The Desires of a Countess
Page 13
Simon stared at Ginny’s retreating back in utter shock. Though she’d claimed she didn’t want to see her family, he had been certain that when they actually appeared in her sitting room, she would be pleased. He couldn’t imagine being estranged from those he loved as long as she’d been. Yet her response was one of anger and upset, which took him completely off guard.
Harriet muttered an apology to the group and hurried upstairs after her friend.
Simon was drawn back to Ginny’s family when her mother let out a low sob and covered her eyes. The woman who he assumed was Ginny’s sister put her arm around the older woman.
“We didn’t expect anything different, Mama. It’s going to take time,” she said as she comforted her mother by smoothing her hand over her arm.
Noah Jordan let out a long sigh and gave Simon a forced smile. “Forgive our manners, this must be very awkward for you. Perhaps we should have a round of introductions. I’m Noah Jordan and this is my wife, Marion.” He motioned to the chestnut-haired woman who’d taken his arm with a sad smile. “My sister Audrey and her husband, Griffin Berenger. And our mother, Lady Tabitha Jordan.”
Simon nodded to the grim group. “And I’m Simon Webber, Ginny’s… Lady Westdale’s late husband’s cousin. I’m the trustee of Jack’s inheritance.”
Noah nodded, then turned to his brother-in-law. “Grif, why don’t you take the ladies home? There isn’t anything more to be done tonight. I’ll follow in a moment, I’d like to talk to Mr. Webber.”
Marion Jordan touched her husband’s arm gently. “Noah, would you like me to stay?”
Noah raised her hand to his lips and placed a gentle kiss on her wrist. “No, love. Go with Griffin and Audrey. I’d like to speak to Mr. Webber alone.”
“Thank you for trying anyway,” Tabitha Jordan said to Simon as she passed by. “We appreciate it.”
Noah folded his mother into a hug. “Chin up, Mama. We’ll get another chance.”
Tabitha smiled at her son and then once more at Simon before the Jordan clan filed out to their waiting carriages. Simon marveled at how much a family they truly were. They practically radiated love. Why would Ginny ever want to leave that?
He felt Noah’s eyes on him and turned to the man. His face was unreadable.
“Have a sherry with me?” he asked with a smile.
“Yes.” Simon motioned to the room where Noah and his family had awaited Ginny’s arrival. He sat while Noah prepared their drinks. He handed Simon one, then sank into the chair across from him to stare at him with dark blue eyes. They were the same startling color as Ginny’s and put Simon to mind of Noah’s sister when she was angry, as she undoubtedly was at the moment.
He cleared his throat uncomfortably. “You probably don’t remember, but we met a few years ago-”
Noah nodded instantly. “Yes. I was a bit trapped in France.” The other man grinned sheepishly. “You helped my sister and I escape a sticky situation with one of your ships. I haven’t forgotten that.”
Simon smiled at the memory. “Do you still work for the government?”
Noah laughed. “If I were, I couldn’t tell you, but I’m not anymore. I’m just a Marquis now.” He cocked his head and his smile fell. “But I think we’re both avoiding the true subject. I take it you haven’t had an easy time with my sister.”
That was one way to put it. “Not always.”
“Then you’ve earned that drink. God knows when Ginny gets it in her head to be difficult, she can be the most exasperating person to deal with.”
A prick of anger streaked through Simon at Noah’s subtle deprecation of his sister. He couldn’t just let a comment like that sit. His voice was cold when he said, “But what man wouldn’t be intrigued by such a challenge?”
Now the Jordan blue eyes narrowed with interest. “Indeed.”
That one word said it all. Simon was well aware he was being sized up, analyzed for weaknesses as well as strengths. And he didn’t blame Noah Jordan one bit. If he had a sister who had arrived in London with a strange man, he would have done the very same. In fact, it pleased him that despite Ginny’s obvious difficulties with her family, they continued to protect her.
