“Don’t you dare patronise me,” she hissed. She had to get rid of him because she was positive she was going to be sick sometime soon and didn’t want to lose whatever pride she had left.
CHAPTER TWELVE
“I am just concerned about you,” Will reasoned.
Georgiana waved at her dress. “Well, you have seen that I am perfectly alright so you can go now.”
It galled him to have to admit it but his friendship with Georgiana wasn’t there anymore. He had no idea when everything had changed, but it was quite evident that Georgiana didn’t consider him anything more than an irritation, someone who was too much like her relatives to be trusted.
“You need to sober up a little. Then we can talk properly,” Will sighed. He waved toward a chaise in the hope she would sit down before she fell down but she refused to budge.
“Get out of this house,” she snapped.
“I just want to find out what happened to make you run all the way here,” Will reasoned.
“I didn’t run. I decided to move that’s all. When nobody appeared to listen to me, I decided to take matters into my own hands and go. But this is nothing to do with you because we are not married, you are not my brother, and you are certainly not my parent. It is not for you to try to tell me what to do anymore, Will. I am not a child. Get used to it. I am sorry if you don’t like what you see, but I don’t care. This is me. What I do in the privacy of my home is none of your business.”
Will stared at her. He was shocked that they were having their first argument. In the past, he had always put his opinions forward, forcefully if he had to, and Georgiana had always acceded to them. Now, there was a fire in her eyes that had never been there. It was clear she had no intention of listening to him. This was the first time that the battle-lines had been drawn. He hadn’t anticipated them being on opposite sides. In the past, they had always been together, a united front, against her parents. Now, he realised that the line had moved, and he hadn’t even seen it. It rocked his world and made him wonder what else he had missed.
“I am just worried about this sudden change in you,” Will said quietly.
“I have wanted to do it for a long time,” Georgiana whispered. “You just didn’t notice.”
She had no idea if she was talking about him not noticing her, or the way she felt. Either way, it was too much for her muddled mind to understand so she left well alone. She had already said too much.
“I want you to go now. You need to tell my parents that I am fine, but have no intention of returning to Cranbury,” she said flatly.
Before Will had the opportunity to say anything, Georgiana lurched toward the door and swiped the brandy bottle off the table as she left the room. The thumps and bumps of her bouncing off the walls as she traversed the hallway made him shake his head in disbelief. He followed her, just to make sure she didn’t fall flat on her face, and watched as she slumped into a dejected heap in front of the fireplace in the kitchen, and took a swig of the brandy.
“Can I have some?” he asked, eyeing the goblet on the table beside him. He picked up the piece of parchment and read the neatly penned list written in Georgiana’s handwriting. “My wish list?” His brows lifted.
“Mind your own business,” Georgiana grumbled but made no attempt to take the list off him. That would mean getting out of her chair and she wasn’t sure that was possible. Instead, she satisfied herself with glaring at him but he didn’t even notice. He was too busy poring over her list of adventures.
“I want some of that brandy,” Will ordered when he dropped the list back onto the table.
He relieved her of the bottle and filled the goblet he held to the brim, not because he needed the drink but there was less for her to imbibe if he drank the majority of it. He was far better at holding his alcohol than she was. Unless he was much mistaken, this was most probably the first time she had ever been drunk. He didn’t ask her if it was, though. Given her volatility right now she would probably throw something at him.
Sighing, he took a long slug of the brandy and tried valiantly to ignore the sulky pout on her lips that made him want to kiss her. He wondered if he should try it just to see if she would take a swipe at him, which he doubted she would be able to manage given how clumsy she was. Moreover, he wanted to make her want him, just so he could prove to her that they were not on opposite sides of the battle lines, but friends. Well, acquaintances. When he automatically baulked at that he quickly closed off all thoughts of what Georgiana was to him, and took a seat opposite her.
“Your wish list is intriguing,” he murmured. “These are all the things you have seen me and your brothers do but have never been allowed to try, isn’t it?”
He wasn’t surprised when she didn’t deny it. He studied the list on the table thoughtfully. Her parents would never condone her involvement in anything on the list.
“Are you here just to complete your list?” he asked with a frown. Now he had read it, he had a better insight into what all of this was actually about. All he had to do now was decide what he should do about it.
“If you don’t wish to go home, then that is your choice, Georgiana,” he reasoned when she ignored him. “There is nothing I can do to force you, but I would urge you to write a letter to your father to inform him of your decision. It would help if Ruth wrote to him to tell him that it is acceptable for you to stay here. Any financial arrangement they enter into is between them. It doesn’t have anything to do with me. I am here merely because I am concerned about you. Since I have arrived here I have seen you do far more than I had ever imagined you would ever contemplate ruining your reputation for. It is so out of character from the Georgiana I am used to that I just want to make sure you won’t put yourself in any danger.”
He didn’t tell her as such but he was immensely reassured that several items were marked off her list already meaning she had no intention of ever going skinny dipping again. The last thing he wanted was for anybody else to witness what he had seen the last time she tried it.
“Who is the stranger you kissed?” He asked curiously, slightly disturbed by the surge of jealousy that swept through him at the prospect of her being in someone else’s embrace.
“You,” she said flatly as she took a swig of her brandy and ignored his startled glance.
“Me?” Will spluttered. “But I am no stranger.”
“Yes, you are,” she replied firmly. “The children we were are long gone.”
Will looked at her. She was right. A strange, almost stilted silence settled over them as they both considered that for a moment.