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It was not the first time she’d hinted at a match between him and Lady Tremaine’s daughter, but it might be the most blatant. It was also the perfect segue.
“Ah, well, I have some news.” Sebastian glanced at Riggs. He might as well tell the butler now, too. And perhaps having a witness, even if he was staff, would keep his mother’s reaction tempered. “While Lady Louisa is lovely, during the house party I proposed to and was accepted by a different young lady.”
Both Riggs and his mother brightened, though Riggs’ reaction was more muted. His mother had no such qualms; she darted forward, putting her hands on Sebastian’s arm as she peered up into his face.
“Was it Lady MarcyAnne? It was, was it not? Miss Fenley is not quite up to snuff, and Lady Darcy… well, she is a very brazen young lady. But Lady MarcyAnne is just perfect.” The way his mother looked at Sebastian, so intent and focused, made him feel very uncomfortable. What if he had chosen one of the other young ladies? And Lady Darcy… brazen? He doubted anyone else in the ton would have dubbed her so.
Sebastian had the sneaking suspicion that his mother’s dislike of Lady Darcy came from the young lady’s confidence. She would not be easy to push around. Though if his mother thought Lady MarcyAnne would be, she clearly had not spent much time with that young lady either. He had no doubt that Lady MarcyAnne would have a spine just as strong as Lady Darcy’s when it was put to the test.
“Why not Lady Juliette?” he asked, somewhat bemused that his mother had left her out of the question. Clearly, the ton had been gossiping about the last-minute house party and its guests. It was not important, but with his mother’s excitement over the prospect of Lady MarcyAnne as a daughter-in-law and the derogatory manner in which she’d declared Miss Fenley ‘not up to snuff’, he was delaying the inevitable, and he knew it.
“Please.” His mother waved her hand. “I have seen the way Lord Hayworth looks at her. If her parents sent her there for any reason other than to move him into making his declaration, I would be very surprised.”
Which just reminded Sebastian all over again how very astute his mother could be. It made her blind spots all the more puzzling.
“Yes, well, you are correct. Lord Hayworth will be speaking to Lady Juliette’s father upon their return,” Sebastian admitted.
Triumph flashed in his mother’s eyes. She liked being right. Which meant she was going to hate being wrong about Lady MarcyAnne. Sebastian internally braced himself.
“Then it is Lady MarcyAnne,” she crowed.
“No.” Sebastian shook his head.
His mother’s face fell, and she let go of her grip on his arm, stepping back away from him then.
“Lady Darcy, then?” she asked, frowning, some kind of calculation going on behind her eyes. Sebastian shook his head, and her expression settled into one of distaste. “Miss Fenley? Really, Sebastian, she is only the daughter of the third son of a marquess, hardly fit for a duke, but… I suppose if she caught your eye, then there must be something there we can work with.” His mother’s mouth firmed. “Yes, I shall work with her to ensure she knows her place.”
Sebastian had the unsettling feeling that his mother meant very much in the way she’d worked with Tiffany, which meant he was certainly going to need to intervene in the future. If she thought Miss Fenley would need training, then he had no doubt she’d be sure of it for Mei—and she would not be entirely wrong. But now that he knew what his sister went through with their mother, Sebastian would put no other woman through that. Especially not his wife.
“No, not Miss Fenley either.” He might as well get the worst of it over with. Sebastian cleared his throat. “Miss Hu has done me the honor of accepting my proposal.”
It was the calm before the storm. The very air hung, still and waiting, before real understanding flowed across his mother’s face. Understanding, then the fury of a raging tempest. Behind her, Riggs had brightened again before shooting a rather trepidatious glance at the current duchess. Even though her back was to him, he clearly recognized that she would not be as pleased as he was.
“Miss Hu? Miss Hu?” Her voice rose higher and higher with every word, ending in an ear-blistering shriek. “The matchmaker?!”
“Yes,” Sebastian replied stoically, hands fisting at his side, shoulders square, facing the brunt of her fury head-on. Better to get it over with now in relative privacy. He nodded at Riggs, who bowed and began to back away, showing a keen sense of self-preservation.
Clearly, a witness was not going to stymy the worst of his mother’s reaction, and once she came back to her senses, she would not be pleased that someone had seen her so unrestrained.
“You cannot marry the matchmaker!” She whirled around as if seeking some kind of support, and Riggs froze in his movements. It did not matter as she would not have counted him a viable resource, anyway. She rounded on Sebastian again. “Sebastian, you cannot! You will dishonor this family!”
“Mei will be a valuable addition to our family line,” Sebastian replied, staying as calm as he could. There was no use in adding to his mother’s hysteria. “Besides which, I am not marrying her for honor. I am going to marry her because I love her.”
“Love…” His mother shook her head, raising her hand to one temple. “My God… I have failed my children… both of them…”
And with that ugly remark, she began to fall.
Both Sebastian and Riggs lunged forward, but Sebastian was closer, catching his mother in her faint. She felt very light and almost frail in his arms, and guilt stabbed his chest.
Perhaps that could have been more gently done. Perhaps just getting it over with had not been the right way to go about things… he’d always thought of his mother as strong, but she felt so tiny against him.
“Riggs, call her maid,” he ordered. “I’ll take her up to her room. And ring for the doctor.”
At some point, he would still need to question her about Harleen and speak to her staff, starting with Heywood, but at the moment, he would take care of this mess he’d made of things with her. It was his duty as her son.
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Mei
