Page 39 of Gentlemen Prefer Heiresses
She was grateful for his confidence, although she didn’t share it. Having watched Tillie survive her scandal, Gina wasn’t certain she’d be able to survive her own.
Chapter 12
“What the bloody hell were you thinking?”
Andrew didn’t flinch at his brother’s harsh words, shouted at him, within their father’s library. He deserved the anger, the disappointment. He deserved it and a good deal more.
A servant had been sent to Kingsbrook Park to fetch the Marquess and Marchioness of Rexton. It had taken hours. Andrew had been made to wait between the dark walls and musty books, with his father staring at him in stony silence. His mother had stayed with Gina in her room until her sister arrived. Then the duchess had joined them here, saying not a word, merely lowering herself gracefully into a chair, her gaze riveted on him where he stood near the fireplace.
“Andrew, I’m speaking to you,” Rex stated harshly.
“No, you’re yelling. And I should think the answer is obvious: I wasn’t thinking.”
“I warned you to stay away from her. I knew you’d be unable to resist lifting her skirts.”
“I didn’t lift her skirts.”
“Oh? So you took her to the Nightingale to play backgammon? How many times have you taken her there?”
He sighed in frustration. His relationship with Gina, what they’d done together was no one’s business. Yet he knew speculation and gossip about them was already spreading throughout all of London. He was powerless to stop it and the scandal that would envelop her.
“Raising your voice, Rex, isn’t going to help the situation,” his father said quietly from where he stood, leaning against his desk. It might not help but it hurt far less than his father’s disappointing tone. “The girl was under our protection, Andrew. Your actions are unconscionable.”
“Don’t be a hypocrite, Sterling,” his mother chastised.
Andrew jerked his gaze to the woman who had born him. The look she was giving the Duke of Greystone spoke volumes.
“We weren’t married when you first bedded me,” she added succinctly.
Oh Lord, he didn’t want to envision his father bedding his mother, did not want to know the intimate details of their lives. It seemed he was going to be punished for his actions regarding Gina in all manners imaginable.
“That was different, Frannie.”
“In what way?”
Shifting uncomfortably, he crossed his arms over his chest. “It just was.”
“Because I was a commoner, a bookkeeper, a woman with no prospects of marriage?”
“No, because I was irrevocably drawn to you.”
She nodded, before turning her attention to Rex. “And you. Look me in the eye and swear to me that you did not have relations with Tillie before you wed her a few days ago.”
“Of course I did. She was a divorcée, a woman with no reputation to protect. She was worldly, not an innocent like Gina.”
“So you thought it perfectly all right to take advantage of her because her field had been plowed before?”
“No! Good God, I’m not having this conversation.”
Andrew might have felt some sympathy for his brother if he wasn’t so worried about Gina. He wanted to hold her, comfort her. Although it was entirely possible she’d want nothing else to do with him.
“You are,” his mother said sternly. “Why did you bed her outside of marriage?”
“Because I was obsessed with her, but I don’t see what that has to do with anything.”
“You don’t think it possible your brother shared the same obsession?”
He sighed. “I know he did. I saw the way he looked at her. That’s the reason I warned him off.” He glared at Andrew. “Why the bloody hell didn’t you steer clear of her?”