Noah motioned to Simon’s left eye with one hand. “Did she give you that?”
Simon drew back in surprise. After a full week of healing, his black eye was no more than a faint shadow. Most people wouldn’t have even noticed it. But then, Noah Jordan had once been a spy. His life’s work had been to notice the small details most people overlooked.
What would the man think if he knew Simon had been with Ginny in the most intimate ways possible?
He shrugged off the Noah’s question. “Perhaps you’d like to tell me what happened here tonight?”
Noah tilted his head. “Perhaps. Why do you want to know?”
Simon grimaced. He wondered that himself, sometimes.
“Because I have the feeling Lady Westdale will make me pay for it later. I could see in her eyes the betrayal she felt because of my meddling.”
“It’s a long story.” Noah rose from his chair and moved to the fire. He turned to lean against the mantel as he spoke. “My mother always encouraged my sisters to marry well. To seek out good matches rather than love. It wasn’t that she didn’t want them to be happy, but she wanted them to be taken care of first.”
Simon nodded. He could understand that. If his mother had married for status rather than what she perceived as love, perhaps she wouldn’t have been forced to endure a man who left her without a backward glance. Love was fleeting but security was forever.
Noah smiled. “My sister Audrey bucked my mother’s rules and ran away to work with me. After that, Mother put an even tighter rein on Ginny, and my younger sister did as she was told. She married the man my mother chose without argument. Of course, that marriage turned out to be one that caused Ginny so much pain.”
“I’ve seen some of the trouble my cousin brought to her,” Simon answered with a grim nod. He downed his remaining drink in one fiery swig. “He didn’t deserve her.”
Noah arched an eyebrow at Simon’s outburst. Simon thought the other man would say something about it, but instead he sighed. “No, he didn’t. My mother tried to apologize once we realized how unhappy she was, but Ginny was already angry. And her anger only intensified when Audrey returned. She married the man she always loved. Then I married for love, as well.”
Simon let out a long breath. “And Ginny felt like she had been sacrificed while the rest of you were allowed the happiness she would never have.”
Noah’s gaze raked over him with shrewd observation. “Yes. You’re starting to know my youngest sister very well, Mr. Webber.”
Simon shrugged. Lord Woodbury didn’t know the half of it. But he certainly understood Ginny more now that he’d heard the story. No wonder she hadn’t wanted to see her family. She’d taken the pain and disappointment she felt about her own unhappy marriage and turned it on them.
“It isn’t a rational reaction,” he murmured.
“No.” Noah shrugged. “But it doesn’t really matter because it’s how she feels. I can only hope she’ll let go of that anger now that Blanchard is dead.”
Simon had never been so happy about that fact before. At least dead, his cousin couldn’t harm Ginny.
“Your cousin took the joy from my sister’s eyes and replaced it with bitterness. And I wonder what you plan to do to change that,” Noah continued with a pointed stare.
The other man’s statement hit him like a punch in the gut. Simon lifted his eyes. “What do you mean by that?”
Noah arched an eyebrow. “I saw the way my sister looked at you when my family and I came out of the parlor. No woman feels that depth of betrayal unless she’s tied to a man in some way.”
“You must be mistaken.” Simon clutched his drink with suddenly trembling fingers.
Noah ignored him. “And no man gets as upset about a woman’s anger as you are unless he feels something for her in return.�
�� He crossed over to Simon where he held out a hand to him. Simon took it and the two men shook. “I should be off. My wife will wait up until she can make sure I’m not brokenhearted about my sister.”
Simon managed to nod though Noah’s words still echoed in his head and affected him more than he wanted to admit. He followed the other man to the front door. There, Noah stopped and turned back.
“Though my sister may put on a face of steel, you’d do well to remember she has a heart underneath. One that has been broken in the past. If you forget that, you’ll have me to contend with.” The other man leaned closer. “I am a good friend to have, Mr. Webber. But I’m a terrible enemy.”
