Read Online Bexley-Smythe Quintet 01 - Flight of Fancy by Catherine Gayle - Free Book Online Page B

I’ll be with you all again shortly, my lord,” Georgie cut in just as Cedric was preparing to state that he’d escort her home. “I’m sure my discussion with Lord Montague will not take very long.”
    He had his doubts about that, but now might not be the best time to contradict her. With Georgie, it was always best to pick one’s battles carefully.
    “ I will be glad to do that.” Casemore inclined his head towards them both. “I’ll see you both again shortly, then.”
    Once he was gone, Georgie turned furious eyes to Cedric. He didn’t give her the opportunity to begin a tirade against him.
    “ What were you two doing, and why didn’t Berkswell know where you’d gone off to?”
    She scowled up at him, and it was at once the most ludicrous and delightful expression he could remember seeing upon her face in quite some time. What an odd reaction. Some odd affliction seemed to have come over him of late, and he could attest it to nothing and no one but Georgie.
    “ Lord Harrison agreed to show me the Chinese pavilion,” she finally said, her tone filled with acid.
    “ Nice attempt at evading me, Georgie. I’m sorry to inform you, however, that the Chinese pavilion is well on the other side of Vauxhall from here. Surely you knew that.”
    Georgie bit her lower lip, clearly debating something in her mind. After a long moment, she met his eyes again. “You’re correct, of course. Lord Harrison and I did meet at the Chinese pavilion, but he took me from there to meet someone else.”
    A groan tore from his lips even as he felt his heart being ripped from his chest. “Haworth?” He hoped he was wrong.
    “ Yes.”
    The earth beneath Cedric’s feet seemed to crumble and swallow him whole.
     
    Never in her life had Georgie seen Monty look so bedraggled, so distressed. His eyes were pained and strange lines had suddenly appeared around his mouth. It wouldn’t have surprised her if, at that very moment, his hair had turned from rich brown to grey right before her eyes.
    “ Please, Georgie,” he said in a pained whisper. “Please tell me why you so desperately wanted to meet Haworth. Tell me what happened.”
    Hurting Monty had never been in her plans. Allowing him to stop her now was out of the question, though. “That’s not something I can do.”
    “ Why? What is it that you want?” He paced along the path, his arms swinging in agitation at his side. “Just tell me what you want and I’ll give it to you. Anything.”
    “ This isn’t something you can give me.”
    How could Monty possibly help her to experience something in which she didn’t already know everything involved? How could he assist her in leaving behind her own insistence upon never stepping outside of the strict constraints of propriety even for the tiniest moment? At every turn, he was trying to stop her from doing anything which might cause scandal. He seemed hell-bent on keeping her safe and secure in the enclosures proscribed by society for a proper debutante.
    No, he could do many things, but he couldn’t grant her the freedom which Lord Haworth had agreed to.
    Monty’s blue eyes filled with a fervor she’d rarely seen in them, which left her taken aback.
    “ I can, Georgie. Whatever you want, I’ll find a way to give it to you.”
    She shook her head, preparing to yet again deny him.
    Monty held her off by taking both of her hands in his own. “Give me a chance. I love you. I would do anything for you.”
    “ You’re talking madness. You only love me like you would an annoying younger sister.” Didn’t he? She’d always been the young girl pestering him and Percy, forever in their way and driving them to the brink of madness. Monty would never see her as anything other than a pest—one he felt compelled to look after, certainly. But not one he could love with more than just a familial connection.
    So why did it cause an ache in her chest and a pull in her stomach when he didn’t immediately refute her claim?
    She