Banished to Brighton by Sydney Jane Baily

Chapter Twenty-Seven

The miracle to-day is that we find

A lover true; not that a woman’s kind.

– Love for Love by William Congreve, 1695

GLYNNIS WASN’T GOINGto be able to go through with it. That horrid thought kept interrupting her, like a pesky bumblebee on a summer day. When she looked at Lord Payton, she felt guilt, not love. And when she looked at James...

She must stop looking at James!

When others came over to chat with the queen, they took their leave of the gracious lady.

“Let us see what the Prince Regent’s cook is serving, shall we?” she suggested, feeling a pang of hunger.

“I’m happy to do whatever you wish.” And the amiable Lord Payton escorted her into the blue room where platters of hors d’oeuvres had been placed. Later, there would be a buffet in the dining room, although there wasn’t room for everyone to be seated, one of the reasons Prince George was redesigning his Brighton home.

And if she married Lord Payton, she would probably be there to see the Pavilion’s growth into a grand palace.

Each with a small plate filled with savories, they strolled outside.

You must tell him,she ordered herself.

Then all would be as before, and she would have to tuck her tail and return to her parents.

She must stay the course, she decided, before instantly changing her mind for the umpteenth time.

“You have the look of a woman thinking a great many thoughts,” Payton remarked.

“Do I? Perhaps it’s simply my appetite.” And in order not to have to speak, she took a bite of this and another of that.

Over the next half hour, she occasionally spotted James talking with nobs or even with ladies, but when the dancing started outside, he headed in the other direction. If she was correct, he was leaving the party astonishingly early.

Would he do so without even saying goodbye?

She partnered with Lord Payton for the first extended cotillion. Each time they came together, she nearly blurted out the awful truth.

Finally, feeling ill with the decision she had to make, she fled the dance floor as the last notes were played, striding toward the aviary. The caged creatures reminded her of her own plight. Should she voluntarily imprison herself in exchange for food and shelter?

“Miss Talbot,” Payton called, following her. “Are you well?”

She turned to him, tears pricking her eyes.

“I cannot marry you, my lord.”

He considered her a moment. “Have I offended you in some way?”

“Not at all. You’ve been most kind.” She raised her mask, suddenly weary.

“I know what happened was a shock, and you may have concerns over taking a husband because of a single kiss, but I assure you, I’ll do my best to make you happy. You’ll want for nothing.”

“Thank you,” her voice was husky. “But it wouldn’t be fair to you. My heart belongs to another.”

“I see.” His jaw tightened. “I didn’t realize. You’ve seemed happy with me whenever we’ve been together.”

Every moment with him had been easy and pleasant, but absolutely passionless.

“I have very much enjoyed the time we’ve spent in one another’s company, every moment, and I do so appreciate how you took me riding and to the races and...,” she trailed off as tears filled her eyes.

Kindly, he leaned forward and used his gloved finger to capture the first one that spilled down her cheek.

“I would never have spent a moment alone with you, and I certainly wouldn’t have kissed you had I known you loved your fiancé. For some reason, I got it into my thick head, you had not formed an attachment to him.”

“Lord Payton, I must confess—”

Before she could tell him it wasn’t her fiancé whom she loved, she saw the very man, Lord Aberavon, in the flesh, and leading him toward her was James.

Her mouth dropped open, and all the blood seemed to rush from her head. In front of everyone, even the queen, she would be denounced as a liar.

“You’ve gone pale,” Lord Payton began, then turned to see what had caught her eye. “I say Hargrove, I think Miss Talbot is ill.”

“I hope not,” James said. “I found her fiancé wandering around, and I’m thrilled to reunite the happy couple.”

He knew. By the wicked expression upon his handsome face, he knew.

“Miss Talbot, you do look pale indeed,” said Lord Aberavon by way of greeting.

He appeared as she remembered, a few inches taller than herself, yet appearing short between James and Lord Payton. He was perhaps a decade older than any one of them, with a welcoming countenance, a round head and a platter face that reminded her of nothing so much as a large turnip with sandy-colored hair.

