Page 110 of Ladies in Hating
There was a peculiar little hiccup from Georgiana’s quarter, and Cat tore her eyes away from the baby to look at Georgiana.
She was sobbing silently, tears streaming down her cheeks and dripping into the high collar of her morning dress.
“Georgie,” Cat said in alarm. “Are you all right?” She tucked an arm rather helplessly around Georgiana’s side, and only later did she reflect on how easy it had become to perform such a gesture in front of Georgiana’s family. “What’s happened?”
“Nothing—nothing.”
“I would find that more persuasive if you were not in danger of flooding the sitting room.”
Georgiana laughed, then sobbed again. “I can’t—wipe my eyes. I don’t want to drop the baby. Can you fetch me a handkerchief or—”
Cat used the tips of her fingers instead, brushing the tears from Georgiana’s elegant cheekbones. “Tell me what’s the matter.”
“Nothing’s the matter. Oh God, I loathe weeping. It’s only that—” She turned and fixed Cat with a damp blue gaze. “It’s only that I had never imagined any of this. A niece. My family together. You.” Her voice cracked. “It took me by surprise, all of a sudden. How happy I am.”
“So am I,” Cat murmured. “Oh, Georgie mine. So am I.”
Eight months later
Cat had been back home from London for some time before she found Georgiana in the garden, armed with secateurs and doing something industrious to the new rose vines.
Or—no. As Cat came closer, she realized that Georgiana was poking lightly at the mortar between the sandstone bricks with the sharp tip of her scissors.
“Looking for jewels?” she murmured as she came up behind Georgiana.
Georgiana jumped. “Oh. No, I was only—” Her face had gone pink all over. “All right, yes. I refuse to start tearing down walls—not when we’ve finally finished putting them all back up. I was attempting to satisfy my curiosity without resorting to demolition.”
Cat laughed and wrapped her arms around Georgiana’s waist. In deference to the summer heat, Georgiana was dressed in thincrepe muslin, and Cat could feel the ridge of Georgiana’s pelvis, the tiny dip of Georgiana’s navel straight through the fabric.
She heard herself make a slightly inarticulate noise as she pressed her mouth to the back of Georgiana’s neck. “I missed you.”
“Mm.” Georgiana tipped her head, giving Cat space to taste the delicate expanse of heat-flushed skin, to breathe in her complex scent. “I missed you too.”
“It took me a quarter of an hour to find you.” She kissed Georgiana’s neck again and then breathed her next words into Georgiana’s ear. “Do you know what that means?”
Georgiana shivered. Her ribs moved beneath Cat’s hand as she took a quick, unsteady breath. “What does it mean?”
“It means”—God, she tasted so good, felt so lovely, and Cat had missed her so much—“I could have been doing this fifteen minutes ago.”
Georgiana’s arm made a graceful arc above her head as she reached up to put her fingers in Cat’s hair. “Or,” she murmured, “it means our house is too large.”
Against Georgiana’s skin, Cat breathed out a laugh. “I’m trying to be romantic. Do not wreck my plans with pragmatism.”
Georgiana laughed too, and turned, and put her arms about Cat’s body. “You’re trying to seduce me in our garden. I’m not certain that’s the same thing as romance.”
“Isn’t it? Dash it, I was so certain I had it right.”
Georgiana laughed again, and pulled out of Cat’s embrace, but only to drag Cat to the bench they’d had installed just beneath Sarah Sophia’s plaque. It was a delicate marvel of copper and wrought iron, the back worked in a pattern of roses and moons.
It fit them both perfectly.
“How are the books?” Georgiana asked.
Their newest books were set to release one month apart: two lush, eerie, gorgeously illustrated novels about a pair of lady detectives in the moorlands. They’d planned and designed them together, along with Jean Laventille. Selina had ordered two hundred copies just for Belvoir’s.
“Absolutely gorgeous. I’ve brought a handful of samples of cloth back for you to fondle.”
Georgiana’s eyes were warm and soft on Cat’s face. “And Jem and Pauline? Are they still planning to come up in a fortnight?”
