Upside Down
“Margaret? What on earth?” Sebastian had been searching for her everywhere but had eventually given up, assuming she’d retired to her chamber for the afternoon. When he’d knocked on Danbury’s study door, he’d been surprised to hear a feminine voice bid him to enter.
And he’d been even more surprised at the sight that met him when he stepped inside.
Barefoot, with a wrinkled gown and long mahogany strands of hair mostly escaped from what once must have been a tidy chignon at the back of her neck, his Maggie was reclining on the leather settee placed before the hearth. She met his gaze with hooded eyes while sipping from a glass similar to the one he’d recently abandoned in the billiard room.
“Sebastian.” She raised one knee, causing her dress to ride up, “I’m not going to become your auntie, after all!” She slurred her words slightly.
Chuckling to himself but also a little concerned and, as always when he was in her presence, a little aroused, he locked the door behind him and crossed the room to lower himself onto the opposite end of the settee. Without thinking, he grasped her bare foot in his hands and rubbed his thumb along the tendons and muscles just as she had done for him a few nights before.
“I wasn’t keen on it, to be perfectly honest.”
“Well, if we’re going to be perfectly honest with one another,” she threw back a healthy swallow of whatever it was she was drinking—sherry—if he were to hazard a guess, “neither was I.”
Sebastian studied her. Thank God she wasn’t going to be marrying George. She deserved so much more. “Are you… celebrating then?” He’d not seen her in such a mood before. Even when they’d been alone and he’d flirted with her, she’d never failed to maintain some semblance of propriety.
For the most part.
“I would have liked to break it off in my own time, rather than be tossed over for a scheming chit.” She stared into her glass, swirling the contents with a frown. “Because it’s rather lowering to be jilted by a person one intends to jilt herself.” Her eyes shone brightly, as though tears might spill.
“Ah, Maggie.” He was glad he’d locked the door. It wouldn’t be good for anyone to see her in this condition. Especially not today when guests would be watching to see how she would respond to her fiancé’s infidelity.
“It’s not so bad, really.” She smiled brightly, speaking into her glass and then taking another sip. “It’s that he’s just so despicably…pleasedabout the whole thing.”
Sebastian was inclined to agree. His uncle’s behavior had failed in the gentlemanly context rather spectacularly. “If it’s any consolation, you won’t have to look at either of us for much longer. He’s asked me to travel with him to meet with Miss Drake’s father.”
“You are leaving then?”
“It’s what my uncle wants.”
Margaret stared into her glass again, looking thoughtful and… sad. “Would you have married her? If she had managed to trap you?” Her question surprised him.
“I would never have made love to her.” At her raised brows, he insisted, “I would not. There is only one woman I’m interested in taking advantage of these days and unfortunately, she’s been disinclined to succumb.”
She dismissed his response. “But if Penelope had not put you in another chamber, if Miss Drake had managed to succeed in trapping you, would you have married her?”
Sebastian wouldn’t lie about this. “I would not have.”
She stared at him skeptically and then nodded. “And you, being you, I suspect, would have gotten away with it. She’s an American, after all.”
“Even I would not get away with it.”
“I’m not so sure about that.”
He shrugged. “It would be of no matter. I have no intention of marrying—ever. You know that better than most.”
“Why?”
“Because I intend to travel.”
Again, she waved away his answer, sloshing some of the liquid onto the carpet this time. “Yes, butwhy? What if you were to fall madly in love? Would you not wish to marry then?”
“I would not.”
“I suppose it’s because you have never been in love.”
“Then you would suppose wrong.” If they were going to have this discussion, then Sebastian was going to be drinking as well. Rising and moving across the room, he located another glass and another decanter from the nearby liquor cabinet. The one she’d been using was nearly empty. Only after he’d poured a drink and returned to sit beside her did he speak again. “I married once. At my father’s request but also because I loved her. You are not the only person to know grief, Maggie.”
