She had sacrificed a great deal for his father—her reputation, the chance of marriage, and of children. Her life as his father’s mistress could not be easy. “In light of your experiences with love, do you have any advice for me?”
She lowered her gaze to the bush in front of her. “It would be presumptuous of me to say, my lord.”
Impulsively, he took her gloved hand in his. “I would not consider it so.”
She looked him in the eye. “Then I would say, ‘follow your heart’.”
Sebastian squeezed her fingers and released them. “Thank you.”
“Good morning, Sebastian.” A familiar, commanding voice came from the roadway.
Sebastian turned to find his father astride a rangy black horse halted beside Hector at the gate. His father scrutinized them. Had he overheard their conversation? Surely not, at this distance, but how would he have interpreted Sebastian holding his mistress’s hand?
Brazen it out with nonchalance. Sebastian stepped back. “Merry Christmas to you, madam.”
“To you also, Lord Stanworth. I hope we will have time to discuss your Grand Tour further another day.” Her lips curved upwards as she glanced between his father and him.
“Perhaps, when you are not so busy with other visitors.” Sebastian dipped his head in farewell to Mrs Sperling and strode towards the gate. “Father.” He saluted his sire with a tap of his riding crop to the brim of his hat.
“Sebastian. I hadn’t expected to find you here.”
Despite having reached middle age, the Earl of Whitton was still a fit and handsome man. Tall and muscled from constant activity on his estate, he filled his well-cut jacket and breeches to perfection. Greying brown hair, close cropped, hugged his head, while longer waves swept onto his forehead. In looks they were very similar.
Sebastian hoped he aged just as well. “Just passing on the way home from the parsonage. I was telling Mrs Sperling highlights of my Grand Tour while she collected Christmas greenery.” Sebastian untethered his horse and remounted.
“I see.” His father’s brown eyes conveyed a stony stare.
Sebastian responded with a direct look. “And so do I, father. In your eyes I see love warring with jealousy, and I wonder how you can still tell me to marry someone I don’t love. It did not work for you and it would not work for me. Not when my heart is engaged elsewhere.”
“Sacrifices have to be made for duty.” His father’s gaze travelled to Mrs Sperling and morphed into a soft look of love.
“Not in this matter,” Sebastian muttered to himself as he bowed his head to the couple. His father clearly loved the lady, and must have done so for nigh on two decades, much of it unrequited while she was his daughter’s governess.
While his father was distracted, Sebastian took the opportunity to cut their awkward interview short by urging Hector into a trot.
Throughout his university years, his parents had paraded a succession of debutants of good family before him. He soon began spending university recesses with friends, only coming home unannounced, in order to thwart his mother’s match-making plans. When he did return home, he spent as much time as possible at the parsonage discussing science with Reverend Hambleton and his daughter. The attraction and admiration he had felt for Violet at age eighteen, had deepened over the last five years.
Once screened from his father’s sight by a bend in the road, Sebastian allowed Hector to return to his amble and himself to examining the events of his morning.
Today, Violet had worn a dress that matched her deep blue eyes. She was of average height, neither small enough nor tall enough to be distinctive, but just the right height for him to tuck into his side. The undiscerning viewer might only see sparrow-brown hair, an unremarkable nose, a generous mouth, matched with a determined chin, and eyebrows that were straight instead of fashionably arched. Her glasses, with their round, metal frames, disguised her exquisite and expressive eyes from the world, but not from him.
To him she was perfection. He saw a unique woman who was much more than the sum of those features. Violet was an intelligent and compassionate woman given to quietly making wry and acute observations that made him laugh. Her smile transformed her into a beauty and set his heart pounding.
Just the thought of her luscious body in his arms sent his libido rising.
The intended visit to the parsonage had not gone well, despite its promising start. Violet’s appreciation of his appearance, betrayed by her initial open-mouthed, wide-eyed stare, had sent hope bursting in his heart like fireworks at Vauxhall Gardens. However, she had quickly recovered her poise, betraying her agitation only by fiddling with her glasses.
The absence of her father and both household servants, which precluded him from entry, had been disappointing. He enjoyed nothing more than scientific discussion with Reverend Hambleton and Violet. As Violet talked, her intelligence and passion for science and botanical art animated her face and energized her body, transforming her into the most compelling and attractive woman of his acquaintance. Any time spent in Violet’s company turned his day into exceptional.
And today he’d had an important matter to discuss with the Reverend.
At least he had succeeded in delivering her secret admirer’s latest verse without arousing her suspicion. Sebastian’s pulse ratcheted up at the thought of revealing his identity at tonight’s ball. He was counting the hours until that moment. He had secured her hand for the supper waltz so he could execute his plan during supper. And afterwards make a very public announcement of their engagement.
Sebastian wished he had the ability to write something far more poetical than ditties—after all, they lived in an age of great poetry. Unfortunately, he was a simple man interested in agriculture and science, not a poet who could express his thoughts and feelings in verse. Had she laughed at the rough doggerel he had forwarded over the last few years?
Would she laugh in his face this evening?
Sebastian refocused on his surroundings. While he had been daydreaming, Hector had almost abandoned forward momentum. Sebastian gathered up his reins and urged the beast onward.
