Bea could feel the blush in her cheeks at thoughts of last night. ‘Whatever Griffin has said to you in regard to me—’
‘I am sure you know him better than to believe he would ever be so indiscreet as to discuss his friendship with a lady with a third party. Even one of his closest friends,’ Seaton stated firmly. ‘But I do have eyes, Bea, and the power of deduction, and I do not believe that Griffin was behaving as an older brother or an uncle to you when I arrived late last night.’
The heat deepened in her cheeks. ‘That was all my own doing, not Griffin’s.’
‘Perhaps we should not discuss this any further, Bea?’ Seaton suggested ruefully. ‘Such conversations have the power of stirring the blood, I am far from London, and sadly the only beautiful woman in the vicinity is far more taken with my friend than she is with me.’
‘You are a flirt, sir.’ Bea could not help but laugh.
‘Indubitably.’ He gave an unrepentant grin as he once again placed her gloved hand upon his arm so that they might continue their walk about the gardens together.
But that did not mean that Bea did not continue to think of their conversation. For her heart to ache for the lonely little boy Griffin must once have been. For the sad and lonely widower he must also have been these past six years since he’d lost his wife.
For Bea to feel ashamed of her harshness towards him this morning, when she had spoken and treated him so coldly.
As no doubt the wily Duke of Sutherland had intended her to feel...
* * *
‘Yes, Bea?’ Griffin eyed her warily as she appeared in the doorway of the library, where he currently sat alone, drinking whisky and contemplating the unpleasantness of his visit to Latham Manor this morning.
She hesitated. ‘I am not interrupting anything?’
‘Only my thoughts,’ he acknowledged dryly.
Lady Francesca had arrived back at Latham Manor the previous evening, and, as Griffin had quickly learnt, her acerbic tongue had not been in the least tempered by having spent the Season in London, followed by several weekend parties on her leisurely journey back into Lancashire.
‘Thoughts I can well do without,’ he added dismissively as he stood up and indicated that Bea should enter and take her usual seat by the fire, before he sat down opposite her.
He had missed her company this morning, truth be told, allowing him to realise that he had become accustomed to her presence in the library as he worked on estate papers. Seeing her strolling about the gardens before he left, her hand resting companionably on Christian’s arm, had not improved his mood in the slightest. Finding Lady Francesca Latham back at home had only exacerbated his ill humour.
Nor had he learnt anything useful from the visit. Sir Walter was his usual jovial self, even more so now that his wife was returned to Lancashire, but the lady’s jarring presence had not allowed for any private conversation between the two gentlemen.
The only good thing about the visit was that Griffin had not had to suffer through meeting Lady Francesca’s whey-faced niece; she, no doubt having spent quite enough time in the company of her sharp-tongued aunt, had wisely chosen to remain a little longer at the home of one of her friends.
All in all, Griffin’s day so far had not been a successful one. Bea had opted to eat lunch in her bedchamber, and Griffin had absented himself from afternoon tea on the excuse that he was busy working on estate business.
‘I owe you an apology.’
Griffin tensed as he raised his gaze sharply to look searchingly at Bea. ‘An apology for what?’
She sighed. ‘I believe I was—unfair to you, both last night and this morning. The Duke of Sutherland was kind enough to explain a little about the restraints put upon the two of you, in regard to revealing my true identity.’
Griffin felt a certain satisfaction in hearing her still refer to Christian formally; he did not think he could have born to suffer through listening to Bea referring to the other man in a familiar way.
He was not so pleased with the rest of the content of her apology, however. ‘And how did Christian do that?’
Bea sensed the reserve in Griffin’s tone. ‘His Grace was not in the least indiscreet, Griffin,’ she hastened to reassure. ‘He merely helped me to understand that there is more involved in all of this than my own personal wants and needs.’
‘Indeed?’
Griffin sounded even more cool and remote when all she had wished to do was settle the unease that now existed between the two of them.
She had not forgotten overhearing his dismissal of their lovemaking last night, nor would she, but Christian Seaton had helped her to understand that there was a much broader picture to this situation, one that required she put her personal feelings of hurt to one side.