Page 43 of One Perfect Dance
She had to kiss him again, for resolving all her doubts about his interest in her. He took the kiss over and deepened it, then pulled back reluctantly. “I love you, Ginny. But you had better go and tidy up. Your brother looks as if he has something on his mind. Shall I go home and leave you to your discussion?”
As he spoke, he helped her off his lap, and stood as she did.
“No, do not go,” Regina begged. “Stay, Elijah, if you do not mind. If you are able.”
His smile was tender. “Able and willing.”
“Tell William we are courting,” Regina suggested. “He has no authority over me, but he does worry.”
She lifted her chin and puckered her lips, and he bent so that she could reach his mouth. A small peck, and she left the room to find William pacing the hall. “Regina…” he began, then stopped. “You have been crying. You never cry.”
“I need to wash and put myself to rights, William. Keep Elijah company, will you? I will be five minutes and no more. Oh, and gentlemen? Use the little sitting room. A glass ornament was broken on the rug before the fire in the drawing room. I shall send a maid to sweep it for pieces.”
She instructed one of the parlor maids, and went up to her room, where she splashed water on her face and brushed her hair back into a tidy plait, which she bound around her head and pinned in place.
Looking presentable again, she descended the stairs some five minutes after she’d left the room. Within the sitting room to which she’d directed them, Elijah and William were sitting relaxed back in their chairs, each sipping from a glass of brandy as they talked.
Elijah saw her first and stood, William following a second behind him.
She took her own seat on the sofa, and said, “Please be seated, gentlemen.”
William leaned forward in his chair. “I have to talk to you about Geoffrey.”
Elijah began to rise. “Shall I wait in the next room?”
Regina put out a hand. “Stay, please. William, you can speak freely in front of Elijah. Is Geoffrey making a nuisance of himself? I am sorry—I didn’t think. He seemed so pleased to be spending so much time with you. I should have asked you if it was convenient to have him with you so often.”
William shook his head. “It’s worse than I thought then. That is to say, he hasn’t made a nuisance of himself at all. Regina, I’ve barely seen Geoffrey in over a week.”
For a moment, she could not take it in. “But he said… He told me…” Her hand reached for Elijah’s with no conscious thought and his firm grasp anchored her enough to get her thoughts in order. She turned her head to look at Elijah. “Ever since he arrived in London, Geoffrey has been, at least as I thought, visiting with William every day, and often staying with him overnight.”
William shook his head. “That is not true. He did so a couple of times at the beginning, yes. But when he heard Mother had arrived, he said he would not impose. I don’t know where he has been, but it has not been with me.”
“He has been lying.” She took a deep breath, letting the reality settle. “To do what, William? Do you know?”
“I know where he was last night. That’s why I came. When he saw me, he begged me to tell you I’d been with him. I told him to go home and tell you the truth, and I’d visit today to make sure he had done so. But I asked Charles, and he said Geoffrey hasn’t been home since he rose yesterday morning.”
Regina fixed on one part of that, her alarm rising. “Where was he? Somewhere he shouldn’t be?” Her mind teamed with possibilities, each worse than the last.
“A gambling den?” Elijah guessed. “A cock fight?”
“A bare-knuckle match,” William admitted.
They were all illegal activities, but a bare-knuckle match was not so bad, was it? At least it was not a brothel! She let out a breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding.
William grimaced. “He was with a group of boys around his own age and a bit older. I didn’t know any of them.” He added, “They were all half-cut.” He shot an apologetic glance at Regina and clarified. “Drunk, Regina.”
Regina gripped Elijah’s hand tighter, using it as an anchor for her spinning thoughts. “Drunk?” Her voice shook, but she swallowed, and it was firmer as she said, “But at least together. At an event like that? Safer.”
William looked doubtful. “Perhaps. But men in a drunken group can be very stupid.”
“I see.” She had heard stories, though she had no personal experience. She had been insulated from wild young men as a debutante, and as Gideon’s wife. And even in his youth, William had been sober and responsible.
Now that she was a widow, she was both too old and too respectable to move in the same circles as such youth.
Elijah opened his mouth and then closed it again.
“Say what you’re thinking,” Regina coaxed. “Ididask you to stay.”
