Georgette and the Unrequited Love: Sisters of Castle Fortune Book 1

by Alicia Cameron

  ‘Yes,’ said Georgette, in an even quieter voice.

  ‘I asked myself why I should behave this way to you.’ She looked at him, but timidly, this was no ordinary apology. ‘Especially to you—’ She shuddered a breath. ‘—my friend,’ he added. She lowered her eyes. ‘And though I thought and thought, I could not explain my behaviour to myself, so I was unable to explain it to you.’

  ‘Well,’ said Georgette, regarding her toes sulkily, ‘this isn’t much of an apology then.’

  ‘I know,’ said Onslow, with that same friendly tone, ‘but then our good friend told me just what it was.’

  ‘Sir Justin? What can he know?’

  ‘Ah well, he has known me for a long time, you see.’

  ‘And what,’ said Georgette, looking hesitantly up at him. ‘Did he tell you?’

  ‘Well, as to that, I have concluded he has solved the mystery.’

  His eyes were smiling and dangerous. Georgette had to break her gaze, she was too confused to do other. ‘Yes?’ her voice was barely audible.

  ‘And thinking about it, I believe it explains your behaviour, too. I have always been confused at how angry I seem to make you upon occasion.’

  Georgette, piqued by this into action, pulled herself together and said in a stronger voice. ‘And just what is it Sir Justin attributes your behaviour to? I shall have to see if I agree that it explains mine.’

  ‘Do you understand your anger, then, Georgette?’

  He used her name again, as he had on two other occasions. It did not seem the time to reprimand him. She was blushing madly, and she fell to trembling once more and angrily apostrophised herself to behave. Anger seemed her saviour — and his strange demeanour, neither apologetic nor ashamed, gave her some to cling to.

  ‘I’m sorry. I should not have asked that. That is to ask for your confession before mine.’

  Her eyes moved up to his. He had removed his hat and placed it on a log, and his hair was falling on his perfect brow, concealing the expression in his eyes. ‘Justin says,’ he took her hands in his and she tried to pull away, ‘that I am jealous.’

  She wrenched her hands free and took a step back from him. ‘What nonsense is this?’ she said. He could not mean it. Why was he smiling? What was this?

  ‘I think, though I tried to deny it, that it was true.’

  ‘Stop it,’ said Georgette, beside herself. ‘I cannot—’

  ‘—bear it? You said that once to me Georgette, and you cannot know how many hours of lost sleep it has given me. Our first argument — since we are such good friends, are we not?’ He took her hands again, and looked down at her, his tone confiding, inviting her similar response.

  She could not help it. She breathed, ‘Yes.’

  ‘As though we have known each other forever,’ he said.

  She just looked at him, repressing, as far as she was able, the full confession of her eyes.

  ‘I was conscious of it. Finding a friend who knows me so well. And in these last days I have been so worried about losing that when I leave. I did not understand myself, you see. But I did not want to lose my friend. Perhaps, if I had known you were coming back to London next season, I would have been more content. However, I knew you were not. And the thought that I might never see you again — well, that I could not bear.’

  ‘You are confusing me Onslow,’ she said firmly, taking her gaze and her hands from him. ‘The archery will begin soon. And I must take the eggs—’

  ‘Forget the tournament. Miss White can win and we can finish our talk. For you must tell me, Georgette, why you could not bear it, why you are so tired of fearing Miss White—’ she turned away towards the carriage, but he restrained her arm and twirled her towards him, ‘—and why Justin told me that your eyes followed me in a ballroom in London.’

  At this, Georgette’s body, so highly strung at being touched by him on the one hand, and trying to keep her secret on the other, gave way. Her knees buckled, and Onslow, shocked, caught her until she could right herself. He looked around and found a mound that he could guide her to. ‘Sit!’ he instructed.

  He knelt before her and took her hands again, looking into her eyes directly. ‘Do you not trust me, Georgette? Can you not tell me anything, my dearest friend?’

  She leant to him. ‘And lose that friendship? How can I?’ Her eyes filled.

  He clutched her hands more firmly and shook them a little to solidify her attention. ‘In this world, you will never lose me as a friend, Georgette. It is not possible.’

