Page 110 of Lessons for Marquesses
“Yes, and if you hadn’t, I would have gone right. I don’t trust you and you know it, and so you told me the correct way so that I would fall!” Caroline fumbled, trying to stand with a blood-curdling screech. “My ankle. I’ve broken my ankle!”
Nicholas undid her right boot, prodded her ankle, and turned it to and fro. “A sprain. Let us get you to the house and a doctor.”
Caroline waved at Kitty. “She does not come with us! Demonic girl! Trying to kill me!”
Nicholas scooped Caroline in his arms. “I apologize, Miss Babbington.”
Kitty tossed the lace sleeve over Caroline’s face. “Godspeed, my lady.”
“Don’t you dare speak to me!”
Nicholas lifted Caroline into her saddle, fit her right leg between the pommels, pushed her good foot in the stirrup, and offered her the reins. Dusting off his hands, he met Kitty’s wide eyes.
He jerked his head toward the tower with a knowing look. Kitty nodded and waited for them to leave the ruins before rushing back to the tower.
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
As Caroline poutedand sniffed into Kitty’s lace sleeve beside him, Nicholas slowed their pace and aimed them to the road instead of the most direct route between the fields. He’d rather be free of Caroline sooner but Georgiana needed time to return home.
The sin of his deception plagued him. What should he tell Georgiana? Everything. He was the marquess, he had barred her from running the Fordyce Stakes, had bought up her debt with the intention of destroying her. And what she didn’t know. He had fortified his soul with vengeful imaginings while he had marched, waited for the next battle. As he had run rampant over lush, bloody battlefields, her father and she had been with him.
Georgiana would never forgive him.
He did not deserve forgiveness.
Nicholas forced a neutral expression while he agonized over thewhenof his confession. When he returned to Farendon. When he could be alone with her. Tomorrow. Yes, he would take her riding.
“I’m not jealous, you know,” Caroline said.
“Yes, it was very clear you were not in the least jealous.”
“I know Georgiana was there. I could smell her.Youhave a smell when you are impassioned.”
He had definitely been that.
“I only care that she deceives me. One can see how she melts in your presence. It’s unnatural. Unseemly. Like a man in love with another man.”
“Philiabetween men was prevalent in Greek texts.”
“What is it with you and the Greeks?”
“Merely the basis of my education, the foundation on which our modern world stands.”
She dropped the lace from her nose. “I do love you so when you are sarcastic.”
Damn, he wanted to be a mile away when Caroline found a mirror.
“I know what you are planning,” she said. “She refuses your due, and you are to have your revenge. I understand your desire to ruin hercompletely. I would do the same. It is your home. Not hers. My uncle should never have taken it from you. And he did it for her. He did everything for her.”
“Are you envious?” he asked. “That St. Clair did everything for her?”
Caroline drew back on the reins, pulling hard on her horse’s mouth. She averted her face, and for an earl’s daughter, raised in a family filled with affection, Nicholas wondered what Caroline’s upbringing had lacked that she would be envious of Georgiana.
He asked when she remained silent, “Were you close to your uncle?”
“I was his favorite.”
“Besides Georgiana.”
