Bexley-Smythe Quintet 01 - Flight of Fancy (11 page)

And then he was going to throttle her for giving him such a scare.

But first she had to be safe.

So he ran. He dashed before horses and carriages on Rotten Row, he tossed himself through tree branches, he flailed and fell and flailed some more until he reached the open expanse of Kensington Gardens, all with no regard for himself.

At least when he came to the other side of the trees, he saw that the balloon had not crashed into them, but had merely grazed the top. A few small branches had been knocked to the ground, and a number more were sticking out of the basket as it soared ever closer to the earth.

“
Monty? What in God’s name are you doing?” Georgie called down to him.

Answering her would take too much effort at the moment. Instead, he kept running.

The trees provided a barrier against the wind, so their forwards progress slowed considerably. A few moments after bursting through, he was beneath them. He slowed at that point to keep pace with the craft, never letting the ropes hanging down from the basket out of his sight.

Slowing his pace, regrettably, did nothing to slow the pace of his breathing or the rapid pounding of his heart. Each breath was a life-giving gasp, jagged and painful and necessary.

“
I think he just might kill himself in trying to rescue you,” Haworth said to Georgie. “There’s nothing you can do for her from down there, you know,” he called down over the edge of the basket. “She’s perfectly safe until we land.”

He’d believe her perfectly safe when he could verify it on his own terms, by God.

The basket kept creeping lower, closer to the ground. Cedric could almost reach one of the ropes.

In fact, if he made a running jump…

He stopped for a moment and took a few breaths.

“
Finally, he’s being sensible,” Haworth said.

Then Cedric filled his lungs, ran as fast as he could, and leapt for one of the ropes. His fingers grasped it, but it wasn’t enough. He fell with a thud and landed on his arse.

The whole basket rocked from his brief encounter with the rope. “Oh, Monty!” Georgie cried. “Please don’t hurt yourself.”

Too late for that, but he’d hurt far worse if anything happened to her.

“
It appears I spoke to soon,” Haworth responded dryly.

Cedric picked himself up, wincing at the pain in his ankle, and took off again. This time, he got a good enough grip on the rope that he could maintain it. Moving hand over hand, he pulled himself up it a few inches at a time.

He was almost to the point in which he could use his legs to assist the climb, but his lungs threatened to give out. Cedric looked down. The fall before had hurt. This was a much farther drop.

“
Lord Haworth, you have to help him.”

Georgie’s voice gave him an added boost, and Cedric inched upwards again.

“
You do realize he’s a madman, don’t you?”

But then, the rope began to rise as Haworth pulled it in a bit at a time, even as Cedric continued to climb. In a few minutes, Haworth reached down a hand and Cedric was able to clasp it with his own. The viscount pulled him the rest of the way into the basket, and Cedric crumpled in a heap at the bottom, desperate for air.

Georgie dropped to her knees beside him. “Good heavens, what have you done to yourself?” She took his hands and turned them over to view his palms. “They’re burned. We’ll have to put a salve on it as soon as—”

“
Hush,” Cedric said. He pulled one hand free and pressed his finger to Georgie’s lips when she started to protest.

“
But you’re hurt.”

“
It doesn’t matter.”

Physical pain couldn’t compare to what he’d been imagining. He looked into her eyes, so warm and rich and full of emotion. So full of the love he’d been hoping she had for him. His heart ached just a little more that she could love him, and yet go to Haworth for something she thought he couldn’t give her.

Somehow, he couldn’t seem to take his hand away from her face, despite the fact that Haworth was standing by and watching them. With one abraded finger, he stroked the line of her jaw, watching it work as she fought back tears. “I would have arranged to take you in a balloon, you know.”

“
It wasn’t about the balloon.”

That was his Georgie—always needing to have things her way. “If not the balloon, what was it about?”

“
I just—” she glanced sheepishly up at Haworth, who pretended he wasn’t paying them any mind, and then turned back to Cedric— “I wanted to experience something where I didn’t already know everything. I mean, I know how a balloon works, but I didn’t know what it was like to
fly
.”