  What was he saying? This was not the talk of friends, his eyes so concerned and intense were saying something too. But the hands on hers were comforting, not demanding now. She looked down at them. She knew every vein in those strong hands, knew every expression on his face, excepting the one he now wore. She was too confused to understand. Jealous he had said. Was this true? Of Bellamy? No, it could not be. He was simply afraid for her. He was her friend and he was afraid for her. She could not tell him what she felt.

  ‘I’ve thought about it, you know,’ continued the marquis. ‘How could I have missed knowing you in London? You are—’ he took one hand from hers and put it up to touch her hair. He pushed at the bonnet and it fell back. ‘—very pretty! I liked it when your bonnet fell off and I saw your hair this morning.’ He added caressingly, ‘You have very pretty hair.’

  ‘Onslow! What are you about?’ but somehow there was a laugh in her voice.

  ‘Trying to let you know, my dear, that anything you tell me, anything from our past, will no longer surprise me.’

  ‘Our past? I experienced our past alone, I think.’

  ‘You said something like that to me before, and it surprised and puzzled me. But on the ride here, I thought of something. Were you the lady who was laughing at that absurdly pompous clergyman?’

  Georgette stilled, gasped and then looked at him full. Her eyes shone. ‘You remember?’

  ‘How could I not? I believed in that moment, quite rightly as it turns out, that I had found a friend.’ He smiled. ‘I only knew her merry eyes and that she wore white muslin — for his sanctified bulk obscured the rest,’ he held a hand to shade the bottom of her face. ‘Yes, those are definitely her eyes.’ Their gazes held together for a moment, hers full of dawning amazement, and he distanced himself just a little to say teasingly, ‘I looked for you in the ballroom, you know.’

  ‘You did not!’ said Georgette. ‘You were too busy falling in love with Miss Julia White.’

  ‘I was already in love with her, I suppose. But I did look for you, just because I knew you would be a friend. I wanted to dance with you that night, and find out who you were.’

  ‘No!’ said Georgette, wonderingly.

  ‘I did. But there were so very many ladies in white sprigged muslin, you know. And I could remember little else.’

  ‘It was so brief a moment.’

  ‘Yes,’ said Onslow, ‘but it meant something to you, too.’

  She sighed, letting it out at last. ‘You have guessed that I have refined too much upon it.’ She blushed and looked down. ‘You must understand that the Fortune girls have been raised more as a pack of wild wolves than a family. We are not, I am afraid to say, so very close. This place allows for separate existences, and we are all so different. Our mother instilled company manners, but she died when I was sixteen, and I lost my only real friend. The only one who really noticed me.’

  ‘I have seen it, and pitied you,’ said Onslow.

  ‘Oh, do not. There is no cruelty after all, just no companionship or understanding.’ She blushed. ‘As much my fault, I suppose. I’ve been quite shocked in the last week at how much I do not know about my own sisters.’ She looked at him, ‘But in that glance we exchanged, I thought I’d met someone who understood me. I was sure of it!’ He nodded reassuringly, urging her on. ‘And though I saw, that evening, that you were already in love, I could not throw away that ridiculous hope that one day you would see—’ her voice was suspended.

>   He touched her hair again. ‘I am so sorry that I did not know,’ he said caressingly. ‘I thought, on my journey here, of every exchange we’ve had between us. You tried to reunite me with Miss White. That I still cannot understand.’

  ‘For your own good, I thought!’ Georgette said earnestly, ‘and to end my torture.’

  ‘Torture?’ said Onslow, shocked.

  ‘What else can it be?’ she said, ‘but a form of madness that ends in self-torture?’ She was ashamed to tell him, but there were those comforting hands and eyes, and the words he had already spoken that gave courage. ‘I looked for you everywhere in London. I could not follow you, but I might as well have. We were often at the same social occasions, you even danced with me once to punish Julia—’

  ‘At Grandiston’s ball? That was you?’

  ‘I thought we might talk … you would see me once more, but—’

  ‘Ah!’ he said, sadly. ‘How dreadful for you. I behaved unlike a gentleman. I’m sorry.’

  ‘You hardly looked my way. I thought … if only we could exchange a real look again, I would have my friend. Even then I knew that I could hope for no more. But my eyes followed you whenever I might not be seen.’ She hung her head in some shame, but added, ‘I came to know you a little, I think.’

