Chapter 25

Chapter 25

Sebastian was nearly at the door when Beatrice appeared in front of him, her expression one of pure innocence.

"There you are, Lord Sebastian," she exclaimed, grabbing onto his hand and breathing a sigh of relief. "I have been looking everywhere for you," she explained at the confused look in his eyes. "Caroline asked me to look for you."

A frown appeared between Sebastian's brows at this. In truth he found it quite odd that Caroline would send her sister to look for him—though he could not deny being relieved at the thought of the pair having made their peace.

"Where is she?" he asked quickly, and Beatrice let out a draw-out sigh. "She… had a little mishap with her dress," she explained and glanced around furtively before lowering her voice. "It is… quite torn. I believe she rushed to the carriage—if she made it all the way there."

There was a hint of something he could not place in her voice, but Sebastian chose to ignore it—instead he turned to find Nathaniel, rushing to his friend.

"I have to go," he whispered, acutely aware of the glances being shot in his direction. "According to Beatrice, something happened with Caroline's dress. I'd better find her."

Nathaniel merely nodded, though the frown between his brows said that he too was rather curious about what it was that had happened with Caroline.

Whispers followed Sebastian as he made his way towards the doors, and though he tried to ignore it, he was unable to completely do so.

"Scandalous," one matron said as he passed her. "That the woman turned out to be such a harlot…"

"Two scandals with two different men," another whispered accusingly. "It is unheard of." Sebastian kept walking quickly, trying his level best to refrain from showing the women exactly how worrisome their words were.

Despite not showing it, however, doubt kept creeping about him. Why was Caroline's dress torn? What in the world had happened?

The thoughts that kept whirling in his mind came crashing down upon his head along with his world when he stopped short of the carriage.

Caroline stood with her back against the carriage–and leaning far too close for his comfort was none other than Edward Pembroke.

"Sebastian!"

It was Caroline who saw him first and she looked at him guiltily, her face flushed. "So… So Beatrice called you after all?"

"She did," he said stiffly, though it was difficult to fix his attention on Caroline when Edward Pembroke's sly smile tore through him with the force of a thousand swords.

"What," he started slowly, approaching the man like a predator would its prey, "are you doing here with my wife?"

"What am I doing here?" Edward echoed, a lazy smirk spreading across his lips as he sidled up to Caroline. "Why, I was simply enjoying some charming conversation with your wife."

His eyes raked over Caroline's form in an overtly salacious manner, and Sebastian felt his hands curl into white-knuckled fists, trembling with the force of his rage. How dare this worm look upon his wife with such brazen indecency?

In a few long strides, Sebastian closed the distance between them, his powerful frame towering over the other man in a blatant display of physical dominance. "You will remove yourself from my wife's presence. Now," he growled, the words ground out through gritted teeth.

Edward, damn the insufferable pup, had the gall to lift a mocking brow. "Or what, precisely, do you intend to do about it?" he challenged, his tone a study in condescending nonchalance. "Forgive me, but I cannot help but think the lady would much prefer my...intimate company."

As if to illustrate his audacious claim, Edward's hand snaked out, fingers trailing along the curve of Caroline's waist in a shockingly familiar caress. Caroline flinched away violently, her eyes wide and pleading as they met Sebastian's over the other man's shoulder.

That final insult, that detestable implication against his wife's character and their sacred marriage vows, shredded the last tattered remnants of Sebastian's restraint. With a feral snarl of fury, he lunged forward, his powerful hands fisting in the lapels of Edward's coat to slam the man back against the unforgiving side of the carriage.

"Don't you dare lay a hand on her again," Sebastian growled, his voice thick and trembling with barely suppressed violence. "She is my wife, do you understand? Leave now, Pembroke, before I make you regret ever seeing my face."

For a beat, raw fear flickered in Edward's eyes, the first hint of self-preservation finally piercing through his arrogant bravado. But the pig-headed fool still couldn't let the confrontation pass without a final, poisonous barb.

"The lady doth protest too much, methinks," he sneered, his rank breath hot and vile against Sebastian's face. "You know she desires me in ways she'll never crave your embrace. I was the first man she knew—perhaps not as closely as I wanted to, but before you ever saw her face, I touched her lips."

