Page 46 of When the Marquess Was Mine
Some of her antipathy had returned. “How do you be sure of that if you don’t remember why you came?”
His mouth tightened. “What did I do to make you think I would travel halfway across the country to toss a woman and baby out of their home?”
“You’rehere!” she cried in frustration.
Rob went still. He stared at her a moment, then turned to the window. “I don’t want it,” he repeated. “I must have come to give it back.”
Georgiana glared at the passing scenery in misery. She wanted to believe him—shedidbelieve him. Whether he’d meant to do that originally or not, she trusted what he said now.
And if he’d always intended to give it back... then she’d leapt to awful conclusions about him.
She pressed trembling fingertips to her brow, remembering how cold and disdainful he’d been in London. She had seen him and heard him several times, over two years, heap scorn and mockery on others. Surely she couldn’t have been utterly wrong. Surely he must have changed as a result of his brush with death and the trauma of losing his memory.
Of course, that didn’t pardon her own behavior.
They rode in silence for several minutes. Georgiana kept her hands tucked around her sides, remembering how he’d held her hand on the ride to the Bull and Dog, little more than an hour ago.That’s over and done with, she told herself.It’ll be a miracle if he doesn’t hate me after all this.
“Have you really been engaged to Sterling for over two years?” he asked abruptly.
Georgiana bristled. “Yes.”
“Why haven’t you set a date?”
She kept her gaze fixed on things outside the window. She wanted to reply that it was none of his business, but that would feel like her biggest lie yet. “I told you the truth. My brother is difficult and he’s dithering over the settlements. One month he’ll agree to something, then the next month he says it was too generous and won’t suit him after all.”
“And Sterling puts up with that?”
“What can he do?” she exclaimed. “Alistair is... quarrelsome. If you argue with him, he’ll retract what he already promised out of pique. He has to be persuaded and coaxed, and that takes time.”
“And you’re willing to wait all this time?” He cast a glance at her. “Sterling is willing to wait?”
Georgiana went rigid. “I fell in love with Sterling before I was ten years old. Everyone knew we were meant for each other—everyone. Our families are in favor, even Alistair, for all his grumblings. Of course, if Sterling finds out I told everyone you were he and treated you as my fiancé—” She stopped, not because she was terrified to think what Sterling would do, but because she was not terrified. Not of Sterling, at any rate. Not of him breaking their betrothal. Not even of him looking at her with disappointment or irritation, and asking how she could have been so foolish.
She couldn’t look at Rob. She was too afraid it would show on her face, how dangerously her thoughts had turned.
“You shouldn’t ask such questions,” she said stiffly. “We’re betrothed, and that’s that.”
Neither spoke again until the carriage turned into the lane toward Osbourne House.
Rob leaned forward to peer out the window. “Are you certain you can do this?”
He meant keep up the pretense. That was the escape Major Churchill-Gray had offered her: they were returning to Osbourne House for tonight, still pretending that Rob was Sterling, still her fiancé, still without his memory. She would tell Kitty that it was time for her to return to London, that she was taking Rob to town to consult as many doctors as it took to restore his mind. She would say they had discussed it on their drive today and decided it was best.
Tomorrow a travel chaise would come for them. They would meet the major at a nearby market town and travel together to Macclesfield, from whence Rob would go with his brother to Salmsbury Abbey, while Georgiana would continue with her maid to London. The major had promised to arrange for safe and comfortable travel for them.
He left it to her how and when she chose to tell Kitty the truth.
It had sounded very simple when he laid it out, and she had agreed with a sense of relief that someone had planned the exit for her, but now it hit her that these were her last hours with Rob.
She glanced at him. He was facing straight ahead, but after a moment turned to meet her gaze, his expression somber and a bit wistful. It blew away her tension and frustration. Today was the last time he would hold her hand or touch her cheek. Tomorrow was the last time they would sit beside each other. And then, after tomorrow, if she ever saw him again it would be from across a room, when they would be strangers again, by necessity and because they never should have been more.
All in all, the easiest part of the plan was tonight, still pretending that he was hers. She didn’t want to waste it arguing.
“I can if you can,” she said with a faltering smile of apology.
His mouth crooked. He took her hand and raised it to his cheek, his lips on the back of her wrist. A shudder of regret went through her.
He kept her hand in his until they reached the house. But she only realized later that he never answered her implicit question.