  ‘We knew each other from the first,’ said Onslow warmly.

  ‘Yes. But based on that first look, I suppressed the attentions of the gentlemen who were interested in me before they could speak.’ She flushed. ‘That sounds so conceited—’

  ‘I do not doubt that others were entranced by you. I have found myself so since I arrived.’ Georgette’s eye was sardonic at this. He met it honestly. ‘Well, the presence of Julia White overset me somewhat. But despite that I came back to you constantly, as to the sun.’

  Georgette, hardly knowing how to take all this, but feeling the comfort of his handclasp, was silent.

  ‘And then, I knew that Justin had offered for you.’ He smiled. ‘As I came to know you, I saw how much sounder of judgement he was than me.’

  ‘Sir Justin is everything that is a gentleman, and I have been glad to know his friendship more deeply here at Fortune Castle, but we never understood each other as I thought—’

  ‘—we do? You were right to think it.’ She looked him fully in the face now and smiled and he continued, ‘I did not know it myself, our friendship was too close, too right, for me to consider that it was a different thing. And the knowledge that you had been chosen by my friend made me wish the two of you together.’

  ‘Ah, did you?’ said Georgette, pulling away again.

  ‘I did. But that was not long lasting.’ He sat back on his heel. ‘I suppose, upon reflection, that none of this is very long lasting. We seem to have come so far in such a short time.’

  ‘Have we?’ she stole a look at him.

  ‘Oh yes!’ He leant forward, as though to confess a sin. ‘I was full of murderous rage just this morning at the thought of the colonel, the handsome, charming and rich Colonel Bellamy, coming to steal you away from me.’

  She laughed shakily. ‘Oh, Onslow, it was just a walk — and not even alone.’

  ‘I’m surprised that he did not accompany you in search of the eggs,’ he said, sulkily. Only half-pretending.

  ‘No. He’s back at the castle, being useful to me with a centrepiece. He is trying to alleviate my duties by confusing the servants.’

  ‘Damn his hide!’ said Onslow.

  Georgette laughed. ‘Are you jealous?’ Her heart skipped several beats, hardly believing it.

  ‘Of any man who looks your way, even my dear friend Justin, though I did not understand what the feeling was.’

  ‘No!’

  ‘Have you not noticed how I managed to separate us this morning? When Justin challenged me, I saw that I always try to do so, at least once in the ride. I wanted you to give that look to only me.’

  ‘It does not matter how many men I look at, Onslow, I have only felt that understanding response in one man.’

  He stood and pulled her to her feet and held her at arm’s length. ‘I’m sorry I kept you waiting, my love. My dearest, dearest, love. We shall never part again.’

  ‘Can you mean it, Onslow?’ she asked in wonder. ‘Can you really?’

  ‘Look into my eyes, my dear Georgette,’ he said, his voice a caress, ‘You always understand what you see there.’

  She took a step towards him, but he held her back. ‘No. I am not such a grasper as that Bellamy fellow, enticing you away and trying to kiss you. We should see your papa, right and tight.’

  ’You just took me away to a place to be unseen — and hid the carriage!’ Georgette pouted, but accepted the pull of his hand towards the tilbury. In a second, though, she gave a cry.

  ‘My darling, what’s amiss?’

  ‘Oh, Onslow, my ankle!’ she hopped a little on one leg and he swept her up as easily as he had once before.

  ‘Clumsy!’ he lectured. ‘What is wrong with the ankle?’

  Georgette put her arms around his neck and daringly kissed the profile she had looked at for so many unknown hours. He was regarding the legs dangling from his arms. ‘Nothing at all!’ she said pertly.

  ‘Georgette!’ he apostrophised, his eyes laughing into hers. ‘Do you mean you did this all for a kiss?’ Her eyes opened wide but she smiled mischievously as she nodded, blushing. ‘Well, woman, it is your own fault!’ His kiss started in his arms and then he let her down to grasp at her waist and pull her ever nearer. It was not a quiet, gentlemanly kiss. He pulled back before she did, laughing as he saw her lingeringly closed eyes, as though she were savouring the moment. ‘Are you not afraid to be thus attacked in the woods, unchaperoned?’ His voice was low and dangerous and she gave a responsive shudder.

