Did she truly have a choice?
She did still have two younger sisters to guide and Lavinia wanted to make certain that they wed for love and not duty and that the gentlemen were not seducing them with words to gain their heart when all they truly wanted was the connection and their dowry. She did not want them to have a marriage such as hers, but what Octavia found the second time.
And, as much as she would hate to return to London, Lavinia would because she had a duty to her sisters. Not in the same sense that she had when she first arrived in Seaford, but a duty to make certain of their happiness, which was something none of her brothers would understand, but Octavia would.
For the first time, Demetrius was not looking forward to having dinner with Lavinia. It had been four hours since he left her side. Four hours for her to think about everything he had told her.
He wanted her—as a lover and a friend—for however long she allowed such, but feared that she would not only reject him, but would likely see him let go as her brother’s solicitor.
It was for the best and he had been a fool to hope that he might be her lover. He should not have even lusted after her to begin with. She was a lady.
And, if it came to be that he could no longer do work for the Duke of Claybrook, then Demetrius might very well move from London and take up residence here where his services were needed.
However, upon being granted entrance to Sea View, Lavinia greeted him with a bright smile and asked if he would like a glass of wine.
Tension immediately fled his body. He had not yet lost her.
“Dinner is served,” the housekeeper announced and Demetrius escorted Lavinia to the table as he had the nights before. There was comfort in doing so, a habit that he wished could continue long after Twelfth Night passed but knew that it would not be possible.
As before, while dining their conversations were general. He shared with her what he had read in the local papers, and general stories from their childhoods.
It was a perfectly normal conversation as if she had not asked him to be her lover earlier and he had not shared the truth of where his family had come from. One would think the conversations had never taken place.
As was their habit, after they’d finished eating, they returned to the parlor and this time Lavinia poured brandy for them both.
He took the same chair he always sat in while Lavinia settled onto the settee. He would like to be closer but feared that instead of talking he would begin kissing her, and he did not want to rush what they were coming to be.
“I think it is time that you shared something with me. You did mention a scandal involving your family.”
“It is truly not so important.”
Likely because it wasn’t as shocking as what he told her earlier. “It is important to me, Lavinia,” he said quietly.
Lavinia let out a sigh, her shoulders rising and then falling as if defeated.
“You knew that my brother, Millard, had died.”
“I am aware of the circumstances, and what came before while he was still in London,” Demetrius answered. “Is that the scandal?” If so, then Demetrius already knew what she would likely wish all of Society to forget.
“I suppose that was the first scandal.” With that, she sipped from the brandy, closed her eyes, then sighed again.
He couldn’t imagine how bad it could be. Her brother, Millard, had attempted murder twice, before he fell from a horse at the family estate and broke his neck.
“My sister and her husband, along with my husband, Cormac, and me, returned home for the funeral and decided to stay for a month. One night both Cormac and Octavia’s husband began drinking and the deeper they got into their cups, the more they argued until apparently Cormac insulted Octavia, her husband took offense and the next thing we knew the two were out in the pasture.”
“Your brother did not try to stop them?”
“By the time we reached them, they had already paced off. Leopold yelled for them to stop just as both turned and fired, striking the other. Octavia and I became widows at the same time.”
All he could do was stare at Lavinia, stunned by her revelation. Not only that, but not a single tear was shed and she explained the situation as if it was a fact that happened to someone else.
“It had been Autumn, which saved Octavia and me from having to go into Society the following spring so we were not forced to listen to the gossip not only involving my brother, but my husband and brother-in-law.”
“Were there whispers this past Season?”
“I did not hear any, but because we had already suffered scandal, I have made certain that nobody in the family stepped out of line and drew attention to us. There were times that Augustus worried me, but as a gentleman of three and twenty, and the brother of a duke, much is forgiven.”
“That was why you were concerned with Octavia taking a lover.”
