A Scandalous Countess: A Novel of the Malloren World (24 page)

Cheeks heating, she strolled toward the open doors, attempting to look at ease, but aware of being watched in a newly unpleasant way. When she smiled and inclined her head to Lady Landelle, that woman returned the reverence awkwardly and quickly looked away.

“Georgia, am I fortunate enough to find you free?”

She turned gratefully to Lord Harringay. “You are.”

“The world’s gone mad, but to my advantage.”

He led her to join the end of the long-ways dance.
Georgia kept up her smile, but she was desperately trying to understand what was going on. People were definitely cooler than before. Or rather, more people were cooler. Even Richmond’s smile was uncertain as she caught his eye.

Why? Because she’d been absent with Lizzie? Did people think she’d been off with a man?

She wanted to confront someone and shake the nonsense out of them. Instead, she smiled and danced as if she hadn’t a care in the world. When the dance was over she’d find someone to explain it all.

But perhaps she’d imagined it, for here came Sellerby.

Georgia smiled and offered her hand. “I would have given you that dance, Sellerby, but failed to see you. The next is yours.”

“Your debt has grown, Georgie. I claim the supper dance.”

The choice of partner for that was considered significant, and Georgia remembered Lizzie’s warning. “My deepest apologies, Sellerby, but I’m already promised to another.”

His smile quenched. “You should have preserved it for me.”

He was speaking for the people nearby, damn him.

It was no effort to look blank. “Why?”

“You know why. My dear Georgie, we…”

“We
what
, my lord?”

“The matter is private as yet, I know, but—”

“Any private matter of yours is no concern of mine, sir!” A mistake to speak so sharply. She tried to sweeten it. “Come, our dance is about to begin.”

Coldly, he bowed. “I regret, I am promised to another.”

Her words thrown back at her. Georgia smiled and curtsied. “Alas, sir. Perhaps later.”

She managed to walk away calmly, but she was seething inside. He’d turned a simple matter into a scene, and
perhaps caused the coldness all around by his lies. Was she now a heartless jilt as well as a wicked adulteress?

Winnie intercepted her to mutter, “Why must you always create scenes?”

Georgia flicked open her fan. “That was all Lord Sellerby’s fault.”

“When you play fast and loose with a man…”

“I have never played fast, or even slow with him!”

“Everyone knows he was a chief member of your so-called court, and you corresponded with him from Herne during your mourning.”

“How do you know that?”

“Millicent remarked on it.”

Her delightful sister-in-law, who’d watched like a hawk for any wrongdoing.

“I fell weakly into kindness because he supported me to the dowager.” She’d had enough of this conversation and saw an escape. “Ah, Porterhouse. Thank you!”

Porterhouse blinked, for he’d merely been passing by, but he was far too well mannered to deny her and led her to join the ongoing dance. He was such a good and amiable man, she might marry him if only he had rank and fortune, but at this moment, probably even he wouldn’t want her.

Had she imagined coldness all around her earlier? She found it hard to tell. In her sister’s house with her powerful parents present, few would be willing to be overtly discourteous.

As they strolled off the dance floor, however, Porterhouse said, “I feel I should warn you, Lady Maybury.”

“Warn me?”

He led her to a quiet part of the room. “People are talking.”

“Alas, I’ve grown accustomed to that, my friend.”

“But there’s a new story. About Vance’s letter. The one the dowager Lady Maybury claimed to have seen.”

Georgia waved her fan and smiled as best she could,
but she knew it couldn’t reach her eyes. “Old news and old nonsense.”

“Georgie, someone here claims to have actually seen it. Or to know someone who has. The rumor is muddled.…”

“As rumors always are. But here, tonight?” Georgia couldn’t resist scanning the room. “Who?”

“I don’t know. It could all be false.…”

“It has to be false. Such a letter couldn’t exist.”

“But many are believing it. I regret distressing you, my dear, but I thought you should know.”

She smiled at him as warmly as she could. “Thank you. There was
nothing
between me and Charnley Vance, Porterhouse.”

“I’m sure not,” he said, but she suspected even he had a glimmer of doubt. “I’m afraid I must seek my partner for the supper dance. Shall I escort you to your mother?”

Refuge of the wallflower and the outcast.

“Thank you, but no. I have a partner for the dance.”

He bowed and walked away, leaving Georgia feeling alone in a completely new way. People were believing this ridiculous rumor, which meant they had been ready to believe it. Even after a year, most of the beau monde still thought the worst of her. She needed to return to Town, to regain her life, but for the first time she really wondered if Town would accept her.

And she had no partner for the supper dance.

She’d intended to grant it to Beaufort, but she saw he was paired with Lucy Pomeroy. Richmond was looking delighted by pretty Miss Horstead. And there was Sellerby, watching her with what she could only call a smirk. Was he preparing to offer as her last chance?

She’d rather eat glass.

Chapter 14

“O
ur dance, I believe, Lady Maybury?”

Georgia turned, feeling faint with relief, but she addressed Dracy with a touch of annoyance. “Ah, there you are, my lord. I thought you’d abandoned me.”