  ‘I wasn’t, Onslow,’ she admitted, ‘for it was only you. But I am now!’ She laughingly held him off as he lowered his head once more and picking up her skirts, ran for the tilbury.

  ‘That’ll teach you the dangers of trysts with untrustworthy gentlemen!’ he said, as he joined her in the carriage.

  ‘Watch the eggs!’ adjured Georgette, for they were beneath his seat. She grasped his arm and put her head on his shoulder. ‘Very untrustworthy!’

  His hands were busy, for the road swerved here and there, but they rubbed shoulders.

  Georgette, in some minutes, said, ‘This is a dream!’

  ‘Shall I stop the carriage and prove that it is not?’

  She laughed up at him. ‘Oh, no! It has just that I have loved you so long…’

  He did stop the carriage at this, and only agreed to continue when he had given Georgette the reassurance she deserved.

  The Grand Archery Competition had ended, and as expected, Miss Julia White was wearing the pretty coronet on her head as Onslow and Georgette entered the Great Hall. The vast majority of the players were there, Miss White with her court of the Bailey brothers, George Fortune and Colonel Bellamy giving her their congratulations.

  ‘Georgie!’ shouted Leonora at her sister. ‘Don’t worry, I took your place — and I came third!’

  ‘She did!’ said the unbelieving voice of the Honourable Mr Carswell nearby them. ‘The lion cub shouldn’t even be strong enough to pull the bow.’

  ‘And why had your sister to take your place, Georgette Fortune?’ said her papa in booming complaint. ‘Where have you been?’

  Georgette smiled beatifically at him, ‘Eggs, Papa!’

  Onslow had removed his hat, gloves and long coat and now stood to one side of Miss Fortune.

  ‘And you, Lord Onslow?’ said a musical voice. ‘You did not observe the tournament?’

  ‘No, I missed it, Miss White,’ the marquis said, in high good humour. ‘It seems that you won. Congratulations.’

  Colonel Bellamy’s voice rose through the chattering throng too, and people turned to Onslow when he asked lightly, ‘You too, had some business that prevented your attendance, Marquis?’

  ‘Oh, eggs!’ s
aid Onslow cheerily.

  There was a sudden stillness in the room. Viscountess Swanson’s voice arose. ‘There is a shocking leniency allowed young men these days in the company of young ladies. I do not approve.’

  ‘Yes, isn’t there?’ agreed the Marquis of Onslow, still in the particularly cheerful voice.

  ‘Gentlemen, whatever their station in life, Miss Fortune,’ the viscountess said, addressing Georgette sternly, ‘you are not to accompany one on errands out of sight of one’s papa. I find your conduct unbecoming.’

  Amethyst Bailey gave a gasp. ‘Oh, no, Lady Swanson, not Georgette. She is the sweetest—!’

  ‘I don’t think Onslow is to be suspected of harassing old maids,’ George Fortune laughed rudely.

  ‘Hold your tongue!’ said his father. The baron was enraged that Georgette’s behaviour was causing comment and he looked down at her from beetle brows saying, ‘You will mind the conveniences next time, Georgette, and do not compel marquises to collect eggs.’

  The general chatter was commencing again, for Lord Fortune’s scolds to his children were numerous, but Onslow said, still in that oddly cheerful and carrying tone, ‘Oh, she did not compel me, Baron, I followed her.’

  The company was silent once more, excepting Amethyst who was nudged by her nearby mama and turned to see where everyone’s attention was fixed, her voice trailing away.

  ‘I beg your pardon?’ said the baron to the marquis.

  ‘I chased after her,’ said Onslow.

  George Fortune said, between amazement and disgust, ‘What?’ while the all the world stared.

  ‘Onslow!’ whispered Georgette, while Sir Justin Faulkes, standing next to the Bailey brothers, laughed.

  ‘Lucian!’ he chastised, but amused.

  Georgette looked over at Julia White, who stood as pale as the flowers in her hair, and was a little sorry. But her happiness could only contain so much sorrow. But what was Onslow doing now?

  ‘For what purpose, my lord?’ boomed the baron.

  ‘For the purpose of getting her alone,’ said Onslow. As the baron’s ire came forth in a splutter of spittle, the marquis’ conscience kicked in, and he added, conversationally, ‘so that I could ask her to marry me.’