Ana María, Gideon, and the duke, but the older woman saved the full weight of it for Gabby. After a moment, she waved a dismissive hand. “Very well. The baby is better company than you lot anyway.”
Gabby watched them depart, nibbling on the inside of her cheek. Tensing her shoulders, she slowly swiveled about. Sebastian stood several paces away, his arms linked behind his back, and his brows pulled low over his eyes.
Licking her lips, Gabby weighed what to say. She was angry, but a disconcerting mixture of warm sentiments flooded her blood when she met his gaze.
Anger was familiar, so she clung to it. “You could have asked me to marry you before you announced our engagement to the entire room.”
He blinked, but to his credit, Sebastian didn’t flinch. “I could have and I’m sorry.”
She glanced away.
“Ella.” Her nickname was a sentence, and it contained so much emotion. “Surely my proclamation wasn’t a surprise. There’s only so much we can do to stop the scandal from spreading.”
He was right. Of course he was…yet Gabby was still primed for an argument.
“But maybe we could have thought of something else if you had only been here earlier to discuss it.” Gabby threw her arms wide as she glowered at him.
“I didn’t know how to answer their questions, and I was so worried I’d say something I wasn’t supposed to.
Terrified they would ask about the nature of our return trip.
And you just waltzed in with no such concerns, and declared we were marrying without even speaking to me first.”
Helplessness wrapped its venomous tentacles around her, and Gabby held her breath until she was certain sobs wouldn’t burst free from behind her teeth. Why was she forever jumping from the flames of one fire to another?
Sebastian’s throat worked as he stared down at her, and Gabby took a measure of solace to see him just as discomposed as she was.
“I was meeting with my solicitor.”
Gabby whipped her head back. “W-what?”
“I wanted to make sure my finances were in order before I approached Senor Valdés and asked for your hand.”
“Your finances?” Gabby frowned. “You’re a duke. Surely you’re as rich as Croesus.”
“The Whitfield dukedom was wealthy at one time, but my disgrace of a father did everything in his power to change that,” Sebastian bit out, yanking a hand through his hair. “And I wanted to assure your uncle and Fox that I had the means to care for you as you deserve.”
Her curiosity piqued, Gabby moved closer. “What do you mean?”
“What I mean,” Sebastian said, billowing a breath, “is that my father left the dukedom in crippling debt, and I only managed to save myself from a transactional marriage of convenience thanks to the Camino Rojo mine.”
“Oh,” Gabby mumbled, her thoughts churning with the rumors she’d heard of Sebastian’s insolvency. Of his need to marry a rich bride.
Without a word, Sebastian grasped her hand and led her to the love seat. Working in silence, he gently arranged her on his lap. Gabby would have protested his high-handed ways if she weren’t so pleased to be held within his arms again.
“I was my parents’ only child,” he began, the words spoken against her cheek.
“My mother almost lost her life birthing me, and was unable to carry another child afterward, despite my father’s insistence on a spare.
” She could feel his lips curl in disgust. “I would rather bathe in the Thames than subject any woman to the disrespect my mother endured in the name of my father’s ego. The supposed Whitfield legacy.”
The more Sebastian spoke, the more she stiffened. Now that the ugly words had been spoken, Gabby didn’t know what to do. Her instincts urged her to comfort him…but her mind insisted she know more.
His knuckles brushed a curl from her face.
“When my mother couldn’t give him the spare he wanted, he left.
From my understanding, he lived most of the year in London or on the Continent, carousing with his libertine friends and all but ignoring the dukedom, as well as my mother and me.
I saw him twice a year, when he arrived at Whitfield Manor and expected me to come to his study and answer his litany of questions about my lessons.
He used to terrify me, and I would weep to my mother for days before he arrived.
Once I went off to Eton, I saw him very rarely until I graduated from university. ”
“What happened then?” she asked, her fingers twining with his.