Page 52 of The Vagabond Viscount
To his credit, her brother held his tongue. Augusta had a horrible feeling he was biding his time, waiting for the right moment when he would have an all-out row with the duchess. From the whispers of the servants, the storm clouds of war had been brewing between them from the moment the Marquis of Holwell had arrived the previous evening.
“It’s not Gideon’s fault. I should have had more food at breakfast.”
* * *
Returning to his home at All Saints, Flynn quickly put pen to paper. He sent a note to Gideon informing him of his address, then walked the short distance over to Palazzo Lazio and offered it to the heavily armed guard who stood at the front door. It took a few attempts to get the man to accept the letter, but when Flynn finally made mention of the Duchess of Mowbray, his missive was snatched dismissively out of his hands and spirited away. He stifled a grin at the thought of the opinion the servants at Palazzo Lazio must hold of the fearsome Lady Anne. From his own experience of Gideon’s mother, it was a fool who made the mistake of attempting to cross her.
Letter delivered, Flynn turned and headed for home once more. There was a spring in his step, something he couldn’t recall having had in a very long time. Augusta was the reason. She was also the reason for the smile on his face.
I can’t believe she is in Rome and has been here all this time.
While he had been slowly finding his way to Rome, the woman he loved was, unbeknownst to him, already in the city. Their meeting had to have been written in the stars. Fated.
If only I had been able to arrive here all those months ago. We could have been together and back in England. Married.
He consoled himself with the knowledge that he couldn’t possibly have made it to Rome any earlier. His wounds and lack of money had dogged his every step. He’d walked much of the way, gratefully accepting the kind offers of strangers who did allow him to travel with them for parts of the journey.
While his heart had been begging for him to ask for Lady Augusta Kembal when he delivered the note, Flynn was still too ashamed of both his appearance and his shabby attire to make such a request. He’d had a year in which to imagine what their reunion might look like, and his hope-filled dreams hadn’t included her seeing him in this current disheveled state.
I want to look like the man she loves.
If he appeared as a ragged beggar to her sight, how could he possibly ask her to marry him? A mixture of joy and sadness swirled within.
It was wonderful that Augusta was in Rome, and he would soon see her, but his happiness was dulled by the fear of what she would say when she finally did see him. And even if his appearance didn’t have her holding back her joy, he worried what she would say. There had to be a thousand questions which she needed him to answer. The first being what had happened to him that fateful afternoon after they had parted in Hyde Park.
At the end of Via della Pilotta, Flynn turned and looked back at the entrance to Palazzo Lazio. On the corner of the busy street, he made a vow.
“I have to tell her everything,” he muttered.
If he was going to attempt to salvage their future, it was time Augusta knew everything about him. Of the life he had been forced to live before his disappearance. And what potential threat his father might still pose to their future.
But first he had to speak to Gideon. To understand what else had been going on in the world during his absence. Only then would he feel ready to share the truth with Augusta. Including why he had lied to her about his father’s refusal to allow them to marry.
His private shame would finally step into the light, and when it did, he could only pray that Augusta loved him enough to take her place alongside him.
ChapterTwenty-Nine
Agentle tap came on Augusta’s bedroom door not long after Lady Anne finally left to allow her to get some well-deserved sleep. A figure entered the darkened room, then quietly closed the door behind them. “Are you still awake?” whispered Serafina.
“Yes, I was beginning to think Mama would never leave. I had to feign falling asleep twice before she finally took the hint.”
Augusta lit a candle while her friend took up a seat on the end of her bed.
The glow from the flame revealed a deeply worried Serafina. “You gave us all an awful scare in the shop this afternoon. Poor Gideon didn’t know what to do with himself, or you.”
Poor Gideon.
She could sympathize with him. Her brother wasn’t used to the females of his family fainting. The Kembal girls were all of robust health.
They had also been raised not to employ underhanded tactics such as pretending to swoon when they wanted to get their own way. The duchess considered that sort of behavior to be well beneath their social station. She had made it clear to Augusta, Victoria, and Coco that the daughters of the Duke of Mowbray were not the kind of girls to ever play games, especially when it came to men.
“I can’t believe I fainted either, but when Gideon mentioned Flynn, everything suddenly spun out of control. The next thing I knew, I was lying in my brother’s arms on the floor in the middle of the tailor’s shop.”
At some point she would have to return to the shop and apologize to the owner. She had given the tailor and his team a terrible fright.
There was some comfort in having been out of the public eye when she fainted for the first time. And she was, fortunately, hundreds of miles away from London. Hopefully, thehauttonwould never find out.
Serafina scooted along the bed and when she reached where Augusta sat, took hold of her hand. “Flynn is alive. This is wonderful, glorious news. I told you—they don’t call Rome the city of miracles for nothing.” She leaned in close. “I hear from the palace servants that Gideon received a note from Viscount Cadnam a little while ago. Aren’t you keen to know where he is staying? To see him again?” The grin on her friend’s face was one of barely restrained delight.
