Page 20 of Runaway Countess (Those Wild Whitbys #2)

Chapter Twenty

J enny looked out of the window, giving the apple tree an appraisal with the benefit of what she felt was a certain degree of expertise. “At least you can be sure she didn’t sprain her wrist,” she said, drawing her head back inside and pulling the curtains across. “It looks very sturdy.”

“Sturdy!” Sebastian snapped, pacing back and forth in front of his sister’s empty bed with wild eyes. “Sturdy, ha!”

Jenny sat down on the chair in front of Cassandra’s dressing table. Judging by the scarcity of hair brushes, jewellery stands and other accoutrements, Cassandra did not make much use of it. “You can at least be grateful that you did not have to haul in a rope of her underthings. That would have been very distressing for you.”

Sebastian clutched his hands through his hair and went again to the window, flinging the curtains aside with such force and lack of finesse that they became completely wrapped around one of his arms. “You don’t – understand –” he huffed, fighting to free himself of the curtain. “Cass is – Cass doesn’t – Cass –”

“Is a grown woman, who has been able to look after herself perfectly well in all the years you’ve spent at sea,” said Jenny, as gently as she could. Sebastian sagged, still tangled in the curtain. She went to assist him, setting a hand softly on his shoulder as she unwound the heavy cloth.

“I’m sure there is nothing to worry about,” she said. “It does not look at all as though she were taken by force. Wherever she has gone, she went of her own accord, and she can tell you all about it on her return. In the meantime, there is nothing for you to do unless you wish to rouse the household and send them all out searching for her.”

“Strewth!” Sebastian shook his head violently. “She’d kill me.”

“There you have it.” Jenny set her hands on his shoulders and turned him away from the window, steering him back towards the bed and his half-eaten plate of food. “You are not really concerned about her safety, then.”

Sebastian reluctantly broke off a chunk of bread. “I am concerned about her keeping secrets from me. That is different. That is new.”

Jenny folded her arms and waited for him to realise the obvious and only possible response.

“Oh,” said Sebastian, gesticulating vaguely with his bread roll. “I know I have kept secrets from her. That’s, ah, not the same.” He swallowed another mouthful. “Besides, I was going to tell her all about it this very evening. That’s why I’m in here – and why I asked you to meet us here, so I could introduce her to you.”

“ All about it?” Jenny repeated, unable to keep the sparkle from her eyes. Sebastian’s own twin orbs of blue flared wide.

“No. Not all . There are some things that a fellow doesn’t share with his sister.”

“There you have it. Clearly, Cassandra is out on the type of adventure that a lady simply doesn’t share with her brother.” Jenny sat beside him on the bed, trying not to laugh as his face paled in horror. “Or perhaps she has simply gone out for a walk. You are dreadfully easy to tease, you know.”

Sebastian choked down his mouthful of bread and tugged at his collar. “When Cass is back – after I’ve murdered her – you two are going to get on like a house on fire.” He pushed his plate aside and took hold of Jenny’s hands. “I delivered your letter to Elspeth. Your uncle didn’t suspect a thing. Seems I have a talent for this concealment and trickery after all.”

“Thank goodness,” Jenny breathed. “No – thank you . I hated the thought of her worrying about me.”

Sebastian pulled her closer and planted a soft kiss on her forehead. “None of it was your fault, Jenny. If your uncle had a scrap of honour, he’d have listened to your concerns in the first place, rather than selling you off like a piece of meat.”

Jenny winced. The talk of selling recalled her uncomfortably to the conversation she’d had with Lord Beeston earlier.

An economical proposition was not, after all, a dreadful thing. It was the foundation of the vast majority of marriages. The very worst of it was that, drat him, Sebastian had been right . She would have accepted Lord Beeston, after all this fuss, with no more anxiety than any other bride before her wedding – if only she had not fallen in love with Sebastian instead.

“I have something to tell you,” she said.

“Can it wait? I must tell you something, too, and I can hardly keep it in any longer.” The disquiet of Cassandra’s disappearance had left Sebastian’s eyes now, and there was a glow in them that Jenny had not seen before. His hands tightened on hers, the pressure of them sending a thrill of anticipation through her. She did not know what he was about to say, but she was filled with a sudden, wild hope that it could only be good.

“I will soon have a new commission,” said Sebastian. “If your uncle’s word is good – and, considering the lengths he is going to in order to secure your marriage, I am fairly certain that it is. I will captain the Fortitude on her voyage to the Mediterranean station in Malta.”

“The Mediterranean?” Jenny repeated, the words faint in her ears.

So far away. So very, very distant from Shepton Mallet, and the quiet country life she had decided would be hers.

“It’s a lucrative post,” said Sebastian. “The best I could have hoped for. Better than I hoped for. I’ll make my fortune out there, Jenny. I’m sure of it.”

She forced her hand not to go limp in his, though it was difficult to think of anything other than the painful lump forming in her throat. She squeezed his fingers briefly and let them go. “I’m sure, too.”

