Page 53 of Sinful Persuasion of a Lady in the Making
“What?” she asked, brow furrowed in question.
“You inspire me, Miss Jones. To become a better person, a better man. I want to clean up my life—for you, for me, for us. I want to change.”
“I am very honored,” she said, smiling back at him, and he could see from her eyes that she was.
“There are lots of things I would like to do now—things that don’t involve the gaming hall or copious amounts of brandy.”
“Oh yes?” she asked, taking another sip of her wine. He drank some of his, their eyes meeting over the rims of their glasses, their gazes held for a long moment.
“I’m going to help my sister find the life she wants,” he said. “She has had too difficult a time, and I hate to see her so miserable.”
“It is sweet that you care so much for her,” Jenny said.
Sebastian looked down, twirling the stem of his wine glass between his fingers and watching the light glitter over the surface.
“It’s only fair,” he said. “Regardless of whether you forgive me my wrongs, I know Diana feels that I have badly hurt her. And she is not incorrect when she says it is my fault she has not yet married—at least, it ispartlymy fault.”
“It says a lot about the man you are today that you want to help her. You say you want to become a better person, Sebastian, but from what I can see, you alreadyare.”
“That’s a lovely thought,” he said, then drained the rest of his glass. He picked up a jam tart and ate it slowly as she watched, not feeling in the slightest bit self-conscious, because it was Jenny, and he was happy for her to watch.
“What else do you want to do?” she asked, her eyes still upon him.
“Other than marry you?” he asked, a teasing smile playing on his lips.
“Other than that, yes.” She chuckled, looked briefly down at her lap, coy and sweeter than sugar. He paused, face raised to the bright sky as he thought.
“I think I’d like to buy a house by the sea,” he said, still watching the sky.
“By the sea!” Jenny gushed, half laughing in her delight at the thought.
“Do you like the seaside?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” she said, shaking her head in bemusement. “I’ve never been. I’ve not even left London. But I’ve heard so much about it, and I dream about it often. I hope to see it in person one day.”
“I’ll take you,” he said, his eyes lighting up with the idea. “I promise you. We shall visit the seaside as soon as we are married, and you can experience in the flesh.”
And I will buy that house, too, and we shall live in it. I promise that much.
“Will you?” she asked, and he could see that she held back the excitement that teetered on the very edge of her mind. He chuckled.
“I will,” he said. “Especially if it makes you smile like that.”
At the end of the afternoon, the maids came forward to help pack away the remains of the picnic. Jenny got up to help, as was her habit, and seeing it, Sebastian did so, too. They worked in silence, but as they did he looked over at her often, their eyes meeting and their shy smiles matching.
As he straightened up, picnic basket dangling from one hand, he asked, “May I call you on tomorrow?”
“Of course,” she replied. “I was hoping you would.”
