Page 72 of The Viscount's Diamond Bride
Six Months Later
Ursula picked up her old favourite book – she’d already read it more times than she could count – and swayed over to the window seat. It was the nicest spot in the library, the seat being padded, the light good, and the view beautiful. Carefully, she lowered herself down, lifting her feet onto the seat beside her.
In another month, I shan’t be able to do this,she thought wryly, opening her book.
The very first lines were auspicious, she thought, and were stuck permanently in her mind.
“You will rejoice to hear that no disaster has accompanied the commencement of an enterprise which you have regarded with such evil forebodings.”
Yes, she was readingFrankensteinonce again. There was something thrilling about the story, something which drew her in time and time again, despite the fact she knew all too well how it would end.
And with my current situation, I ought to pay a little more attention to the idea of parenthood and creating life,Ursula thought wryly, dropping her hand to the swell of her stomach.
As always, her peace did not last. Footsteps echoed along the hallway, and Ursula knew whose footsteps they were before ever he appeared in the doorway.
“Good morning, my beautiful wife,” Graham remarked, beaming down at her. Ursula beamed back.
“Good morning, O handsome husband of mine. Tell me, has Ruthie finished altering my dress? I wanted to wear my green silk to the wedding tomorrow, but of course it requires…” she trailed off, patting her belly, “… alternations.”
“I believe she is nearly done,” Graham assured her, settling himself on the window seat beside her. Wincing, Ursula lifted her feet onto his lap, and he began to absently massage her swollen ankles.
“How are you feeling?” he asked, concern in his voice.
“Oh, I am quite all right. Tired, but that’s to be expected. I donotthink pregnancy agrees with me. The sooner our little angel enters the world, the better.”
Grinning, Graham leaned briefly forward to press a kiss to Ursula’s stomach. “ReadingFrankensteinagain, I see?”
“Yes, I quite adore it. My thoughts turn to you whenever I read it.”
He gave a hoot of laughter. “Ofme? I cannot decide whether to be insulted or not.”
“Oh, enough! I only mean that when we walked into each other at the book shop, you commented on the book I was holding. Which happened to be none other thanFrankenstein.”
“Ahh, I see. Not that I appear to be a ghastly, eight feet tall creature cobbled together out of corpses?”
“No, not at all.”
He chuckled again, shaking his head. “On a more sombre topic, have you heard anything of your cousin lately?”
The smile fled from Ursula’s face.
“No,” she murmured softly. “I have not. I last heard that she was in France, and her father still gives her a small allowance. I hope she uses it wisely.”
Considering Georgie, that was not likely.
Ursula would not have revealed Georgie’s part in the scandal, and nor would Graham. Sir Roderick had fled London and disappeared entirely, and Lady Margaret Sinclair seemed at last to have learned the value of silence.
According to Graham, however, a man of Sir Roderick’s acquaintance had overheard the story of how Sir Roderick had attempted to take Ursula’s virtue. He had been quite disgusted by the story and may have overheard Georgie’s part in the scandal.
Ursula considered this quite likely. Nobody was quite able to pinpoint where the rumours had come from, pointing thefinger of blame directly at Miss Georgiana Worth for her cousin’s almost-ruin, but once the story had taken hold, it would not go away. Friends and acquaintances told stories of Georgie’s overwhelming jealousy towards her cousin, her veiled threats, and her nastiness.
The doors of Society swung closed all at once, with echoing snaps.
It was over for Georgie. There was nothing for her in Society. The very last thing that sealed her fate in society was when she attempted to trap a man into matrimony by ‘ruining’ herself to force him to wed her, clearly hoping that she would snag a viscount, just like her cousin had.
She was destined to be disappointed. The man in question, a bland second son with no fortune and few prospects, was not about to displease his powerful father and older brother by entering into matrimony with a girl like Georgiana Worth, and hastily took himself off to the country.
Georgie had been ruined. It was over, irrevocably so. Ursula heard that her cousin left the country some months ago, with only a maid in tow.