“Are you?” His eyes caught hers, just as feverish-bright now as they had been when he was raging after his sister, but with none of the same fear or uncertainty. “Then you’ll come with me?”

“What?” A laugh tried to spill from her, but that lump in her throat squeezed the life from it. “Sebastian, I am not a sailor. Women have no place in the Navy.”

“Not officially, perhaps,” he said, with a disarming grin. “Except when…” His eyes flared wide and he slammed his hand to his pocket, jerking himself up ramrod-straight. “I’ve got ahead of myself. I needed Cass to help me plan what to say. Drat her! I’ve made a mess of things now. Let me start again.”

“Start what?” Perhaps he didn’t really mean to take up this post in the Mediterranean. Perhaps he was going to throw away his chance of making his fortune, all so he could stay in Devon, close to Shepton Mallet, close to her.

That was nonsense, of course, but for half a second it was a pleasant enough fantasy.

Sebastian had risen to his feet again and had thrust one fist into his pocket, where it was clenched, no doubt, around that fateful little pebble.

“Jenny, a captain’s wife and family is permitted to travel with him on board.” He plunged onwards, leaving no time for her to formulate a response. “The quarters aren’t luxurious, of course, but I know you’d make them perfectly comfortable, and once you have your sea legs it’s not so bad out on the open ocean. The voyage to Malta will take about a month, and you’d be very comfortable at the Naval lodgings in Valletta. The Mediterranean station is always busy, which means there’d be other ladies for you to visit, and Elspeth might do well at the officers’ balls –”

“Elspeth?”

He slapped a hand to his forehead. “I forgot to mention her. Yes. I didn’t think you’d like to leave her. I don’t like the thought of leaving her, and I’ve not even spent an hour with Mr Smythe. Elspeth will come too, as your companion, and there are plenty of very fine chaps we could introduce her to, if she likes the look of being a seaman’s wife, and if not then the return leg will take us through Paris, and if she doesn’t take a fancy to a European then by the time our posting is through she won’t even be one and twenty, and that’s plenty of time for a few London Seasons –”

“Sebastian,” said Jenny. She paused to bite her lip. He looked so serious that she couldn’t bear to laugh at him. “Please slow down for a moment. I don’t quite understand whether you are asking me to marry you, or asking me to assess your plan for matchmaking cousin Elspeth.”

He paused for a moment, eyes wide and bright as the spring sky, a flush of passion heating the high ridges of his cheekbones.

He really was deliciously handsome. More than that – he was deliciously in love with her. It did not matter that he was not a fairytale prince, nor even fabulously wealthy, or aristocratic, or even particularly eloquent. It did not matter that they were dimly lit and chilly in his sister’s bedroom, rather than in the centre of a thousand sparkling ballroom candles, or on a clifftop at sunset.

This was what she had dreamed of. This was her fairytale – him, and all of him. Every rough edge, every roguish wink, every irresistible stolen kiss.

This was so much more than anything she had ever dreamed.

“The former,” he said, his voice growing rough. His eyes dropped from hers, his lips parting a moment, as though he had to dig into the very depths of his courage to say what came next. ‘I am not rich – yet. I am not a lord. I can’t offer you your quiet cottage in the countryside, let alone a castle. But I…” He withdrew his hand from his pocket, glancing up at her with a slow smile curving his lips. “I have recently learned to trust my own heart a little more, and listen to my own demons a little less, and if you can do the same, I truly believe that I will make something of myself, and make you happy.” He dropped to his knees before her, face suddenly serious, and placed his empty hands in hers. “I don’t have a ring for you,” he said. “Truthfully, I didn’t think I’d be in a position to make you an offer you deserve for some years to come. I still am not, but I feel half-mad already with waiting. All I can offer you now is hope, and the dream of my future success, and my solemn promise that I will build us a life together, piece by piece. Marry me, Jenny. All the rest will fall into place, I know it, if you’re with me.”

Jenny lifted his hands and pressed her cheek against his fingers. The rough heat of his skin seared her soft, cool cheek. She sighed with happiness. “You are offering me a great deal more than hope, Sebastian. You are what I want. I’d be happier sleeping in servant’s quarters as your wife than I could ever be in a castle with somebody else – no matter how grand.”

A dancing light suffused his face, wickedness and joy all mixed together. “Let’s not discount the castle just yet. I intend to have a very successful career.”

He dropped her hands to catch her at the waist, pulling her towards him so suddenly that she let out a little squeak of surprise. She could do no more than squeak, however, before his lips were on hers, catching the breath from her. There was urgency in his kiss, and hunger, but his hand came up to cup the back of her head, fingers curling languidly through her hair, and the kiss deepened and grew slow, gloriously slow, with the calm certainty of possession.

He pushed her backwards, so that she landed on her back on the bed, and she let out another little sound of surprise and delight which he caught with more of his languid, teasing kisses.

A gust of cold night air slipped through the curtains, and Jenny pushed Sebastian aside with a yelp. “Stop! What will your sister think of me?”

