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―For whom?" Seb asked suspiciously. ―If I were Miss Winslow, I‘d see that as something more akin to a solution."
―You are not Miss Winslow, and furthermore, you are not a lady."
―Thank God," he said, with no small bit of feeling. Beside him, Harry rapped three times on the table.
Olivia scowled at both of them. ―If you were a lady," she said, ―you would understand what a disaster this is. Lord Newbury has not called upon her even once since your altercation."
Sebastian‘s brows rose. ―Really?"
―Really. Do you know who has called upon her?"
―I do not," he replied, because it wasn‘t as if she was going to withhold the information, anyway.
―Everyone else. Everyone!"
―Quite a busy drawing room," he murmured.
―Sebastian! Do you know whom ‗everyone‘ includes?"
He briefly considered a sarcastic answer, then decided, out of motives of pure self-preservation, that he ought to hold his tongue.
―Cressida Twombley," Olivia fairly hissed. ―And Basil Grimston. They have been there three times."
―Three ti—How do you know this?"
―I know everything," Olivia said dismissively.
This, he believed. If Olivia had been in town before she‘d met Miss Winslow in the park, none of this would have happened. She would have known that Annabel Winslow was Lady Louisa‘s cousin. She‘d probably have known her birthday and favorite color as well. She certainly would have known that Miss Winslow was a Vickers granddaughter, and thus his uncle‘s prey.
And Sebastian would have steered himself far far away. That kiss on the heath would be nothing but a dim (albeit delightful) memory. He certainly would not have accepted the invitation to the opera, and he would not have sat next to her, and he would not know that her eyes—such a clear, focused gray—took on a hint of green when she dressed in that color. He would not know that her sensibilities were remarkably like his, or that she caught the inside of her lower lip between her teeth when she was concentrating on something. Or that she was not terribly good at sitting still.
Or that she smelled faintly of violets.
If he had but known who she was, none of those pesky bits of information would be jiggling about in his brain, taking up useful space from something important. Like a thorough analysis of round arm versus underarm bowling in cricket. Or the precise wording of Shakespeare‘s sonnet
―Alack! What poverty my Muse brings forth," which he‘d been misquoting in his head for at least a year now.
―Miss Winslow has become a laughingstock," Olivia said, ―and it is not fair. She did not do anything."
―Neither did I," Sebastian pointed out.
―But you have the power to fix things. She does not."
―Alack, what poverty my Position brings forth," he muttered.
―What?" Olivia said impatiently.
He waved his previous comment away. It wasn‘t worth trying to explain. Instead, he gave her a direct look and asked, ―What would you have me do?"
―Call upon her."
Sebastian turned to Harry, who was still pretending to read his newspaper. ―Didn‘t she just say that all of London thinks I plan to seduce her?"
―She did," Harry confirmed.
―Good God ," Olivia blasphemed, with enough force to cause both men to blink. ―The two of you are so obtuse."
They both stared at her, their very silence confirming her statement.
―Right now it looks as if both of you have abandoned her. The earl apparently does not want her, and by all appearances, neither do you. Heaven knows what the society ladies are tittering behind their hands."
Sebastian could well imagine. Most would say that Miss Winslow overreached, and society loved nothing more than to watch an ambitious female brought low.
―Right now people are calling upon her out of curiosity," Olivia said. ―And," she added with a meaningful narrowing of her eyes, ―cruelty. But make no mistake, Sebastian. When all this is over, no one will have her. Not unless you do the right thingright now ."
―Please tell me the right thing does not involve a proposal of marriage," he said. Because really, delightful though Miss Winslow was, he hardly thought he‘d behaved in a fashion to warrant it.
―Of course not," Olivia said. ―You need merely to call upon her. Show society that you still find her delightful. And you must be all that is proper. If you do anything that even hints of seduction, she will be ruined."
Sebastian started to make one of his usual flip comments, but a little jab of indignation began to uncurl within him, and by the time he opened his mouth it could not be denied. ―Why is it," he wanted to know, ―that people—people, I might add, who have known me for several years, some even for decades—believe me the sort of person who might seduce an innocent young lady for revenge?"
He waited for a moment, but Olivia had no answer. And neither, apparently did Harry, who had given up all pretense of reading his newspaper.
―This is not an idle question," Sebastian said angrily. ―Have I ever behaved in a manner to suggest such a thing? Tell me what I have done to make myself out to be such a predatory villain. Because I must confess that I am at a loss. Do you know that I have never, notonce , slept with a virgin?" He directed that comment at Olivia, mostly because he was in the mood to shock and offend. ―Even when I was a virgin."
―Sebastian, that‘s enough," Harry said quietly.
―No, I don‘t think it is. What, I wonder, do people think I plan to do with Miss Winslow once I seduce her? Abandon her? Kill her and toss the body in the Thames?"