Page 79 of The Moonstone Marquess
“Do not be logical with me, Phoebe. It is truly irritating when you are right. I’ll see you later. I have to retrieve Hadrian anyway. He’s still in your stable.”
“Are we all right, Cormac?”
“I’m still in love with you, if this is what you are asking.”
She sighed. “I’m not sure what I am asking.”
He watched her as she made her way around the outcropping of rocks and headed back toward her cottage. He remained stretched out in the sand, allowing the sun to beat down on him as he considered the gossip now floating around town.
He supposed he understood Phoebe’s reluctance to take him at his word. She hadn’t actually accused him of leaping into Seline’s bed. She simply did not know what to believe and was trying to get at the truth.
He expected she would soon discover the gossip was nothing but lies concocted by Seline.
But this troubled him.
Why was Seline here? And why was she suddenly waging a campaign to destroy him?
Chapter Fifteen
Phoebe felt awfulabout having chased Cormac away this morning, but the gossip had unsettled her, and she had needed to speak to him about it. One look at him had convinced her of his innocence, only she had been too stubborn to let the matter drop.
Her lack of trust had devastated him. There was no mistaking the raw honesty of his feelings.
Now his nieces were sad because he hadn’t joined them for breakfast. It was her fault, and she had to make it up to them. “Girls, would you like to learn how to swim? The water is calm and it looks to be another hot day. Won’t that be fun?”
Ella appeared more enthusiastic than Imogen, but they both nodded.
Chloe was also eager for a dip. “The Duke of Malvern taught us how to swim several years ago after our eldest sister, Hen, almost drowned on his beach. He insisted we all learn. And now we’ll teach you. Believe me, you’ll enjoy it.”
She ran upstairs with Ella so the two of them could change into their shifts. Chloe’s shift was designed to be something of a swimming costume made of sturdy fabric that would not turn sheer when wet. Phoebe had the same, and now ran upstairs to change into hers. But the girls only had their light shifts, which would have to serve for now. If they took to the water, Phoebe would arrange for bathing costumes to be made for them.
Imogen looked up at her. “Must I go into the water?”
Phoebe took her hand. “Don’t be scared, duckling. I’ll hold on to you. And I won’t make you dip so much as a toe. You’ll let me know when you are ready. Until then, we shall play in the sand. But you’ll see, it will be lots of fun if you decide to venture in. I wager you’ll be swimming like a dolphin by the time the month is through.”
The little one nodded. “Will Uncle Cormac join us? Why did he go away? Doesn’t he like us anymore?”
The breath caught in Phoebe’s lungs. “He loves you always. That will never change. You and Ella are the most important thing in the world to him. It is my fault he left. I said something to him that hurt his feelings.”
“You did?” Imogen looked up at her again with big, innocent eyes. “Why?”
“Well, it is not so easy to explain. You see, I heard he did something bad, and when I asked him about it, he said he didn’t do it.”
Imogen nodded. “Uncle Cormac doesn’t lie.”
“I hope not.”
“No, he never lies.” The girl had an impudent frown on her face. “You have to believe him.”
The little one was too innocent to understand…or perhaps Phoebe had allowed her own grownup feelings to cloud the truth little Imogen saw so clearly. “Come on, take my hand and we’ll go build our sandcastles. Your uncle will come around later, and I will apologize to him then.”
They tossed their robes and towels into a large bag, put on their straw hats, and headed down to the beach in their bare feet. They all enjoyed the freedom the privacy of their beach allowed.
Since Imogen was reluctant to go in the water, Phoebe remained with her by the water’s edge and helped her fashion all sorts of silly sand animals, along with another woefully unimpressive sandcastle. But it looked magnificent to little Imogen, who was beaming at all the sand art they’d created.
Chloe had gone in with Ella and was now teaching her to float on her back. Chloe was only waist-deep and not about to take Ella any further, but Imogen was still worried for them and constantly looked over to see what they were doing.
“Imogen, would you like to try it?”
