Page 104 of The Virgin Who Humbled Lord Haslemere
Once a lady wept for a man once, she was certain to do so again, especially a man like Benedict Harcourt.
Emma’s eyebrow ticked up at Georgiana’s use of his Christian name. “Dear me. What did he do?”
“Why, the most horrible thing imaginable!” Georgiana gave a pathetic sniffle. “I can hardly think it, much less say it.”
“Oh, no. Is it as terrible as that?” Emma’s eyebrow twitched, just as it always did when she was concerned. “Tell it to me quickly, like when you have the stomachache and Winnie makes you drink one of her dreadful potions.”
“He tricked me!” Georgiana wailed, covering her face with her hands. “He’s so much cleverer than I ever dreamed, Emma, and so funny and caring and lovely, and he has such handsome eyes and such a sweet smile, and before I even knew what washappening, he—”
Emma pulled Georgiana’s hands gently away from her face. “He made you fall inlove with him.”
“I wastoldhe was a rake! I wasled to believehe was a rake, and he isn’t! Or, he was once, I daresay, but he isn’t now, and I—I wasdupedinto falling in love with him, Emma!”
Emma rolled her eyes. “No one will ever accuse you of being a romantic, Georgiana. But I don’t see what’s so terrible about falling in love, unless…does helove you, too?”
Georgiana wiped her eyes with her sleeve. “He told me he did, but at the time we were…he said it under unusually intensecircumstances.”
“You mean he said it while the two of you were engaged in—”
“No! My goodness, Emma!” Georgiana blushed to the roots of her hair. “He said it right after he climbed back through Lord Draven’s window, mere seconds after escaping certain death. I daresay he would have said he loved whoever happened to be on the other side of that window.”
“Did you believe him to be sincere at the time?”
“I…did.” But then, what did she know about declarations of passionate love? Not a thing. She did know about common sense, however, and she could easily believe Benedict’s words had been the truth ofa moment only.
“But you’re no longersure of him.”
Georgiana sighed. “Let’s just say it’s far easier to believe he loves me when he…”
When he’d been holding her tightly in his arms, pressing kisses to her temple, and whispering in her ear. But that had been more than a week ago. She and Benedict had returned to London that evening. He’d left her at the Clifford School with a dozen longing kisses, but he hadn’t repeated his protestations of love.
She hadn’t seen him since.
He’d returned to Oxfordshire at once with Jane, Freddy, Lady Tilbury, and Augustus for a grand reunion with Clara and Lord Draven. Jane and Clara were both adamant the two boys would come to love each other as brothers, and Lord Draven had been anxious to express his gratitude to Lady Tilbury.
It was bound to be a joyous occasion, but it was one for family only, and Georgiana wasn’t family. She wasn’t…anything, and that wasn’t eventhe worst part.
Not for the first time, Emma seemed to read her mind. “There’s something else worrying you, isn’t there?”
“I…I don’t know how to fallin love, Emma.”
“My dear girl, it sounds as if youalready have.”
“Very well, then. I don’t know how tobein love.”
Georgiana expected Emma to laugh, or shrug and say that was nonsense, that everyone knew how to fall in love, to be in love, but that wasn’twhat she did.
Instead, a shadow passed over her face. “It amazed me, how quickly Sophia and Cecilia fell in love. Like it was nothing, as easy as falling into a field of daisies, or leaping into a cool pond on a summer’s day. I wonder what thatmust be like.”
There was a note of awe in Emma’s voice. She stared at Georgiana for a long moment without speaking, then she swallowed and turned away. “Love requires trust, and vulnerability. That’s not something that comes easily to eitherof us, is it?”
“No.” Georgiana bit her lip to smother the wretched tears that were threatening once again. She did trust Benedict, and she was grateful to him. Perhaps he would break her heart, but he’d brought her closer to love than she’d ever thought possible.
There was something—surely there was something meaningful in discovering one had aheart to break?
Emma tried to smile, but she looked melancholy as she rose to her feet with a sigh. “I told Lady Crosby I’d be back by now, but before I go, there’s one thing I want you to think about.”
Georgiana reached up to squeeze the hand Emma lay on her shoulder. “What is it?”
