The Offer (Baron 2)

“The three glasses of sherry you gulped down have addled your brain, Charlie. How about some coffee? That’ll bring you back to reason. No, don’t fall all over me with your thanks. I’m also the butler in this establishment. Coffee?”

“Sabrina Eversleigh is a charming girl,” Charles said, ignoring Phillip’s words. “She’s eighteen now, I believe, quite old enough.” He mentally ticked off the years in his mind. “Yes, eighteen. She’s two years younger than my sister, Margaret.”

“I’ve seen glimmers of charm in her, on rare occasion. However, usually she’s been more stubborn, more closemouthed than my uncle Harvey’s pet pig, Horace, a great animal, really, but once he’d made up his mind about something, that was it.”

“Phillip, what’s all this about a pet pig? Surely that isn’t at all to the point. Now listen to me. I suppose it would be best if I seconded you to the altar. The old earl could obtain a special license and you could be wed by the end of the week. I’m certain the old earl would like to keep things as hushed up as possible.” Charles looked up and beamed at Phillip. His relief was boundless. “You know, I think I’d like some coffee.”

“Coffee,” Phillip repeated as he stared at his friend. “A special license? Dear God, Charlie, you indeed did drink too much sherry. You believe I should marry Sabrina Eversleigh? That’s more ridiculous than the ridiculous waistcoat you wore last month to White’s, the one with the yellow tulips on it. I’ve known the young lady for less than a week.”

“Don’t you see? That’s the point, Phillip. You’ve got a reputation that makes women want to creep into your bed and makes men envy you. You’ve kept a young unmarried girl with you for nearly a week. She’s compromised, Phillip, all the way to her toes.”

“She does have rather nice toes,” Phillip said.

“I doubt that even Richard Clarendon would want her now.”

“My brains have gone round the bend more than yours have, Charlie. That’s another reason why her name was familiar to me. Richard told me one night while we were playing piquet that he was going to marry a young girl from Yorkshire. It’s Sabrina. Now, listen to me. I’m not about to marry her. There’s no reason to. Don’t you understand? She nearly died. I kept her alive. I didn’t have sex with her. I’ve cared for her the best I knew how, and that did not include having sex with her. I cooked all her meals and fed her, and dessert didn’t include having sex with her. Now forget this nonsense about me marrying her. Richard wanted to marry her and now he can. I am and will remain the good Samaritan, nothing more.”

“I doubt that. Once he realizes she’s been with you, a gentleman with as great a reputation as his own, I doubt he will be inclined to wed her. Do you know he’s been like a madman, nearly killed one of his horses in the snow, searching for Sabrina? He wants her powerfully bad. But now, when he finds out about you? I don’t know, Phillip, but I strongly doubt it. I hope he doesn’t want to kill you.”

But Richard could not love Sabrina, Phillip thought, staring down at his bread dough. Why else would he have continued in his wicked ways, which he most certainly had? Why he’d even taken an opera girl under his protection but three weeks before. Maybe Charlie was wrong and it wasn’t a love match. He racked his memory, trying to recall Richard’s exact words about Sabrina. They were in White’s, playing piquet, both men having left their mistresses but an hour before. Richard was slightly in his cups and the brandy had begun to curl pleasantly in Phillip’s stomach as well when he’d said, “I’ve found me a wife.” He didn’t look at Phillip, but stared over at the flames in the fireplace. Phillip thought he was jesting. He laughed and refilled his glass.

“No, no, I’m serious about this, Phillip. She’s a delightful girl, though I must wait some three more months for her. Old Eversleigh made me promise to let the girl reach her eighteenth birthday before taking her to wife.”

Phillip had been surprised, no doubt about that. “But you’ve buried one wife, Richard, and you have your heir. You’ve told me more times than I can count that you would never again get yourself married, that one woman just couldn’t keep you happy or content.”

Richard grunted and downed another glass of brandy. “I want her,” he said, his voice thick with lust and drink. “She’s as vivid as life itself. Her hair is the color of those flames and long and thick. I want to bury my face in her hair, just breathe her in.” He raised his eyes to Phillip’s face then. “You know, she’s the only comely female I know who hasn’t used all her wiles to trap me. She is curiously una

ware of passion, indeed, appears to be sublimely unaware of her effect on me. Yes,” he said, looking away from the fire and back at the cards in his hand, “I want her.”

Phillip became aware that Charles was speaking. “What did you say, Charlie?”

“I asked you what you intend to do.”

“Didn’t you hear me? I saved her bloody life, nothing more, nothing less. I’m going to return her to her family.” No, it wasn’t going to be quite that easy. There was Trevor to be dealt with. “You said that this Trevor is married to Sabrina’s sister?”

“Yes. If you asked me, I’d say the whole thing was a bribe. Elizabeth isn’t a very lovable woman. She makes me want to take to my heels.”

“Does Sabrina have an aunt in London?”

“Certainly. Lady Barresford. You’ve been to several of her soirees, have you not?”

Sabrina’s merchant aunt. He nodded absently. Obviously she’d intended to flee to her aunt for protection. At least Charles had added sufficient facts so Phillip would be able to force the whole truth from her. Then, he thought, he would decide exactly what was to be done.

“You still refuse to admit to having compromised her?”

“No, I haven’t compromised her and I refuse to believe that saving that damned girl’s life would cast me into the role of the major villain in this farce. Don’t tell me you’ve ever wanted to ravage a girl who was so cold her teeth were chattering?”

“No, but I’m not a womanizer and you are. I have no idea what sorts of odd situations would make you mad with lust.”

“Oh, just shut up.”

“If it matters to you, of course I believe you. I’ve never known you to lie except when we were boys. But no one else will believe you. Sabrina will be ostracized the moment it’s discovered that she was with you.”

It was true and he didn’t like it one little bit. He wasn’t all that bad. He didn’t hurt anyone, he merely did what he pleased. “My reputation is so very damning, Charles?”

“Damning? Well, I suppose you’d think that in this situation. Strange thing is, you know very well that you’d emerge unscathed from this, but Sabrina? Oh no. Odd the way society works, isn’t it?”

Phillip felt a surge of anger. It was true that he’d felt lust for her. For God’s sake, he wasn’t dead. But he was an honorable man when all was said and done. He’d not taken advantage of her. Their intimacy had been forced upon her by her illness. He thought fleetingly of Martine, his mistress. By God, if only he’d stayed in London, passing long lazy hours in her bedchamber, none of this would have happened. Well, it had happened. Sabrina had happened.