Unexpectedly Wed to the Officer (Regency Belles of Bath 2)

Henrietta led the way, laughing softly as he was immediately bombarded with questions about life in the navy. Just like the evening before, however, he seemed completely relaxed and at ease, impressing his young audience so much that she was half afraid they might both enlist before the end of the week.

She was so preoccupied with listening that she almost walked straight into another woman hurrying around the railings at the corner of the street.

‘Pardon me.’ She looked up, straight into the eyes of the woman from the pavement the day before.

‘Oh! No, it was my fault.’ The woman hesitated, her lips parting as if she wanted to say something else, before she noticed Sebastian and scampered quickly onwards again.

‘An acquaintance of yours?’ he asked quizzically when she was out of earshot.

‘Not exactly.’ Henrietta looked back over her shoulder for a few seconds and then carried on walking. As much as she wanted to help anyone in distress, her nephews needed to get to school and she needed to speak to David. At that moment, she had more than enough problems of her own to deal with.

Chapter Eight

Henrietta found Sebastian exactly where she’d left him, leaning casually against a red brick wall opposite the schoolyard. In broad daylight, he looked even more ruggedly handsome than she’d remembered. His coat was hanging open as usual and his dark hair was swept away from his face, all except for one black curl that seemed determined to take up residence over his nose. That appendage was also looking noticeably less bruised today, allowing her to focus on his twinkling dark eyes as she approached.

There was something slightly wicked about them, she thought as she came closer, or, if not wicked, then definitely mischievous. Yes, that was a much better word. There was no malice in them, although now that she’d got past the initial pleasure of seeing him, she wondered if she was simply being naive again.

He’d said that he was staying longer in Bath to visit old friends, but then why was he here with her? She thought she’d addressed the issue of potential misunderstandings the day before, but why was he helping her if he didn’t expect anything in return? They might have decided to be friends, but she still couldn’t help feeling a little suspicious. Not to mention alarmed when just the sight of him made her stomach start fluttering as if there were a swarm of butterflies inside looking for a way out.

‘So where next? Your brother’s house?’ He uncrossed his ankles and pushed himself upright to greet her.

‘Yes, although I’ve no idea what I’m going to say.’ She felt instantly anxious again. ‘I want to help him get better, but I feel so powerless.’

‘Maybe just tell him that.’ He looked sympathetic. ‘Is it far?’

‘Just a few streets away.’

‘Then let’s go.’ He bent his elbow and she curled her hand around it, without hesitation and without mistaking it for a wild creature this time either, which was definitely progress, she thought ironically as they made their way through the backstreets. His arm felt just as big and solid as it had the day before, although there was something reassuring and supportive about it now, too. R

eassuring with butterflies. She wouldn’t have thought it possible to feel tense in two such different ways at the same time and yet she did, her concern for David vying with a new sense of repressed excitement with Sebastian.

‘Here we are.’ She stopped outside a small two-storey wooden building, squeezed between two equally ramshackle others. ‘Would you mind—?’

‘Waiting outside? Of course not.’

‘I don’t know how long I’ll be.’

‘Take all the time you need.’ Sebastian squeezed her arm gently before releasing her. ‘I’ll be right here.’

‘Thank you.’ She opened the door without knocking and stepped inside, only to find the room just as she’d left it. Messy, freezing and apparently deserted.

‘David?’ she called softly as she made her way through the downstairs, but there was no answer, not as much as a murmur of acknowledgement. Carefully, she climbed the steps up into the loft space, but that was empty, too, rumpled bedsheets the only evidence that her brother had ever been there. Everything else was eerily still and quiet and forbidding somehow. A lump of dread started to form in her stomach, apprehension getting the better of her nerves. If David hadn’t gone to work, then where was he? Surely he couldn’t have started drinking again already?

‘Henrietta?’ Sebastian’s shout summoned her back down the steps.

‘What is it?’ She hurried towards the front door, flinging it open and then stopping dead at the sight of her brother’s neighbour confronting Sebastian. ‘Oh! Is everything all right?’

‘So he is with you then?’ Mrs Roper’s belligerent expression bore a strong resemblance to Nancy’s. ‘He said he was, but you can’t be too careful.’

‘No, I suppose you can’t.’ Henrietta closed the door behind her, unable to mask her disappointment. ‘Mrs Roper, do you have any idea where my brother is?’

‘Not exactly.’ The neighbour looked as if she were suddenly keen to leave again. ‘My boy came back this morning saying David was awake and feeling a bit worse for wear, but sober enough.’

‘Oh.’

‘He was muttering some strange things though, my boy said, all about going away and making a fresh start.’

‘Going away?’ Henrietta felt as though she’d just been slapped in the face.