Julian knew that she was referring to whether they found further proof of Annabel’s true purpose in “marrying” him before disappearing once her task was completed.
Not that Julian had personally supplied her with any of that information if that were the case, because he knew he had not.But Annabel’s position in Society as his wife had given her entrée into the company of those who could.No doubt her so-called innocent charm had worked on those gentlemen too!
“Let the past remain in the past, my love.”Georgiana reached up to smooth the frown from his brow.“It is gone and cannot be altered.Let it go,” she repeated.“Now there is only the future to look forward to.Together, no matter what else we discover.”
A future with Georgiana was all that he wanted.
CHAPTERTHIRTEEN
When they spoke to Meggie, after she had overcome her shyness in Julian’s presence, she confirmed Annabel’s actions that last afternoon two years ago had been exactly as Georgiana had thought they might have been.
With the added horror that Annabel had twisted Meggie’s arm until it broke at the same time as she warned Meggie that if she told anyone she had seen Annabel sail away in a French ship, she would come back and punish her even further.Which explained Meggie’s melancholy at this time of the year and the nightmares.
It troubled Julian deeply that Meggie should have had to suffer both physical and emotional pain because he married a woman whom, it transpired, was both vicious and cruel.
Except it seemed he had not been married to her at all.
St.Albans had instructed his men to come to Norfolk when they returned from France.The information they brought with them was that one Annabelle Benoir, and her husband, Count Francois Benoir, married for five years, had both been killed during the fighting to reinstate Napoleon as the emperor of France after his escape from Elba.
Those men had brought a painted likeness of the countess and her husband back from France with them.
Proof to Julian that not only had Annabel used a false name when they met, but that her age was also six years older than she had told him it was.That she was also already married and had been so for five years before the two of them even met.
It possibly also explained her refusal to enter into physical relations with him.Although that might be attributing her with a faithfulness to her French husband that she had not possessed.
The moment Julian knew the truth, he waited only long enough for St.Albans’s men to be escorted to the kitchen by Dalton so that Cook could feed them, before he went down on one knee in front of Georgiana.He was totally unconcerned that the St.Albanses and the Hellsmeres were still seated in the salon with them.
The six of them had become close over the past ten days or so, spending their days together riding, reading, or walking, and their evenings playing cards or listening to the ladies play the piano.
Julian knew that the St.Albanses and the Hellsmeres would not be in the least surprised by his actions.
It was Georgiana who looked thoroughly taken aback at seeing him down on one knee.
Julian clasped both her hands in his.“Please marry me, darling Georgiana.”
“I have told you that, as a member of the Spinsters Alliance, I do not need to be married, only loved?—”
“Which I do.With all my heart.But I also want to be married to you,” he insisted.“I want to be able to claim you far and wide as my wife.To be able to walk proudly at your side as your husband.To accompany you as my duchess to all Society events.To have children with you.Grandchildren.”
Her cheeks became flushed.“I had not thought about having children…”
“You should,” Chloe, the Duchess of Hellsmere, encouraged as she rose gracefully to her feet.“Lucien and I are working diligently upon the first of ours,” she added with a loving smile at Hellsmere as he now stood beside her, his arm about the slenderness of her waist.
“As are we.”Lily, Duchess of St.Albans, gave her husband a teasing smile as she stood and held a hand out to him.
“I am always happy to oblige, my love,” St Albans drawled as he stood beside her.
“We shall leave the two of you alone to…talk.”Hellsmere’s gaze did not waver from the beauty of his wife’s face.“Take your time,” he offered.“I know that we shall.”
“Is it too late to kill him?”St.Albans asked his wife as they followed the Hellsmeres to the door.
“Chloe would never forgive you,” the duchess pointed out.
“There is that, I suppose,” the duke murmured before he paused in the doorway to look back at Julian and Georgiana.“I am pleased to have been instrumental in helping to bring the two of you together.I should also, with your agreement, like to be the one to walk Georgiana down the aisle.I am sure Hellsmere will be equally as happy to stand beside Julian and for our wives to attend and assist Georgiana.”He closed the door behind him as he followed his wife from the room.
* * *
Georgiana chuckled at the arrogance of St.Albans’s statement.“He is truly incorrigible.”
