Page 62 of Sinful Persuasion of a Lady in the Making
He swallowed, took a breath, then looked up and pasted a smile on his face.
“Why, it’s a beautiful day,” he said, reaching into his pocket for a cigar and signally for the butler to light it for him. He smiled at her, trying to lighten her mood, but it didn’t seem to work. “I thought you’d be happy to see your brother with a smile.”
“Not when there is something so evidently suspicious about it,” she replied, her eyes narrowed at him. “And don’t think you’re going to smoke that thing in here. You know how much I abhor the smell them.”
Sebastian took the lit cigar from the butler and sucked on it once, puffing blue smoke into the air around him. He watched it swirl around him, mesmerizing almost, and he wished he could get lost in it instead of the exhausting argument he was surely about to have.
“Darling Diana, why do you insist on always being so negative?” he asked, his words not harsh, but rather a genuine question.
“There is a clear difference between being negative, Sebastian, and being realistic. And you are either drunk or acting a fool simply to irritate me.” She waved her hand in the air and feigned a cough.
“You know that’s not true,” Sebastian said, reluctantly stubbing out the cigar. He silently reprimanded himself for lighting it in the first place. He shouldn’t have riled her, but the situation felt worthy of celebration. “And I mean it. A positive outlook will improve your life to no end.”
Diana made a disbelieving sound from her nose and turned away from him, clearly upset.
“I have nothing to be positive about,” she muttered, quiet but loud enough for him to hear, still not looking at him.
He peered around to try and catch her eye, but he couldn’t. All he could see was the broken expression on her face, the eyes screwed closed with threatened tears. His soul felt suddenly heavy, his heart breaking for the sister he loved. He was reminded of his determination to be a better man, and helping Diana have a better life was one of the things he so badly wanted to do.
He leaned forward until he was perched on the edge of his seat, his elbows resting on his knees.
“I’m sorry if I have upset you,” he said, and he was sincere, too, his voice thick with emotion. “I will refrain from smoking in the parlor; I know how much you hate it.” He grinned then and raised an eyebrow in a tease. “And, just for you, I will try to be less happy.”
She scoffed, still trying to be annoyed but her creeping smile told Sebastian that he had at least made her laugh, and that was a start. She threw her arm in the air, trying to slap him away, but he dodged it.
“I like it when you are happy,” she said, turning back to him with a wry smile. “It just leaves me suspicious, that’s all. Normally, when you are happy, it is because you have done or are doing something that will further damage our reputation. You haven’t done anything like that, have you?”
He tensed and paused, pressing his lips together as he considered his next words. She narrowed her eyes again, and he cleared his throat, sitting back in the chair and avoiding her eyes. This was it. This was the moment he had to tell her the truth.
“What is it this time?” she asked, her voice exhausted, her eyes still mostly closed.
“Well, actually,” he said, slow and stalling. He reached forward and picked up a teacup that had been left on the coffee table, fiddling with it as he spoke. “I do have some news.”
“What have you done?”
She picked the book up from her lap, closed it with a thump, and put it down on the table next to her. Her annoyance was efficient, well prepared, and he wondered how long it had been building. Despite that, Sebastian couldn’t stop the smile from rising up his cheeks as he thought about Miss Jones. She made every part of him smile, from the tips of his toes to the depths of his soul.
“I’m to be married,” he said. “Well, I’m going to court her first, of course, but then—”
“Married!” Diana was shocked, wide-eyed with delight. She looked truly overjoyed, and Sebastian was confused for a long moment. “To whom?” she asked, and then he understood. She had not worked it out, not yet.
“Ah, yes, well, that’s the bit you might not like.” He looked down at the empty teacup that he tumbled over and over in his hands.
“To whom?” she asked again, glaring at him this time and he looked up, taking a deep breath.
“You know to whom,” he said, looking at her from under her brow.
It took her a second or two, her eyes darting back and forth as she thought. And then her whole face changed as she came to understand.
“Miss Jones?” she asked, her voice high and loud, her mouth hanging open in horror. “You’re to marry Miss Jones?”
“Yes,” he replied, his grin growing again. He didn’t want to be so obvious, but he was unable to hide his excitement at the prospect.
“A mere servant!” Diana snapped.
“She is not a—”
“Perhaps no longer in name, but she willalwaysbe a servant, Sebastian. She is just one who happened to get lucky and find her way into a society in which she does not belong. Her place in life is in the servants’ quarters, not in your arms!”
“Diana, you are being entirely unreasonable,” Sebastian snapped, rising from his chair and pacing the room in front of her. “It is not like that, and you know it! I really don’t understand your problem—this is something you have been haranguing me to do for years, and now that I have finally succumbed, you are—”
“You have not succumbed tome, Dear Brother,” she spat. “But rather to a maid and a rumored adventuress who has developed a taste for nobility!”
“Don’t you dare speak of her in that manner,” Sebastian said, turning on her and snarling like an angry dog. He would protect Jenny no matter what, he knew that now. Diana would not be permitted to slander her, not even in the privacy of their home.
“Don’t you understand?” Diana cried, leaping out of her own seat. “It is not what you are doing that is the problem. Improving your life is indeed something I have wanted for far too long, and marriage is a part of that. But it is who you are doing it with that is so contentious!”
She pushed past him, storming out of the room in a cloud of anger and fury. Sebastian bit his tongue, wanting to shout after her but knowing it would do no good at all. Instead, he let her slam the door and then he sank miserably back into the chair.
