Now it was just Katherine and me in the wide marble hall waiting for the duke. “See,” I said, “he’s been ill.”
“Overslept from who knows what goes on here,” she said. “He’s fine. His priorities took precedence over his coming to us. And lying about in bed?” Her cheeks flushed. “Wonder what crazy, debauched antics led to that.”
Crazy and debauched? That didn’t sound like the man I’d come to know. Granted, I didn’t know what he did apart from his visits across the Thames, but his spirit was gentle. The man was always kind and listening to us. “A science meeting sounds important, Katherine. You make it sound selfish.”
Her glare at me said that was exactly what she felt. “Georgina, we came. We will wait for a moment to see his face, and then leave.”
“You sound so furious. The man has been nice to us. I asked you a question earlier. Sister, why do you hate the duke?”
A heated look flashed over her countenance. Her wide nostrils flared. Her black eyes reflected flames, glowing with the candles from the hall or maybe hell. “I don’t hate him. I just don’t like him.”
Lie.
Didn’t Katherine know that my gaze was her mirror? That these looking glasses saw into her soul and discovered bitterness? “Tell the truth. Why does he perplex you?”
“You’re too young to understand, Georgina. That’s why I’m here to protect you. You shouldn’t be taken in by the Duke of Torrance of all people. Your head and heart need to see a trap for what it is. The duke’s not worthy of your love.”
Love him? My own sister didn’t know me.
“Katherine . . . that’s what you think?”
“There’s no other explanation. It’s easy to be taken in by someone so charismatic.”
“To think I could be interested in the duke, a man who’s been like the brother I’d hoped Tavis would be, but never ever was—you wound me.”
“But it’s obvious. You hang on his words. Your eyes lift when he enters our house. You’ve fallen in love with him. And he’ll do nothing but hurt you. He’ll never marry you.”
“Katherine, you’ve gone too far. You think so little of me. And why on earth would I want to marry and be punished for the rest of my life, like you?”
“You didn’t mean that. But the duke is horrible. Woe unto anyone who marries him.” She drew her hand to her mouth. “Sorry—”
The Duke of Torrance was on the landing. Warm smile, light olive skin that looked more pale today. The energy and heat that radiated when his eyes met Katherine’s was the same, or maybe it was stronger, for we’d . . . she’d come to him.
“Hello,” the duke said. His motion was slow, but his face hadn’t lifted from Katherine. “What’s occurred?”
He hurried down using a cane. Immaculate in a jet tailcoat with silver-threaded buttonholes and velvet-looking indigo waistcoat, he seemed austere and commanding.
But his eyes, his gaze on my sister’s burned. I wanted him to hate her words, hate the way she belittled his efforts, but that wasn’t in his countenance. Why didn’t he loathe the way she acted, as I did? Why must he seem to be understanding when she sought to make everyone around her feel insignificant? “I asked a question,” he said. “What can I help with?”
“Tell him, Katherine. Tell him your lies. Make me feel even smaller than you do every day.”
“Wait. Georgina. I didn’t mean—”
I didn’t stay to hear the rest.
I ran.
I ran down the hall past the open door of the ballroom, which was filled with men holding charts, hooting at another man with charts. Maybe they had life figured out.
I ran past a drawing room of paintings, portraits of men, including Blackamoor men, then I slowed in front of a watercolor showing women slaying an enslaver. It was cowardly to run, but I had no other power.
“Georgina, wait.”
Speeding up, refusing to be coddled like the fool my sister believed me to be, I kept going until I was outside, knee-deep in the green gorse.
A wonderful garden surrounded me, lush bushes with roses and yellow flowers.
A little farther ahead was a tall maze. If I went inside it, I might be able to hide until I calmed. If she did follow, I hoped she’d not find my path. It was obvious we were on different ones.
