Beatrice. She was as stunning as ever. Nate could hardly wrap his mind around seeing her, which was ridiculous. He should have known she would be there. The aunts had told him they would be there, so it was to be expected. He had just so firmly shut the door on his past feelings, that he hadn’t even allowed himself to consider the possibility.
He supposed it was because she hated him. Nate wasn’t used to being hated. It was an uncomfortable feeling to say the least. He deserved it, though, of course, with the way he had left her so suddenly. It had been cowardly of him to run off without an explanation. But with the way she had made him feel, he had worried he wouldn’t actually turn up for his assignment if he’d tried to talk to her. He had been an immature fool. Clearly he hadn’t progressed nearly as far as he had thought if he was here at atonevent not having anticipated and prepared for the possibility of seeing her again.
For an agent of the Home Office, that was an excruciatingly stupid thing to have done, or rather not done. He was supposed to be aware and on top of all possibilities at all times. Nathan sighed.
Nathan Earnest Lawrence, the latest Earl of Braxton, was unlikely to be an agent for much longer. At least not an activefield agent. It was most unfortunate. All of it, really. Truly, he was saddened by the passing of both his father and his brother, he reminded himself. It was decidedly selfish of him to be so disappointed about how their deaths inconvenienced him.
But he had always felt as though he were an outsider in his family. As the spare, even though his father had seen to Nate’s education, there had never been the bond that Nathan had witnessed between the earl and his true heir. They had been brothers in arms, two peas in a pod, whichever ridiculous way you wanted to express it. Nathan’s father and brother had been cut from the same cloth and had been nearly inseparable. Which was how they had managed to both die together in a tragic accident, sailing when a sudden, unexpected storm had sent them into the sea.
It was melodramatic to say so but becoming Lord Braxton had ruined his life.
Not to say he wasn’t doing a rather good job of making a muck of his life all on his own before he’d inherited the title and responsibilities. Take Lady Bea for example. He knew he had hurt her two years ago. She had every right to give him the cut direct. He shouldn’t have been at all surprised by it. And yet he had been. Surprised and even injured by it. She had been the sweetest, most gentle soul he had ever laid eyes on when they met that fateful se’en-night just before he’d been assigned to the colonies.
Nate tried not to watch her leave with her back ramrod straight and her chin lifted while she valiantly tried to carry that dainty cup of punch back to one of his aunts. Probably Frampton. She was the more demanding of the two sisters. Nate also tried not to notice the slight tremor in Bea’s fingers that was making her task more difficult. It only made him feel worse. And yet he was proud of her. Even for giving him the cut. Shewas obviously not completely unaffected by his presence, but she wasn’t going to admit to such a weakness.
“Got you good, that one did, Braxton. Wouldn’t have expected it from a wallflower.”
Nate had to control the powerful urge to put his fist through the other man’s face. He wasn’t a violent man, or he had never suspected himself of such tendencies. But he couldn’t allow anyone to speak ill of Beatrice.
Wait. What? A wallflower?He had been too befuddled to recognize what had been said. That was the second time the dolt had referred to Lady Bea as a wallflower, one of the young ladies who was never asked to dance. How could that be? She was one of the most exquisite creatures he had ever encountered. It was one of the reasons he had so dreaded returning to London. He was certain he would run into Lady Beatrice on some gentleman’s arm as his bride.
Of course, it was likely he would have heard if the young woman had wed. Only because it would have inconvenienced his aunts, which would have reached his mother who was exceedingly fond of writing long, crossed pages to her only remaining son, informing him of all the family goings on as though they were his responsibility. He supposed as Braxton, they now were his responsibility. But his aunts were also parts of other families. Not really his exclusive obligation. Besides their having very strong minds of their own who would not appreciate his interference.
Case in point, their taking a companion at all. Of course, it was before his time as Earl so he didn’t necessarily know all the reasons and ramifications, only that he had given his heart to the creature they had taken into their home without finding out all her particulars.
Come to think of it, he didn’t even know why they were living together. It was just a well-known fact of his life. His two aunts, one widowed, the other never wed, lived together and had done so for as long as Nate could remember. They were actually his great-aunts, Nate’s father’s aunts. And Bea was some sort of connection of theirs. He wouldn’t swear to it, but if he could recall he was reasonably certain the aunts had been friends with Lady Beatrice’s grandmother when they were girls or some such tenuous connection. He hadn’t bothered to find out before but he supposed it was one more thing he ought to know in his new role.
If something were to happen to his aunts he would have to provide for the girl, so he ought to know what her story was.
It was a good enough reason to dig deeper into the beautiful young woman’s history he supposed, as he likely ought to have done in the past but he had allowed his feelings to override his sense, at least temporarily. And he really ought to apologize to her. He never should have left her without a word, even if it was for an important assignment.
But first he had to deal with his two “friends.”
Robertson and Douglas had attached themselves to him as soon as he’d arrived in Town. It was his first time to take his Seat in the House and he had felt decidedly like a fish out of water. He had certainly not needed the company of such nit-witted men, but he had been too distracted to do anything about it. Now they were more of a fixture, and he was able to continue to ignore them. He wasn’t even certain why they were so determined to remain by his side. He certainly had done nothing to encourage the association.
“It’s your glower, you know?”
“I beg your pardon?” Nate turned said glower onto Robertson and the fool nearly floundered. Nate had to give the odd man props for swallowing and explaining himself despite the obvious discomfort he felt.
“You are frowning most fiercely, Braxton. It is likely why the ladies aren’t flocking to you as one would expect they would.”
“Why would I be expecting a flock of ladies?” Nate didn’t alter his expression in the slightest. He wasn’t sure what the dolt was on about, but he had enough to look after; he didn’t want to have to deal with the twitter of a bunch of debutantes on top of it all.
“You’re Braxton,” Robertson answered as though that explained everything. It certainly didn’t, so Nate glanced at Douglas to see if he knew what Robertson was talking about.
“Braxton is known for being a lucrative title, Brax, surely you must realize. And besides that, according to my sister, you are considered to be most handsome. So like Robertson said, you’d be expected to have all the ladies throwing themselves at you. It’s quite a surprise that there isn’t a queue forming, to be honest. So Robertson suspects it’s your frown that’s keeping them away. And might be why that young woman gave you the cold shoulder even though you thought you knew her.”
“I don’t think I know her, I most certainly do know her. But I might have treated her badly a couple years ago,” he admitted to his two companions, despite his desire not to involve them in his life to any extent.
“That could explain it, too,” Robertson said, never a man for many words.
“What?” Nathan struggled to follow Robertson’s logic, or lack thereof, so again he turned to Douglas for an explanation.
“Young ladies tell tales, Brax. If you hurt one, it’s possible they all know. That too could explain your lack of female pursuers.”
Not that Nate had any desire to have female pursuers but despite himself, he was becoming almost fascinated with the gentlemen’s explanation.
“Wouldn’t your sister have told you if she had heard such a thing?”
