An outraged growl spilling from her chest, Georgiana stepped forward and shoved against his chest.
“Bloody damnation!” He lost his balance and went backward into the pond.
As he shot to his feet, waist deep in water and with a lily pad sliding from one shoulder, he looked angry enough to spit fire. Georgiana gathered her skirt in her fists and ran.
“Niles!” she yelled as she reached their party. “Gimble! His Lordship has fallen into the pond. Please help him!”
As Tristan slogged out of the water onto the muddy bank, his servants came pounding down the path. “Are you all right, my lord?” Gimble called, skidding to a halt and nearly toppling the three of them back into the water. “Lady Georgiana said you had fallen.”
Still swearing under his breath, Tristan shrugged out of the servants’ grip. “I’m fine,” he growled. “Leave be.”
She’d certainly drowned his lust, damn her. Niles and Gimble at his heels, he stalked back to the coach. Georgiana stood there, apparently explaining his clumsiness to the aunties. As she caught sight of him, she paled.
His first thought was to drag her back to the edge of the pond and toss her in, just so they’d be even. “Put everything back into the coach,” he ordered. “We’re leaving.”
Edwina asked, “Tristan, are you all—”
“I’m fine.” He glared at Georgiana. “I fell.”
Surprise showed in her green eyes as she rolled Milly to the coach. He didn’t know what she expected; he certainly wasn’t going to start bellowing to all and sundry that he’d kissed her and she’d shoved him into the pond.
Tristan paused. Any other female would have enjoyed his embrace. So he supposed that in a sense, what she’d done was…comforting. If she’d been planning something underhanded, she certainly wouldn’t have risked his anger by dousing him. Given their past, he wouldn’t have been surprised by a knee aimed at his nether regions. Being pushed into the duck pond was probably the mildest reaction he could have hoped for. She was warming to him, by God.
“Back to Carroway House,” he said with less heat, helping Milly into the coach. Georgiana pulled herself up the steps while he settled his aunt. He sat back, wringing water out of his gray jacket.
“Are you certain you’re all right?” Edwina asked, patting his wet knee.
“Yes. I deserved it, I suppose, for teasing the ducks.” He wiped water from his eyes. “Silly things didn’t realize I meant them no harm.”
It wasn’t subtle, but his reassurance seemed to work; Georgiana relaxed her clenched fists, though she kept a wary eye on him all the way home and back inside the house.
Once Milly was settled, he left the morning room to go change. Georgiana stood in the doorway, and he slowed as he passed her. “I do respond to verbal communication,” he murmured into her ear. “Next time, I’ll ask.”
She turned, following him. “Next time,” she said to his back, surprising him into a halt, “perhaps you’ll remember that you’re courting someone else. Amelia Johns, I believe?”
He faced her. “Is that your only quarrel? I haven’t declared anything to Amelia. I’m still trying out the length of my patience with the debutante flock.”
“What does she expect, though? Have you even thought of that, Tristan? Do you ever think of anyone but yourself?”
“I think of you, all the time.”
Despite the opening, she said nothing as he continued up the stairs to his bed chamber. Interesting, that. And he’d given her something more to reflect, anyway.
Tristan chuckled as he shrugged out of his jacket and his valet burst into the room, weeping at the destruction to his wardrobe. Who would have thought that being thrown in a duck pond could be a good thing?
Milly stalked back and forth in the morning room. “You see? And you said it was romantic when they went off walking together.”
Her wary gaze on the door, Edwina gestured at her sister to sit again. “They both said it was an accident. Besides, they did have some sort of quarrel all those years ago,” she reminded Milly. “You have to expect a bump or two in the road.”
“Things did seem to be progressing. This, however, is definitely a setback, Wina.”
“A small one. Give them some time.”
“Humph. I’m getting tired of sitting about all day.”
“Milly, if you don’t stay in that chair, Georgie will have no reason to remain with us.”
Milly sighed and clumped back to her overstuffed nest. “I know, I know. I just hope I don’t get gout again before this is over with. And what about those anonymous letters she’s been getting?”
