Page 47 of Better Love Next Time
Kitty worked his ring on her finger, turning it, slipping it off and pushing it into her apron pocket.
Julian stared at her face, awed by how it had blossomed from waif to a beautiful young woman. He studied the generous curve of her lower lip. The straight nose with the slight tip that he wanted to graze his finger against. Had he ever appreciated the slant of her brows? How green dominated her eyes but black rimmed the edges?
“Kitty,” he said finally. “It is good to see?—”
“I’m glad you’re not dead, Julian.” She split the circle and brushed his uncle’s sleeve. “Uncle William, would you please drive me home? I promised Sir Jeffrey I would return for dinner.”
Georgiana booted Julian’s backside at the top of Farendon’s imperial staircase. “I hope you’re as miserable as you look.”
Anthony looped an arm at Julian’s right shoulder so he had to drag his friend’s six-foot frame along with his own.
“Serves you right,” Georgiana said, adding her weight to his left. “At least I won’t have to visit your memorial anymore.”
“Memorial?”Bloody Hell.
“Yes, Kitty put you right next to her mother and Daisy. Buried two strands of your hair and a drawing of your ship. I suspected you weren’t dead, just being an arse.”
“I have assisted her with her grief,” Anthony said.
Julian glared at his friend, eye to eye. “She’s not your fairy.”
“She’s not yours.”
Julian didn’t think anything could rival the pain of a broken femur. How wrong he was. “Georgie, get me a bottle.”
“Brandy or whiskey?”
“Rum, if you have it.”
Georgiana trotted off, humming.
Slapping his back, Anthony sent him smacking headlong into his bedroom door. “That’s the spirit. Drown your sorrows. I wonder, with the firsts we’ve shared, do you win the challenge of the first broken heart?”
Julian twisted the knob and shoved open the door with his crutch. The maid lounged naked on his mahogany feather bed.
Anthony edged past him. “Ahhh. Look who’s here to offer you solace.” He tugged at his stock. “Care for two, Hannah?”
“You know her?”
His friend winked. “Firsts, friend.”
Half an hour ago, the prospect would have had Julian licking every one of the woman’s freckles. But his cock was as a dead as a mutinous sailor hanging from a mizzen mast. She needed to leave. Now.
“Hannah, there’s been a change of plans.” A Kitty change of plans who hated his guts and threatened to send Julian into a vow of celibacy. “I’m sure Anthony here will oblige you elsewhere, but I require you not be here.”
Julian turned and swung himself into the nearest chair while Hannah took her sweet time dressing. All Julian needed was Georgiana seeing the maid, and any chance Julian had to reclaim Kitty would be blown like a ship’s hull meeting a cannonball. His cousin would relay the maid’s presence to Kitty as a parliamentary speech: theatrical and detailed.
When Hannah departed and his friend remained, Julian asked, “Why are you here at Farendon?”
“Georgiana is my cousin.”
“Please tell me we’re not related.”
“On her mother’s side. But interesting you should ask.” Anthony kicked a chair to face him, reclined back, and stretched his able legs. “I delivered your allowance, hmmm, about sixmonths ago, and discovered this charming girl whom you had forsaken while still writing me.”
“I had to write to you. And you know it.”
“So there I was, facing a dilemma. Allow her to believe you dead or tell her you were very much alive and crush her belief in you. I like to think I chose the noble path.”
