Page 35 of When the Marquess Was Mine
“I’ve been thinking,” she said, as earnestly as possible, “that it might be better for your recovery if you went to London.”
He went still. “Why?”
“There are doctors there.”
“Charlatans and poisoners, mostly.” He closed his eyes and braced his arms behind him, letting his head fall back so a ray of sun illuminated his face. “Dr. Elton says it’s not broken and will strengthen as I walk on it.”
“More than your leg was wounded,” she reminded him. “And Dr. Elton is barely a step up from birthing calves. In fact I think he might do that, when help’s needed...”
Rob grinned. “If farmers let him help with calving, that’s high praise.”
“But yourmind,” she protested, laughing nonetheless. “Farmers don’t care as much for cows’ minds, so Dr. Elton has no training in injuries to the head.”
“I expect most doctors in London know just as little.”
“Being back in town might help restore your memories,” she persisted.
“Oh?”
He said it absently, as if he were only being polite, but Georgiana knew that was false. He wanted to regain his memory. It wouldn’t match the stories she’d been telling him, but he didn’t know that now. And that’s why she had to persuade him. What if his mind would be permanently damaged if he didn’t remember soon? She couldn’t shake the fear that she was impeding his recovery, and the only way out was to get him away from Osbourne House.
“I think it will help immeasurably,” she said with more confidence than she felt. “And what could it hurt? We can’t stay here with Kitty forever.”
He sat up. “Of course not. I didn’t mean to suggest it. I just...” He hesitated, his brow creasing. “I feel no desire to go to London.”
Her heart leapt into her throat. “Why not?”
Looking puzzled, he shook his head. “I just don’t want to go.” He turned to face her. “Could we go to your home?”
She shuddered involuntarily. “Not unless plague has infested every other house in England.”
“That bad?” He edged closer. “Why?”
“My brother,” she said with a short, humorless laugh.
“Yes, him.” Rob stared off across the pond, the water glittering in the sun. “I have a few things to say to him.”
Only the thought that Rob would never have reason to speak to Alistair kept her from recoiling in alarm. “Well, he wouldn’t welcome us, and I’d rather go almost anywhere but there.”
“Why?”
Georgiana didn’t like talking about her brother, but somehow she found herself answering his question. “He’s not... kind. And in fairness, we hardly know each other. He’s twenty years older than I, and was raised as the heir, supreme above all others.” She couldn’t keep the scorn from her voice, remembering too late that Rob had probably been raised much the same way. He’d have been the Marquess of Westmorland from birth, or at least childhood. Perhaps that explained his arrogant attitude.
Well—his arrogant attitudebefore.
“Needless to say, Alistair had little to do with me,” she hurried on. “His mother died when he was at university and my father married my mother soon afterward.” She paused. “I think he resented her, and our father for marrying again at all, and then of course I was wholly unwelcome in his world.”
“He sounds a right prince,” said Rob.
“I don’t like him, either,” she confessed. “The trouble is, my father named him my guardian.” She rolled her eyes. “Papa always wanted us to get along. He thought Alistair would relent and regard me fondly. But I—” She stopped, realizing how much she’d said. “I don’t know why I’m boring you with all these ancient grudges!”
“Not bored at all.” She was grateful that his gaze was trained out over the pond and not on her. “How long have you been under his guardianship?”
“Oh, since I was seven, when my father died.” She plucked a wildflower from the grass and twirled the stem between her fingers. “It hasn’t been dreadful. He sent me off to school when my mother died the following year, and left me there for ten years.”
“Ten years!” His startled outburst made her smile.
“Tengloriousyears,” she replied. “I was very glad he did. He had to be persuaded—left to his own devices he would have sent me to an orphanage instead.”