“I fear I have had too much sun,” she said.

“But you weren’t outside today, were you?” James asked, enjoying her discomfit.

She glared at him, then softened her expression as she looked at Lord Aberavon again. “Then perhaps it was too much champagne”

“I think you’ve only had one glass,” Lord Payton said helpfully. “However, perhaps you should sit.” Without a by-your-leave, he directed her to the nearest stone bench, with James and her “fiancé” in tow.

Glynnis wished she would fall into one of those secret tunnels James had mentioned as being somewhere under the expansive lawn, but that would be far too fortunate for her. She must suffer utter mortification before the night was out.

Once she was seated, she closed her eyes. Mayhap they would all three disappear.

“Miss Talbot.” This came from Lord Payton. “Seeing your fiancé has obviously been a shock to you.”

“I bet it has,” muttered James so everyone could hear.

“Hush,” said Lord Payton. “Let us give them some time alone.”

“What!” exclaimed James. “I thought you were going to marry her.”

“I thought I was supposed to marry her.”

When she heard those words from Lord Aberavon, she opened her eyes.

How did he know?By James’s smirking face, she realized he must have said something to the baron.

“Lord Aberavon,” she began and stopped. What could she say?

“You are lovelier than I recall,” he said, wiping the smile off James’s face. “When I last dined at your parents’ home—”

“You know her?” James asked.

Lord Payton stared at his friend as if he’d lost his mind. “Of course they know each other. They’re engaged to be married.”

“But—” James started.

“Will you gentlemen leave us, please,” Lord Aberavon asked. “I would like a moment alone with my ... fiancé.”

At this, Glynnis couldn’t help her mouth opening and closing like a fish. She didn’t know what was happening, but James’s expression was a mirror of her own. Only Lord Payton seemed to have the right of it, even though he was in the wrong.

“Come along, Hargrove. Let’s leave them alone and go have some champagne.”

Still James gawked at her. Yet as Lord Aberavon sat beside her, he shook his head.

“Maybe we can find Prinny’s good brandy instead,” James muttered.

She watched the two friends walk off toward the house, ready to face the truth.

“I do not understand, my lord. We are not engaged, are we?” Glynnis had to ask in case her father had, in fact, made an arrangement that she didn’t know about.

“No, but I can tell when a lady needs to be rescued, and you seem to be in the suds. Quite deep, too.”

She sighed. “I suppose I am.

***

JAMES AND PAYTON SNUCKaway from the other party-goers onto the second floor. With a few coins given to a footman who knew them both, they managed to obtain a glass each of French brandy and were seated in Prinny’s private salon.

“Don’t you intend to marry her?” James asked his friend after they both slumped into comfortable chairs.

Payton shrugged. “If she had wanted to, I would’ve been game. Someone like Miss Talbot could probably make any man happy. She has decidedly good humor and a lovely face.”

“A beautiful face,” James amended. “And a figure to match.” He thought of her shapely curves that had fit perfectly into his hands. “She’s clever, too.”

Payton laughed. “It’s a good thing I’m not in love with her because you are.”

James sucked in the swallow of brandy and coughed. “Don’t be ridiculous. Just because I hold her in high esteem and think her a right gimcrack.”

“And because you think of her all the time and long for her and want to see her smile and hear her laugh.”

James’s jaw dropped at Payton’s understanding of his torment.

Payton smiled wryly. “I was in love once.”

This was news. “What happened?”

“That’s another story,” his friend insisted. “But I’m sorry to say you are not going to marry Miss Talbot any more than I am.

“I don’t want to marry her,” James maintained, but his words were hollow. At that moment, he wanted to have her as his own more than he wanted his next breath.

“I truly hope not. I would hate to see you get your heart broken.” Then Payton shook his head. “You’re an idiot and don’t deserve her. You stepped aside and let me get into the race when you had the lead.”

