Seth immediately stood. “No matter what may have occurred tonight, I would never harm a hair on Miss Hawthorn’s head.” He took a step toward the Duke of Ellings. “If you suggest otherwise, then we may need a separate meeting at dawn.”
“Will you be seeing her home, then?” His Grace asked.
What an odd question. Had Ellings simply been testing his intentions? “Of course I will.”
Frances gaped. “You were to wait. Tessa promised.”
“We are tired, and you need to settle on the agreement with regard to the club, winnings and everything that brought you here tonight.” He then turned and left, closing the door behind him.
Seth crossed to the entrance and locked the door then closed the shutters on the few windows so that nobody would know that anyone was in here tonight. Not that he expected anyone to pass on the street, but he would not want Frances’ reputation harmed if someone were to walk by and see her here and alone with him.
He then retreated to the bar and poured her a glass of brandy.
The entire time she stood silently and watched.
He set the glass on the bar, then lifted his own and took a drink while he waited for her to speak. Only then would he know her real reasons for being here rather than to simply return the winnings he had left behind.
“I set out to take from you the one thing that had always mattered more to you than me,” she began, which confirmed his suspicions.
“But that was unfair. Just because I loved you beyond anything or anyone else did not mean you were required to feel the same for me. In my pain and anger, I came to resent this place. I blamed your dreams for keeping you from me. It is not the club’s fault that you could not love me enough five years ago. Therefore, I return it to you.”
“I am not upset that I lost the club, Franny,” he said quietly. “I am sorry that I lost winning your garter.” It was the truth. This club meant nothing to him any longer. It had cost him Frances five years ago, and he lost her tonight because of it and he had been a fool to think wealth was all he needed.
“My virtue, you mean.”
He looked up into her brown eyes. “No. I lost you.”
Frances’ heart hammered in her chest, but she was too afraid to hope.
“You do not hate me for what I did?”
He shook his head. “I wish I could, but it is impossible to hate you Franny.”
“I have wanted to hate you too,” she admitted in a whisper. “I tried. I really did after I heard all those awful things about you when I first came to London. I could not reconcile the reputation with the Seth I knew. I finally determined that you had lied to me the entire time in Laswell, but still, I could not hate you.”
Seth set his glass on the bar and then came around it and took her hand. “Laswell was never a lie. What we shared in that cottage was never a lie. In fact, it was the only thing that was ever truly real in my life because I was free with you. Free to be honest with not only you but with myself.”
“Except, you were still afraid,” she reminded him.
“Yes. A fear I held onto for ten years. The fear of experiencing a pain from loss so deep that I did not want to continue to live.”
Frances squeezed his hand, recalling how deeply he had mourned Amelia.
“All I did was deny myself happiness, as you predicted.”
“You have a fine club,” she reminded him.
“No, I do not. At least, not any longer.”
“Yes, you do,” Frances insisted. “That is why I am here. Not just to return the money but tell you that I am not taking the club.”
“You won the club, Franny. I wagered it in a game of chance and lost.”
“I cheated!”
Seth chuckled. “I was a fool for not noticing.” He glanced down at her breasts. “I let that blasted emerald distract me.”
Her face heated as hope surged.
