“Since I wish to address you as an equal in that regard,” he continued, “please feel free to call me by my given name—Sebastian.”
His suggestion eroded Rebecca’s resolve to keep her hopes in check. She wasn’t certain she could bring herself to speak his first name aloud, but from that moment, she would always think of him as Sebastian.
“Would it be too great a liberty for me to call you Rebecca... in private at least?” His penetrating gaze softened until it seemed to caress her face. “It is a fine name—so proud and strong, yet lovely too. It seems a shame not to use it.”
To hear her name on his lips provoked an unsettling mixture of pleasure and trepidation. No one had called her anything but Miss Beaton for such a long time it was almost as if they were two different people. “Miss Beaton” would never consent to such familiarity of address from a man she barely knew. Yet “Rebecca” felt quite well acquainted with Sebastian. Though not as well as she would have liked.
“You may call me what you wish.” She resisted the urge to bow her head and cast a glance upward at Sebastian through her lashes. She had seen giddy girls behave that way around their admirers when she’d accompanied Hermione to the Assembly Rooms in Avoncross. She was far too old to flirt, even if she’d had the temperament for it. “Was that all you wanted to ask me?”
Sebastian hesitated a moment as if he’d been so lost in contemplation of her that he’d forgotten what he meant to say. “Yes... er... no! It was another matter entirely.”
He inhaled a deep breath then plunged ahead. “Though we have known each other a very short time, my dear Rebecca, I must tell you how much I have come to admire your sincerity and good sense.”
He was making a romantic declaration! Forcing herself to keep breathing, Rebecca gave her leg a discrete pinch to wake her if she had fallen to dreaming.
“Y-you are too kind.” She still could not bring herself to call him by his Christian name. Perhaps when she gave him her answer...
Sebastian’s husky, rueful chuckle was even sweeter music to her ears than the gurgle of the fountain. “That is something else I have never been accused of before.”
Instinctively, she rose to his defense again. “Then your acquaintances must be blind to your true character.”
“Or perhaps,” he suggested, “I am a better man when you are around.”
What finer compliment could he possibly pay her? “It would make me very happy to think so.”
“Then let me return to my question... my request.”
“Of course.” The prospect of a stable future stretched before Rebecca, as inviting as the verdant view from this garden. Security of situation and affection were things she’d always craved. Now, just when she’d begun to despair of ever gaining them, her dream seemed poised to come true.
“I need you,” Sebastian murmured, “to become my ally.”
“Ally?” she repeated. That was an unusual term for a wife. Though perhaps, given Sebastian’s preoccupation with military matters, it should not be too surprising.
“Precisely!” The viscount made it sound as if the suggestion had come from her. “My ally in the effort to end my brother’s imprudent betrothal. I want you to use your influence to persuade Miss Leonard to break it off.”
Even as she chided herself for imagining her could ever want anything else from her, Rebecca felt as if Sebastian had pushed her over the edge of this serene terrace garden to hurtle down the steep cliff.
Chapter Four
WHAT HAD COME over Rebecca?
As his request hung in the air, unanswered, Sebastian tried to fathom the sudden change he sensed in her. A moment ago, she had seemed so amenable, as if she knew what he meant to ask before he uttered a word. Then an invisible door had slammed shut between them.
Had she expected him to say something different? Sebastian could not imagine what. He thought he had signaled his intentions quite clearly.
Rebecca stepped back and turned away from him, directing her gaze toward the pastoral beauty of the view. “You expect me to persuade Hermione to break her engagement to your brother?”
“I hope you will agree to assist me.” An undercurrent of aversion beneath her words made Sebastian reconsider his plan. At the moment, it was all he had. And after what he’d seen of Hermione Leonard, he was more determined than ever to prevent his brother from having to go through with this marriage. “You are too prudent not to see that a union between my brother and Miss Leonard is likely to fail.”
“Why?” Rebecca turned her striking hazel eyes upon him again. “Because he is impetuous and inconstant and she does not meet your exacting standards? Those were the reasons you gave me when we first met. They did not sway me then nor do they now. I think more highly of Hermione and Mr. Stanhope than you appear to. I believe he truly cares for her, and she for him. I am quite certain they can be happy together.”
She did not raise her voice or pound on anything, as his brother would have done. Instead she simply stated her position with firm sincerity that Sebastian found much more difficult to dismiss. “Does that mean ‘no’?”
Rebecca nodded. “You have praised my sense and sincerity, but those mean nothing to me without loyalty. You also observed that we are alike in our concern for those we care about. How can you suppose I would do anything to cause Hermione a moment’s grief? She is very dear to me and I will not advise her against a course of action that I believe provides her best chance of continued happiness.”
Much as it disappointed Sebastian to see his promising plan go awry, he found himself equally troubled to lose the opportunity for continued contact with Rebecca.
“You must despise me for even suggesting such a thing.” He tried to make light of it, only to discover how much the prospect of her bad opinion troubled him. “At least now I can count you among those who regard me as arrogant, stubborn and ruthless.”
Sebastian turned sharply on his heel so she would not glimpse any look in his eyes that might betray his true feelings. “Since that is settled, perhaps we had better get back.”
He’d only taken two long strides when she called after him. “I do not despise you, Sebastian.”
Her words halted him in his tracks, especially the sweetness of hearing her melodious voice caress his name so warmly. Yet he did not dare to face her until he regained control of the emotions she had stirred.
Behind him he heard the faint rustle of her footsteps in the grass and her voice drawing nearer. “You are convinced this marriage will make your brother unhappy. How can I not respect your loyalty and your willingness to take any action necessary to prevent him from making what you perceive to be a mistake?”