The Offer (Baron 2)

“Allow me to fix it for you, Sabrina. I’m really quite accomplished at such tasks, you know.”

She couldn’t imagine how that could be so.

“Come, trust me.”

Sabrina shook her head, laughing. “You and Phillip are like two peas from the same pod. The both of you must always have the last word. Very well, there’s a small room just down the corridor that should provide you, me, and my flounce sufficient privacy.”

Phillip watched Sabrina and Richard Clarendon leave the ballroom. What was going on?

He excused himself from Miss Patterson, and made good his escape from the ballroom. He saw Sabrina laugh up at Richard and walk away with him down the corridor toward the back of the house. Although he hated what he was doing, he still walked after them. He saw Sabrina open the door to the small room she’d just begun using for her own private parlor and close it after her.

His fists clenched at his sides and he felt cold fury wash over him. He admitted to himself that his invitation of a man who’d been a good friend for many years had been in the nature of a test. He simply had to know if Sabrina cared anything about the marquess. He wasn’t proud of himself. But there it was. He’d said nothing, done nothing. He’d simply let them do what they wanted to do. He’d simply watched them go into that room. He’d simply watched the damned door close.

Her behavior was inexcusable. He was angrier than he’d been in a very long time. He turned on his heel and strode back to the ballroom.

In the small ladies’ room, Sabrina was laughing as she said, “Some assistant you are, Richard, just look at what you’re doing.” He was actually on his knees in front of her sticking pins in strategic places in the ripped hem.

Their heads were nearly touching.

He looked up. He couldn’t seem to stop staring at her mouth. “Consider me both your inspiration and your servant.”

“No, that pin is all crooked. Here.” She was laughing when she took the pin from him. She jabbed her finger.

“Oh, goodness, look what I’ve done.” She put the injured finger in her mouth.

“Now I can truly be of assistance, Sabrina.” Richard knelt up in front of her, taking the finger and inspecting it. A small drop of blood welled up. Without thought, he licked it away, then gently kissed the finger.

Sabrina sat very quietly, gazing down at his bent head. “Richard.” She stopped. She didn’t know what to say. She looked down at the handsome man who was kneeling in front of her. She felt embarrassed and strangely ashamed.

He groaned, dropped her hand as if it were something to bite him, and rose quickly. He ran his hand distractedly through his hair.

“I’m sorry, Sabrina. I didn’t mean to do that.”

Sabrina rose and placed her hand on his sleeve. “Please, it’s all right, Richard. It’s forgotten. You’re an excellent friend and—”

“Dammit, I never wanted to be your bloody friend. You know I would have married you, despite what happened between you and Phillip.”

She raised her head and looked him straight in his dark eyes. “I’m no longer a virgin, as of four nights ago. I now know what men do to women. Phillip did it to me three times. So, what I find absolutely astounding is that anyone with any sort of brain at all would think that a woman would willingly let a man do those things to her. It’s ridiculous. If you honestly believe that while I was very ill I let Phillip somehow seduce me, then you’re an idiot, Richard, very simply, an idiot.”

He was treading on very swampy ground, but Richard Clarendon was a man used to speaking his mind. Her words didn’t make sense. “You mean to tell me that Phillip didn’t please you? Sabrina, Phillip is an experienced man. He isn’t a clod. This is impossible. He made love to you three times and you had no pleasure with him?” He realized then what he was saying. Her face was perfectly white. She looked both pale and ill and ready to kill. “I’m sorry, forgive me. That wasn’t something I should have said. I could have thought it but not said it.”

He ran his hand through his hair again. “You’re in love with him and yet he hasn’t pleased you. That’s astonishing, truly it is, if you but realized it.” Suddenly the impropriety of the situation struck him forcibly. In her innocence, she’d thought nothing of accompanying him to this room, alone. All she needed at this point was more vicious gossiping. And just lo

ok what had happened. No fault of hers. All his. He smiled at her very gently, slowly lifted her hand, and lightly kissed her fingers. “I’m a fool. Everything will right itself, Sabrina, you will see. Now, I must take my leave. You must return to the ballroom and your guests before you’re missed. Good-bye.”

He turned on his heel and left the room, leaving her to stare after him.

At two o’clock in the morning Sabrina was so weary that she could barely restrain her yawns as Doris brushed out her hair. Her bedchamber door opened suddenly and Phillip’s reflection appeared in her mirror.

He dismissed her maid. He didn’t say a word until Doris was out of the room. Then he kicked the door closed with the heel of his boot.

She smiled at him in the mirror. “You’ve sent away the final guests?” Sabrina turned in her chair and looked at him with some surprise. He wasn’t smiling back at her. He didn’t look at all tired. He looked angry.

“Yes, they’re all gone. The champagne punch is gone as well. Greybar is so tired I thought he’d collapse in the entry hall.” He sprawled into a chair opposite her and began to tap his fingertips together.

“We only waltzed two times, Phillip. I’d hoped for more, perhaps six times would have been sufficient for me. Indeed, you were slathering your charm on so wondrously that I didn’t think the ladies would ever let you out of their sight.”

He waved away her words. He said slowly, his voice low and careful, “You, at least, had the good sense to return to the ballroom before the gossips took notice.”