Simon nodded grimly. In any other situation he wouldn’t have tolerated being threatened. But he understood why Noah Jordan made his expectations clear. He respected him for protecting his sister now, the way he hadn’t been able to in the past.
“I understand.”
“Good evening.” With a nod of his head, Noah left.
Simon turned to look up the long staircase where Ginny had gone. Part of him longed to see her. To talk to her about what had gone wrong in her past. But the emotions were too raw. For him, as much as for her.
Tonight he’d let her get over her shock, but tomorrow he would speak to her. Perhaps he could even help her find her way back to her family. Because the longer he knew Ginny Blanchard, the more he wanted to bring the joy back to her eyes that his cousin had stolen all those years ago.
***
Ginny stood on the front step of Simon’s townhouse with a scowl on her face that would have withered a weaker person. Which Simon’s butler was not.
“I said I wish to see Mr. Webber.”
“And if you give me your card, my lady, I will see if he is in residence at the moment,” the man said in a calm voice that only upset Ginny more. She’d come here for a showdown and she wasn’t going to leave until she had one.
“I know the man is in residence!” she snapped. “I arrived in London with him last night. Now let me see him.”
With a tolerant look she was sure this man had practiced for at least the last two hundred years, the butler opened the door enough to allow her to pass. “I will show you to the parlor while I fetch Mr. Webber.”
Ginny stormed in. The man’s eyes widened when he realized she had no maid or escort. She didn’t care. If she was going to have a fight with Simon Webber, she didn’t intend to do it with witnesses.
“This way, my lady.” He motioned toward a room. Once she was inside, he pulled the door closed behind him.
Ginny threw herself into a chair to wait. Her anger cooled the moment she looked around her. The room, the whole place, was nothing like Simon. It didn’t have his masculinity or his style. Obviously he’d bought the townhouse and never bothered to renovate. And why would he? He lived on his ship most of the time. His cabin would reflect him.
But how?
“Damn it.”
Rising to her feet, she began to pace the room. She hadn’t come here for this.
She gasped with a sudden, troubling thought. This was exactly what she had done to him when he’d first come to Westdale. She had put him in a room for an hour and a quarter. If Simon were doing that to her…
No, she wouldn’t let him.
She slipped to the door and opened it a crack. There was no one around. With stealth, she crept into the hall and headed up the stairs. Feeling guilty as a thief, she eased down the hallway and looked at all the closed doors. Any one of them could hide Simon. She opened the first to find an empty guestroom. Another was an office, but Simon didn’t lurk inside.
At the third, she found what she was looking for. She opened the door and could hear the sound of someone moving about in the next room. It was a private chamber. The room she stood in was for dressing and the next was probably a bedroom. She drew in a deep breath and was ready to begin her lecture when the bedroom door opened and Simon came out.
Completely naked.
She let out a gasp of shock as their eyes met. He looked just as surprised to see her in his room when he was indecent, but did nothing to cover himself.
The last time she’d seen Simon like this was in Henry’s office when they’d made love. The room had been dim, and she hadn’t gotten a full look at him because she’d been too lost in sensation to fully comprehend anything else.
But here they were in the brightly lit dressing room where there were no shadows to hide in. And he stood far enough away that nothing was left to her imagination. She should have covered her eyes. But she couldn’t help herself. She looked.
He was more handsome than she’d even remembered. His broad shoulders and arms were rippled with the kind of muscle men gained from hard work, as were his powerfully built legs. His chest was peppered with curly hair that laid a path down his flat stomach to his manhood. She blushed as it slowly began to ease to attention at her marked stare.
“S-Simon,” she stammered as she finally forced herself to turn her head. “I thought you—that is I didn’t know you—I mean to say-”
He let out a chuckle that brought her eyes back to his face. Unlike her, he didn’t seem the least bit uncomfortable. In fact, he seemed amused.