“Never, Lady Maybury, I assure you.”

She remembered that she shouldn’t encourage him toward a broken heart, but at the moment she was too weak to do anything but cling to his arm.

He led her forward, but she held back. In the square room there were two lines and Sellerby was asking Miss Cranscourt to dance. The middle-aged lady was blushingly grateful, and Georgia waited until they took their places in the right-hand line before moving to join the left.

“Lord Sellerby is to be avoided?” he murmured.

“Eternally.”

“I thought him a favorite of yours. Indeed, I’ve heard mention of an engagement.”

“He lies!” Georgia heard it come out as a hiss.

“Swords at dawn?” Dracy asked, amused, but then said, “I apologize. An unfortunate reference.”

“Believe me, Dracy, I would punish Sellerby if I could.”

“Peacock feathers at dawn, then. My money would be on you.”

He made it all light, and that soothed her. “That’s as foolish as being flogged by eyelashes.”

“What?”

They had to separate, however, to stand opposite in the line.

Beaufort was in this line, just a few down from Dracy, and Everdon farther along. She might have seen that as promising a little while ago, but now she was too aware of the way many people weren’t meeting her eye.

The dance began, and she focused on Dracy alone. He danced so beautifully, even dressed well with a little encouragement, and had a rare ability to create the illusion that she was safe.

She was shocked at the direction of her own thoughts.

No, Georgia. You could never be happy with him, or indeed, make him happy. He’d lose patience with your frivolity and need for the beau monde. You’d resent any attempt to restrain you, and you could never be a country wife.

He deserved better.

And she deserved better than a cold shoulder from so many.

When the dance ended, she kept up a smile but was seething underneath. Of course he noticed.

“Are your teeth gritted behind that smile?”

Everyone was flowing toward supper, but Georgia wasn’t sure she could swallow a morsel. Had Dracy heard the story about the false letter? From whom?

She suddenly wondered if she could track the poison to its source.

“Let’s not rush to eat,” she said. “We can go on the terrace for a while.”

“The best food will be gone.”

“I can survive that. Can you?”

“There are many kinds of feasts,” he said and went with her through the open doors, but his tone reminded her of all her good resolutions. She’d warned him, even
more bluntly than she’d warned off Sellerby, but this could undo her good work.

“I’ve changed my mind,” she said, turning to follow the rest. “There’s roasted lobster.”

He caught her wrist. “Tell me of the new rumors.”

His hand was hot, and he’d grasped her just above the mourning bracelet. Georgia had the strange notion that he and Dickon had formed an alliance in her cause.

“Perhaps a
friend
can help,” he said.

He’d used that word deliberately, telling her that he remembered and understood.

Perhaps he’d done the same with his talk of women around the world. That boastfulness wasn’t natural to him. Perhaps he’d wanted her to know that she was only one of many and needn’t carry his feelings as a burden.

“You navigate tricky waters well,” she said.

“I hope so.” He released her but said, “Tell me what’s happened to distress you, Georgia.”

She moved along the balustrade, out of hearing of the house. “Did you hear of the letter supposedly seen by my mother-in-law, the dowager Lady Maybury?”

“No. I know nothing of the dowager either.”

“I suppose you were still at sea last December.”

“Shore based, but I had no interest in this world.”

“I mean the dowager Lady Maybury, my husband’s mother. She approved me as his bride, but with the belief that Maybury and I would live at Maybury Castle, under her eye and management. We clashed from the start, of course, because I’d been trained to run a great house and expected to do so.”

“And were in the right,” he said, but then added, “My apologies.”

“For what?”

“For thinking you truly a peacock. It never occurred to me that you ran anything. Of course you did, and well too.”

“I hope so. We came to terms of a sort on management,
but once Dickon—Maybury—achieved his majority, he wanted only to leave the castle and live in Town. I wasn’t reluctant, but in his mother’s eyes it was all my doing, even though she could then rule the castle supreme! Of course she wanted to rule him.”

“Of course.”

She looked at him. “You’re wondering why I’m rambling on, but there is a point. Before Maybury died she disliked and resented me, but afterward I was a wicked harpy from hell.” Before he could speak, she waved a hand. “I understood. Her only child had been killed and she had to blame someone. As there were those noxious rumors, why not me?”

He took her hand, and weakly, she allowed it.

“When the new Lord Maybury took possession, she had to leave the castle. A smaller wound, but still a wound. She took up residence in Cheltenham and made it her life’s work to inform everyone she met, everyone she wrote to, of my perfidious wickedness. She even wrote to me, but after the first letter, I had them blocked. I didn’t have them returned. It would only have deepened her pain.”

“You’re a remarkable woman, Georgia Maybury.”

“Remarkably disastrous, it would seem. I don’t know if it was deliberate, but her stories grew in detail and ferocity. I didn’t know it at the time, but from telling everyone that I tempted men to folly with my wanton ways, she progressed to asserting that I’d taken Vance as my lover, and then that I’d conspired with him to rid myself of my husband!”