James took another sip. “She seemed to set her cap at you. She managed to entice you into a kiss so you would be discovered. Miss Talbot must have wanted you to be the one to marry her.”

Payton looked at him as if he were a madman. “I give you my word, it was all my doing at the Old Ship. I took her on a tour of the second floor, and then I decided to try a quick kiss to see if we suited.”

James didn’t like the jealousy that rose upon hearing his friend casually testing out a kiss, even if he’d already seen it for himself.

“And I thought we did suit well enough,” Payton continued. “It was a sweet kiss.”

“Stop talking about kissing her.” Sweet? And the man called him an idiot. Kissing Glynnis Talbot was like dancing in a lightning storm and being struck over and over. His body was always heated and charged and ready with the barest whisper of a kiss from her lips. There was nothing sweet about it.

“Anyway,” Payton said, “she told me she couldn’t marry me, and I know she won’t be marrying you.”

“Why not?” James demanded, thinking himself ready to duel the Welsh baron at sunrise.

“She is in love with Aberavon. She told me so just before you brought him over. She finished giving me the mitten and saying how she loved him. It was as if she were speaking of the devil, and there he was! I’ve never been so surprised in my life. Her either, I expect. That’s why she was overcome, I tell you.”

“I can’t believe it,” James said softly, speaking to himself more than to Payton. “When I ran into Aberavon, freshly arrived from Swansea Bay for Prinny’s party, I thought as you thought. But when I mentioned how his betrothed was at the Pavilion, he seemed to think I was dicked in the nob.”

“You are dicked! But what took the blasted man so long to come?”

“As far as I can tell, he encountered a series of unfortunate circumstances, including a lame horse, a broken carriage wheel, and a band of highwaymen.”

“It’s a wonder he got here at all, I suppose.” Since they could see no decanter and didn’t want to go to the trouble of asking a servant, Payton drew a flask from his pocket and poured them both another half glass. “But if one were in love and had Miss Talbot waiting—”

“That’s just it,” James said, swirling the liquid in his glass, “when I insisted Miss Talbot was expecting him, he grew quiet upon hearing her name. I vow he didn’t know she was his fiancée. From his strange manner, I thought she had been lying all along.”

“I heard him mention dining at her father’s,” Payton pointed out.

“As did I,” James agreed. “I can only surmise they are truly engaged. And you say she loves him?”

“She said she did. It must be love to prefer him over me, don’t you think?” Payton pointed out. He laughed good-naturedly, but James thought his friend was correct. Of the two, Aberavon did not have the superior physique or face. Moreover, he was only a baron whereas Payton was an earl’s son.

Glynnis was in love with Aberavon. James repeated the words in his head a few times, trying to make them stick. Whatever he thought he’d seen in her eyes when she looked at him, he had plainly misunderstood.

Wrenching his thoughts elsewhere to try and escape the pain concentrated in the vicinity of his heart, James said, “Prinny has allowed me to depart Brighton for London with his blessing, and I shall do so immediately. I thought I might have to stay for your nuptials, but I guess I was mistaken.”

“Ah well, at least it has all worked out for you,” Payton said, not realizing James’s emotional torment. “You’ve had the company of a pretty lady, you also had your fun with that blonde blowsabella, you’ve satisfied our prince, and now you can return to your fair mistress in London.”

James nodded. When Payton put it like that, he ought to be pleased to have escaped Brighton unscathed. His friend was looking at him for a reaction.

James smiled ruefully. “As for the fair-haired doxy, recall I was rather foxed that night. Sadly, I presented her with nothing but a limp lobcock, my sleeping back, and some coins.”

Payton laughed as James had intended him to, but he was already thinking of Glynnis again.

She loved Aberavon?He never would have guessed it, not when she had kissed him with passion and melted in his arms. And then there was the way she’d climaxed under his touch.

’Zounds!James could hardly imagine how she would sizzle if she actually loved a man.

“Aberavon is a damned lucky bastard,” he said.

“Yes,” agreed Payton. “He certainly is.”