“If you’re going to stay, the least you could do is help me dress.”
“No,” she said in a strangled tone as she tried to keep her anger in mind even through the growing need within her.
“Then perhaps it would be best to wait where Grimley left you?” His smile was as intoxicating as it was infuriating.
“Perhaps.”
With a little nod and just one more peek, Ginny fled the room, closing the door behind her. She hated how she could hear Simon laughing all the way down the hall.
Why was she so weak to him? It was more than the way he looked or the animal attraction between them. Yes, he was a magnificent specimen of a man, especially naked. But if it were just the heat he inspired in her, she could fight that. She knew she could.
There was something else about Simon that made her want him, even need him. She sank back into the chair in the sitting room as she tried to push those thoughts away.
“Idiot girl,” she muttered.
“No, not an idiot. Just impatient.”
She scrambled to her feet as a fully dressed Simon entered the room. How could he look so damned pulled together after just a few short moments?
He grinned. “I’ve been known to be impatient myself. Would you like tea? It’s rather early, I could even ask my cook to make us some breakfast.”
Ginny blinked at him, drawn in.
No, she was angry. She had to remember that.
“I don’t want tea. And you aren’t going to distract me by being charming… or naked!”
Saints, why had she added the last part?
“You find me charming when I’m naked?” he asked with an innocent look as he poured himself a cup of tea from the service on the sideboard. “Why Ginny, I never knew you cared. Or at least, I never thought you’d admit it.”
“I don’t,” she snarled through clenched teeth as she fought a frustrating urge to smile at his teasing. “I’m furious with you. You betrayed me.”
With a frown, Simon set his cup down on the table. “Yes, you should have told me the whole story earlier. I wouldn’t have sprung your family on you like that had I known your troubled history with them.”
She let out an exasperated sigh. Though she’d seen his goodness and felt his tenderness in the few weeks she’d known him, she certainly didn’t trust Simon enough to let him that close to her soul. Too close to all those inner parts of her that held her secrets.
“And just what story do you think you know now?”
“I spoke to your brother after you went upstairs.”
She folded her arms as she sat back down. “Ah yes, Noah. The savior of the world. I’m sure he had a few choice words about me.”
Simon took the seat across from hers and looked at her with sympathy in his eyes.
Ginny shut her eyes to block out the sting that his words brought. She didn’t want to soften to her brother or anyone else in her family. But she couldn’t help the memories that washed over her. Images of happier times that she had managed to forget when her anger had taken over so very long ago.
As a child, she’d worshiped her older brother. When he’d chosen Audrey to join him on his adventures instead of her, it had broken her heart.
“Ginny.”
Simon reached out to touch her arm. The caress was feather light, but she felt it throughout her nonetheless. Just one brush of his fingertips was enough to make her want to launch herself into his arms. But she fought it.
“No,” she said as she pulled away. “I want to go home.”
He frowned. “Very well, I’ll have someone bring your carriage around. You’ll want to rest and-”
“No, back to the countryside. To Westdale. Now.”
There she could hide. Hide from her family and the desperate need she felt to reconcile with them. And if she could convince Simon to stay in London, she could hide from him, as well. Hide from the feelings she didn’t dare name.
Simon’s lips thinned. “We’ve discussed that at length, Ginny. For Jack’s sake, and for your own, you will remain here at least for a few weeks.”
She let out her breath in a haughty sigh. How she hated being ordered around! He knew that full-well and yet he still did it. “I won’t see my family.”
“That’s going to be difficult since they’ll all be at the Duchess of Singleton’s ball tonight.” He sipped his tea, but his aquamarine eyes stayed firmly locked with hers.
She stood up and clenched her fists at her sides. “I won’t be! You can drag me to London, Simon Webber, but you can’t make me go anywhere or see anything I don’t want to.”
“You’re acting like a child,” he said, his voice going up just one level. It was the only thing that revealed his obviously growing frustration.