Page 38 of Marriage Most Scandalous
“I trust you’ll do better with your performance once we have an audience?”
“Actually,” she said with a smile, “I’ve decided that you’re due a bit of tartness for embarrassing me with that kiss in the hallway. You know very well that was inappropriate, no matter the reason.”
“Kindly remember that we’re still newlyweds.”
“And what has that to do with holding grudges?” she demanded.
“Everything, m’dear,” he replied. “As a recent bride, you would be much too interested in lovemaking to hold them for very long.”
She gasped and started to sputter, but she snapped her mouth shut when she noticed his grin. He was grinning again! This house was having an odd effect on him, she decided.
With a huff, she jerked her arm back from him and entered the dining room. Denton and Abigail were already there, and Abigail wasn’t looking too happy.
The very moment she noticed Margaret she said, “I’ve a bone to pick with you, gel. Sebastian wasn’t downstairs like you said. I searched all over, couldn’t find—”
“I’m right here, Grandmother,” Sebastian cut in as he followed Margaret into the room.
“Thank goodness! I was beginning to think I imagined your return, Sebby.”
Abigail patted the seat of the chair beside her. Sebastian obliged, though he sighed when his grandmother used that nickname again. Margaret took the seat next to Denton farther down the table while grandmother and grandson got reacquainted.
Her anger had been on the rise with that “newlywed” remark, sure that Sebastian was going to use that excuse to his advantage, not hers. But hearing him sigh over his childhood name did temper that considerably. She couldn’t help but smile as she remembered the appalled look on his face when Abigail had called him Sebby.
Margaret noticed that Denton was wearing quite a dour expression as he watched his brother. “Buck up, Denton,” she said. “Don’t begrudge him this reunion.”
“I don’t. It’s actually good to see him again. Never thought I would feel this way, you know. And—well, never thought I’d say this either, but I’ve missed him. We may not have been the best of chums, but Sebastian was always there if help was needed, if you know what I mean.”
“You could depend on him?” “Exactly.” “Then why the gloomy look?”
He rolled his eyes. “You have to ask? I still can’t believe you married him. Him of all people.”
“I never would have imagined it m’self,” she agreed. “And if you must know, I didn’t warm to him immediately when we met in Italy. But he was a familiar face from home, so I was loath to give him the cold shoulder completely.”
“You would have?”
“Certainly.”
“Because Father disowned him?”
“Oh, no, not a’tall. Because my sister would still be here, alive, if Sebastian hadn’t killed Giles.”
“Ah, a deeper grudge than I thought. And yet you married him anyway.”
Hearing it put that way, Margaret winced. “Well, he’s still the charming man he used to be.” She almost choked over that lie, but it did get her point across. “I fell in love with the new him, not the old him. It’s bloody hard to differentiate between the two now.”
Denton shook his head sadly. “You know I’d hoped—” Margaret quickly cut him off with the warning, “Don’t say something you’ll later regret.” Her tone had been rather sharp. She curbed it with a smile and patted his hand. “I find I’m pleased to be part of this family again. You know I love Douglas and Abbie. I’m even fond of you. It worries me now that I may not be welcome a’tall when Douglas recovers and finds out Sebastian is here and that I’ve wed him. We’ll have to wait and see.”
“Nonsense. You know my father thinks of you as the daughter he never had. He’s not going to blame you for succumbing to Seb’s charm. Just the opposite will be more like it. Another mark against my brother, as it were.”
Margaret sighed. She hadn’t thought of that. Not that it mattered, when Sebastian had no intention of staying in England after he finished the job she’d brought him here to do. It still amazed her that Douglas had had yet another accident, and right when she returned home.
“There weren’t any other accidents while I was in Europe, were there?” she asked.
“Now that you mention it, there was one. Father fell out of bed.”
“What?!”
She said it too loud, drawing Sebastian’s attention. She shook her head just the tiniest bit, to let him know it was nothing to be concerned about, then turned her attention back to Denton. “You were joking, right?”
