Page 6 of Invitation to Pleasure
Rather than upsetting her, Daniel responded with a smile. “Then I shall take the opportunity at dinner with Lord Wentworth to request another visit to look around the estate. If it does come up for sale, then it might be a sound investment. I would be closer to family, but also closer to the main horse breeding markets and London.”
He hoped he wasn’t digging himself a hole. He really didn’t want to leave Deal but he would if his sister needed him. The idea that he might only have Rheda around for a few years made his stomach recoil. If so he would want to spend every minute he could with her. Daniel watched the breath Rheda had been holding come rushing out on a big smile and she hugged him tightly. “Thank you,” she whispered in his ear. Her happiness was all he cared about right now. He wanted to take away the fear lurking in her eyes and give her a Christmas to remember.
Chapter 3
Georgiana pacedthe stable chewing on her bottom lip.
“He’s coming here for dinner?” Billy asked.
She nodded and kept pacing.
“Baron de Winter? Do you think he’ll expose the fact you tried to steal Apollo?”
She turned to face Billy and threw her hands up. “I don’t know but I don’t like it. He has me in a corner when it was supposed to be me who held the upper hand.”
Billy sat on a hay bale. “And how exactly did you expect to get the upper hand. He could have me arrested for clonking him over the head. This is terrible.”
“He didn’t see you, Billy. And I certainly would not tell.” She began pacing again. “If he tells my father… You know my father has threatened to marry me off to Lord Mather’s son if I cause one more scandal.”
“He can’t force you into marriage. Can he?”
Georgiana didn’t want to answer that because she did not want the world to know how little her father cared for her or her mother. Her father had threatened to have her mother committed to an asylum if Georgiana did not do as he wished. Her mother was a shell of a woman. Marriage to her father had done that. He bullied her, belittled her for so long that her mother simply gave up living. Her grandfather, Lord Upton, had stood between her father and the asylum but now that he was dead…
Under her breath she said, “My father is capable of anything if it is of benefit to him.” At the moment there was no benefit to sending her mother away because it meant he would have no leverage over Georgiana. Her large trust was well protected. Her grandfather had seen to that. But on her twenty-first birthday it became hers. That is why her father still kept her around. Once that trust was active he would use her love and protectiveness of her mother to get his hands on the money.
She was running out of time. In eight months, when she turned one and twenty her world would become a waking nightmare.
The colt was supposed to be the start of her freedom. If she had Apollo, she could run with her mother and use the stud fees she could earn from Apollo to hide out until her money came through. They would have to watch the spending and live without servants for the few months, but she could do it. However, her father thwarted that plan when last month he gave her colt as repayment for a gambling debt.
“Perhaps if you explain the situation to Lord Hascombe he might help.”
That is what Daniel had said when he lead her from the stable. “That might have been possible before you knocked him out cold.” She rubbed her forehead and let the worry churning in her stomach consume her for a moment. Would Daniel be angry enough to expose her?
“How was I to know he wasn’t marching you outside to the magistrate.”
“It’s not your fault, Billy. It’s my fault for concocting such a risky plan.” No. It wasn’t her fault. It was Daniel Kerrich, Baron de Winter’s fault. Why couldn’t he have been in the house with the other guests for the evening?
For one moment she relived his kiss. He had been gentle, encouraging rather than demanding. She’d melted in his heat. Melted into the memory. For one moment forgetting all her misery and the weight of her situation pressing her down.
Just then she heard her father’s voice booming in the house. “I have to go. Father is in a foul temper and I need to ensure mother is not in his line of fire.”
“So, your plan to leave is on hold?”
She paused at the door to the stables. “It depends on how this evening goes. If Daniel keeps my secret then I need to learn why. I might be able to use him.”
“I know why he’s keeping your secret. He’s blinded by your beauty and wishes to use the truth to his own advantage.”
She smiled. “A man blinded by beauty is easy to control. If he is, then I shall use that to make a further attempt on Apollo. I can keep him busy while you steal the horse.”
Billy jumped to his feet. “No. If I steal and get caught I’ll be hung, but you, a lady of breeding. You would be let off.”
Bill was right. “Very well, I shall have to think of a way to keep Daniel busy and steal Apollo. Just be ready to go at a moments notice. I have Tessa and Jacob organized to take mother as soon as I send word. They will bring mother to our meeting place.”
She slipped through the door and made her way toward the house with Billy’s final words ringing in her ear, “Be careful.”
Georgiana was always careful.
Each morning when she woke up and her feet hit the floor of her bedchamber, she took comfort in knowing that her father’s first thought when he saw her would be, ‘what will she do today?’