He gave the window a wry glance and let out a sound between a chuckle and a groan. “I hardly think she will claim the moral high ground should she happen to climb back in now.”

“I want her to like me, you dreadful man. This is not the way to forge a sisterly bond.” Jenny stood up, straightening out her skirts and running a hand over her tousled hair. “Come along. Off the bed. We must leave it tidy.”

He let out a tortured groan and rolled over, seizing one of the pillows and giving it a regretful thump. “No. Wherever she is, she doesn’t want to be found out. Best to leave it looking slept in, in case she’s not back by morning.” He pushed himself back to his feet and shot Jenny a quick sideways glance. “Cass is… She has an honest soul, Jenny. I’d like to say all this running away in the middle of the night isn’t like her, but in point of fact, it is. A person can be wild, and reckless, but good through it all, you see?”

Jenny took up the pillow and gave him a loving thwack on the arm. “Yes,” she said, with a grin that she hoped was wicked enough to rival one of Sebastian’s own. “I see that very well.” She threw the pillow back down haphazardly on the bed and mussed the bedsheets beneath it, stepping back to examine her work. “Now then…” She reached out and carefully adjusted the second pillow. “That looks about right.”

He gave her a grin of pure, admiring adoration. “You have become very accomplished at this concealment and trickery business, too. Who’d have thought it?”

“Perhaps not so very accomplished,” she admitted. “I did not manage to tell you my piece of news earlier.” She assumed a very solemn demeanour, the better to spring her surprise. “I’m afraid Lord Beeston has discovered who I am.”

Sebastian’s entire body gave a jerk, as though her words were a physical blow. He stared at her, eyes unfocused and full of horror. “He knows?”

“He knows,” she confirmed.

Sebastian caught her by the shoulders. “And he – he – did you –”

“Don’t fret!” she laughed, unable to keep him in suspense any longer. “He was very kind about the whole thing. Much kinder than I deserved, I dare say. He has arranged for me to travel to Shepton Mallet tomorrow morning, and in the meantime, I am to remain ‘Mrs Hughes’ so as not to alert my uncle.”

Sebastian stared at her, mouth opening and closing a few times. “He was… kind?”

“Indeed. I felt like an absolute worm in the face of his kindness, in fact. I think the part which bothered him most was the idea that it was his wound that had repulsed me, so once I explained that it was, in fact, his behaviour, he quite understood.”

A furrow formed between Sebastian’s brows. “He didn’t… rage? Or curse at you? Or vow vengeance?”

“Not at all. He was extremely gracious. Really, I am beginning to think I formed quite the wrong impression of his character.” She feigned a frown and made towards the door. “Perhaps I should reconsider his offer –”

“That is not funny!” Sebastian caught her by the wrist and pulled her back to him. He cradled his arms around her, almost reverently, and lowered his forehead to her shoulder. “He knows. He really knows. And he’s letting you go?”

“Did you think he’d drag me off screaming to the altar?”

Sebastian raised his head. “No,” he admitted bashfully. “I don’t know what I thought. I only know that if our positions were reversed, I’d be doing the screaming. I cannot imagine having the strength to let you go with grace.”

She set her hands on his shoulders. “You will never have to.”

Sebastian shook his head vigorously as though to shake the clouds from his thoughts. “I must go and speak with him.”

“Do nothing of the sort! I told him you had very little to do with it all. And it’s true, I believe. You did only what I forced you to do. It was really dreadful, the way I used your own decency against you.”

Sebastian gave half a smile, but he looked unhappy. “There has been nothing decent in my behaviour. Especially when compared to his. I will see if he’s still awake, and if he is, I’ll beg his forgiveness.”

“He does not know,” said Jenny urgently, “that we have fallen in love with each other. I could not bring myself to complicate things further. It will be kinder, I hope, for him to find out once the first sting of rejection has passed.”

Sebastian raised an eyebrow. “Kinder?”

“You know him better than I do,” she allowed. “You must do whatever you think best. I know you will act with his best interests at heart.” Sebastian looked sick. She pressed a kiss to his cheek. “Sometimes people can be wild, and reckless, and do things they regret, but they are still good beneath it all.”

Sebastian took a slow, deep breath, as though he were trying to inhale the confidence from her voice. “I’ll sleep on it,” he decided. “In here, so that if Cass comes in, I can confess to her first and get an outside opinion on it.” He wrapped Jenny’s hands in his and closed his eyes a moment. “I wish you would stay.”

“You know I can’t.” She hardly recognised the sound of her own voice, low and husky and filled with unspoken desire. “I – I barely trusted myself alone with you that first night in Plymouth. I hardly dare think what might happen now.”

He cracked a smile. “Wicked girl,” he murmured, and kissed her.

It was all Jenny could do to pull herself away, take the candle, and close the door on him. She tiptoed down the stairs to the servants’ quarters, unable to tell whether her heart was pounding from fear of discovery or from pure excitement.

It was exactly the way her foolish heart had always dreamed of fluttering on the night of her betrothal.