Page 66 of Sir Hugo Seeks a Wife
“You’ll get used to it.”Hugo didn’t only see her romantic heart.He saw that she was halfway – perhaps more – in love with him.Although he doubted that she’d ever admit it.Nor would her romantic nature work to his advantage.He could already tell that her capacity for self-sacrifice might bring her to abandon him forever, just because she believed it was for his own good.
Bugger that for a joke.
“So what happened once you took off with George?Did he promise a quick wedding at Gretna Green?I can’t think, even when you were a girl, that you went without planning marriage.”
“No, he promised a quick wedding in Italy.”Her voice was wry, although it was clear that she didn’t find any of this genuinely amusing.“But somehow we never got out of Vienna.At first, that was enough.I was so excited to visit the Continent.I’d never been beyond York, and I was agog to see the world.”
So George took her to Vienna and waited for Napoleon to invade.The man’s harebrained decisions beggared imagination.“What the devil was that bastard doing, taking you into the middle of a bloody war?”
Hugo’s vitriol surprised her, although he couldn’t imagine why.“You hate George.”
“Of course I do.And not just because I’m jealous.”He wanted to carve the oaf up into little pieces and feed him to the sharks.“He was a selfish brute.”
Even more surprising, her expression warmed.“Thank you,” she said softly, taking his hand.
Puzzled, he surveyed her.“For what?”
Her clasp tightened.“For…for caring, I suppose.”
His frown turned disapproving.“You know I care, lass.”
More than that, God damn it.
His declaration didn’t do much to cheer her up.“I know you do.It just makes everything more difficult.”
Given that she meant to desert him in the end, he was sure it did.While she viewed him with troubled eyes, he firmed his grip on her hand to stop her pulling free.
Athene didn’t withdraw.He waited for her to tell him that he was wasting his time with her, but after a charged silence, she returned to her story.“I’m not quite sure how we ended up in Vienna.We landed in Stockholm because of the blockade, then George fell in with some people who were going to Austria.”
“You could still have got married in Stockholm or Vienna.”
“He kept putting it off, which was proof enough of his intentions.Or lack of them.”She made a helpless gesture.“I was criminally naïve.”
Hugo growled.“For God’s sake, Athene, you were a seventeen-year-old girl.Why the blazes would you be up to a rake’s tricks?”
“Maybe.”She squeezed his hand as if in apology, although the blame lay with her feckless seducer.“Anyway, by the time we reached Vienna, I’d realized how wrong I was about George.He wasn’t a dashing hero who risked all for a great love.Instead, he was weak and self-indulgent, and he drank and gambled.Although to be fair, when his father cut his allowance, I’m not sure how else I expected us to live, except off his gambling.So I suppose I must excuse his card sharping.”
This got worse and worse.“The lummox didn’t even think how he’d pay his way?”
“He assumed he’d still receive his money.He had through all the other scandals attached to his name.But running off with the neighbor’s virginal daughter crossed a line.”
“By Jupiter, I’d like to knock his parents’ heads together, too.They gave him the inaccurate idea that the world owed him a living.”
Athene didn’t seem to hear him.He could tell she was lost in sad, old memories.“We might even have managed to come out ahead, if George hadn’t drunk most of the profits.And of course drinking meant that he lost more often and more heavily at the tables.It didn’t take me long to decide that I didn’t want to tie my fate to a petulant sot.”
“That was sensible.”
“Too little too late,” was her dry response.“Lord, how I hate a man who whines.He wasn’t even faithful.Within the month, I caught him rogering the chambermaid.Worse, he was childish and demanding and expected me to run after him.”
“Athene, I’m so sorry.”
Another of those unamused grunts that broke his heart a little every time.“I picked a prize.”
The acrid self-contempt in her words had Hugo sitting up straight and speaking in a vehement tone.“You were an innocent, unworldly girl kept on far too short a rein.And he was a treacherous snake who took advantage of you.”
Dull eyes focused on him.“You’re still being too kind.”
“No, I’m not,” Hugo forced out between his teeth.
