“Yes, you can,” he interrupted. “You can break your engagement. You can tell Lord Birchwood that you will never give him your hand.”
At that, Sebastian reached out and grasped both of Phoebe’s hands with his own. He clung to her and stared into her beautiful blue eyes.
“Your vile fiancé is involved in highly unsavory dealings, and you ought to sever the connection for your own sake. Leave him now, Phoebe. Do it today. I do not want you mixed up in the scandals any more than is necessary.”
“What?” Phoebe’s eyes widened to the size of saucers. “What exactly are you accusing Lord Birchwood of?”
Sebastian shook his head forcefully. “I cannot tell you these things. It is not my place.”
“But if you will not give me specifics, how am I to make my case?” A hint of breathless, frantic energy threaded its way intoher voice. “Do you expect me to march from this tent right now and tell Lord Birchwood that I will not honor the marriage agreement he and my father made?”
Sebastian tried to see the situation through her eyes, and he knew how absurd it all sounded. Without giving her a shred of evidence, he was asking Phoebe to do something that was practically impossible.
She could not break an engagement she had no hand in creating. Her father would not allow it. Lord Birchwood would cry foul.
Slowly, Sebastian traced his thumbs in a swirling pattern round and round Phoebe’s knuckles, then he said, “Phoebe, you deserve to know the truth. Your father has made a deal with the devil. He and Birchwood have mixed themselves up in a nasty bit of business, and they have managed to drag you into their messy affairs.”
Phoebe shook her head. “I do not understand.”
“Birchwood is not the man he pretends to be, nor is your father respectable, either. Your father sold you to Birchwood to save his own skin.”
He sold you to Birchwood.
Phoebe shuddered at the words. It was a truth that had occurred to her previously, but she had not been ready to hear it then and she certainly wasn’t prepared to acknowledge it now.
She realized that something must have occurred to warrant the urgency with which she was summoned back from the family’s country estate in Nantwich.
No sooner had she arrived in town than it was announced that her engagement to Lord Birchwood had already been arranged. Still, she assumed her parents simply feared she would become a spinster and had therefore promised her to any man who would have her.
She recalled the way her parents had spoken of her value…her worth. They had already admitted that they were willing to sacrifice her happiness to preserve their own. But somehow, hearing Sebastian say it made everything feel worse.
She looked away from Sebastian’s green eyes, so deep and earnest.
Her voice escaped her. For a long moment, she stood in the tent with Sebastian, wishing their conversation had diverted down a different avenue.
Why must this moment of privacy be so serious? Why could our reunion not be one that was worthy of the storybooks?
Phoebe dropped one of his hands and reached for her silver pendant. She rubbed it between her thumb and forefinger, seeking solace in the comfort of the warm metal.
At last, when she was ready to speak, Phoebe said, “I do not doubt you, Sebastian. In this instance, I am sure you are dealing honestly with me, but you must try to understand my feelings. No matter what my parents and Lord Birchwood have done, I must obey them. They have left me no choice but to do as they wish.”
“I am offering you a choice.”
“How?” she asked desperately because she wanted out of the engagement more than anything but saw no way through it.
She had heard Sebastian when he said moments ago that he would give her another option to explore, but she did not think he had done any such thing. She saw only one dismal future spread out before her, and it did not include an ounce of happiness.
She would never find bliss with Lord Birchwood and his horrid pride, or with her parents, either.
Sebastian opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, Geneiveve burst into the tent.
“There you are! I wondered what was keeping you.” She glanced around at the empty tent, giving Phoebe a moment to pull herhand from Sebastian’s grasp and put some space between them. “I think the take-off is beginning, and we do not want to miss this. Come,come.”
“Lady Genevieve.” Sebastian bowed, his voice tight. “Lady Phoebe. I shall leave you both to it.”
Once Sebastian had left, Phoebe stared at the space he had vacated in stunned silence.
Genevieve grabbed Phoebe’s trembling hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. “You were gone so long that I did not know what to do.” She bit her lower lip. “I do hope you were not risking yourself or your reputation, Phoebe.”