Ah. “I see. And you thought I couldn’t give you something like that?”

She gave him a look he’d seen countless times on her mother’s face over the years—an of-course-you-can’t sort of look.

“
I see. So, I suppose that means you already know what it is like, from an experience standpoint, to be a married woman then.”

That comment brought the desired blush to her cheeks and she swatted his hand away from her face.

“
Oh. So perhaps there are some experiences I can give you that you can’t learn in books, then. Is that right?”

“
Monty
…” she said in an exasperated tone.

“
Cedric,” he corrected. “I want my wife to speak to me as a man, not as a title.”

Georgie’s big, brown eyes filled with tears. “Your wife?”

“
If you’ll have me.” He took her hand in both of his, ignoring the pain from the abrasions. “I think I’ve loved you forever, but I didn’t understand it all until very recently. I might still not understand it all. Georgie, I love everything about you—even the fact that you likely know twice as much as I do on nearly every subject imaginable—and I want you to be my countess. Will you do me the great honor of becoming my wife?”

A single tear spilled over her cheek. “Yes. Yes, Cedric, I’ll marry you.”

“
Excellent,” Haworth said, jarring Cedric back to the fact that they were in a balloon that was about to crash. “Now, I have three things to tell you, two. The first is congratulations.”

“
Thank you,” Cedric said warily.

“
You’re welcome. The second is that we’re about to hit the ground, so you should brace yourselves.” To emphasize his point, Haworth grabbed the side of the basket and held tight.

Cedric pulled Georgie to him and wrapped himself around her, hoping to bear the brunt of the impact. Not a moment too soon, either. As soon as she landed upon his chest, the floor of the basket struck the ground. It barreled along for a moment, but remarkably did not topple over. When it finally came to a stop, Cedric helped Georgie to rights.

At the same moment, Haworth looked down at them. “All right then? Yes, well, the third thing I need to tell you is that we have a rather large audience, including Lady Georgianna’s brother, who looks more than just a bit livid at the moment. I’ll leave you to settle matters with him, I expect.”

Cedric laughed, then—a full laugh, from his belly to his toes. Bridge could be livid all he wanted. It didn’t matter.

All that mattered was Georgie had agreed to marry him.

This was an adventure they could both look forward to.

When Georgie came down into the parlor Friday afternoon, Percy was waiting for her. He looked less like a madman now than he had when he’d first come to Town this Season, after a haircut and a shave, and donning some clean clothes. He still hadn’t explained any of it, and Georgie thought it was best not to press him. Someday, he would grow into the man he could be.

He stood up when she came in, holding a sealed letter in his hands. “Monty sent this over for you.”

Cedric sent her something? A thrill of excitement coursed through her at the thought. He’d promised, when he asked her to marry him, that they would experience adventures together…adventures in which she might know
what
they were, but wouldn’t know the whole of them until she’d experienced them for herself. Of course, there was the adventure of marriage itself, and that of the marriage bed—but Georgie was fairly certain he had some other adventures in mind, as well. She just didn’t know what they would be.

She forced herself to walk gracefully and sedately across the room to take the envelope from her brother. Married ladies, after all, did not run like giddy schoolgirls, and she was soon to be a married lady. In just two more days’ time, the banns would be called for the first time.

With shaking hands, Georgie broke Cedric’s seal. Inside the carefully folded parchment, there was a drawing of a lion with a note scrawled below it.
For our honeymoon.

Gracious! Where was he planning to take her? She couldn’t even begin to imagine, but one thing was certain—Georgie intended to read every book in her brother’s library that even so much as mentioned lions.

In fact, she’d get started right this instant.

Before she left the drawing room, though, she walked over to the escritoire beneath the front window and opened the drawer, carefully removing the sheets of parchment she’d hastily stashed there after coming home from tea at Patience’s house yesterday afternoon. She’d taken notes as her friend had told them of some delightfully wicked things a husband and wife could do, and she intended to study them just as closely as she would study about lions.

After all—she wanted to be as knowledgeable about every aspect of her life as she could be, both before and after she’d experienced them.