A guttural roar of pure, incandescent rage tore from Sebastian's throat. Yanking one fist free from its grip on Edward's coat, he cocked his arm back, ready to batter that smugly taunting leer from his adversary's features once and for all. Dimly, he was aware of Caroline beside him, her eyes wide with panic, but in that moment he was past caring about propriety or restraint. All he knew was an all-consuming need to defend his wife's honor from this licentious, contemptible snake.

"Sebastian, no!" Caroline's anguished cry split the air like a thunderclap, her hands clutching at his arm in a frantic bid to stay his wrath. "Please, you mustn't do this, not over him! He's not worth it, my love."

Her impassioned plea sliced through the red haze of Sebastian's fury like a blade, stilling his descending fist mere inches from its intended target. He wavered, blind instinct warring with reason and the soul-deep adoration he held for this woman now gazing up at him with stricken, pleading eyes.

Slowly, with an effort of will that drained him to the core, Sebastian released the grip he had on Edward's coat, stumbling back with chest heaving and eyes blazing. Pembroke straightened his clothes with a disdainful sniff, his expression twisted into a sneer of malicious triumph.

But before the worm could fully bask in his questionable victory, Caroline whirled on him with a ferocity that made even Sebastian's blood run cold in his veins.

"Leave," she hissed through gritted teeth, her voice laced with a venom he had never heard from her before. Raw hurt shone in her eyes, the bright glaze of unshed tears. "Get away from us, and never show your face in my presence again. You are no friend, no gentleman. I was a fool to ever trust you or think you worthy of my company."

Edward faltered, the bald triumph draining from his features as he registered the depth of Caroline's fury and rejection. For a moment, Sebastian thought he might protest, might try to wheedle or bluster his way back into her good graces through sheer bullheadedness.

But perhaps finally sensing the futility of pressing his case, Edward gave a terse nod and stalked away, melting into the night like the cowardly cur he was beneath all of his swagger and false bravado.

The instant he was gone, the fight seemed to go out of Caroline all at once, as if she were a marionette whose strings had been severed. She sagged, hugging her arms around her slender frame as if to shield herself from a bitter wind.

"Sebastian…" Her voice was hollow, ragged with the weight of wounded spirits and shattered illusions. "I swear, on everything I hold sacred, I did not betray you. Not for an instant. What you saw... It was nothing, a twisted misunderstanding orchestrated by that vile, depraved–"

"Not here," he said coldly, avoiding her desperate gaze. "Let's go home."

Caroline simply nodded, allowing him to help her into the carriage. This time, though, the brush of her thighs against his did not fill him with heat or nervous anticipation. Instead, it broke his heart all over again—especially when he noticed the tears in her dress, flashing him a glimpse of her porcelain thigh.

How had it happened?

Though he wanted nothing more than to know, Sebastian was far too afraid to ask and so he chose to avert his eyes.

The ride to their manor was quiet—uncomfortably so, with both Sebastian and Caroline avoiding each other's eyes. Her soft sniffles and whimpers had stopped, giving way for silence.

They had barely stepped through the doors of their home when the simmering tension between them finally reached its boiling point. Sebastian stalked ahead, his shoulders rigid with barely contained fury, and Caroline had to hurry to keep pace with his long strides.

"Sebastian, please, won't you listen?" she implored, catching his arm in a desperate attempt to make him pause. "It was a misunderstanding, that is all. That contemptible scene back there was all Edward's doing. You have to believe me."

He whirled on her so suddenly that she stumbled back a step, her eyes widening at the thunderous mask of his expression. "You seem to have a habit of misunderstandings with men," he shot out angrily then closed his eyes and sighed. "I am sorry. I did not mean that. I do not believe that you would sully our vows in that manner…"

Caroline flinched as if he had struck her, tears springing to her eyes at his harsh rebuke. "Then why are you so angry?" she whispered brokenly. "If you trust in my faithfulness, in the sanctity of our vows, why do you look at me as if I've personally laid your heart to burn?"

Sebastian's jaw clenched convulsively, his nostrils flaring as he struggled to master the storm of emotion roiling within him. When at last he spoke, his voice was taut and controlled, but Caroline could hear the molten fury simmering beneath.

"Because even if you are blameless in deed, you are not so in invitation," he ground out. "You allowed that viper to slither too close, gave him far too much liberty with your presence. And now his vile insinuations have taken wing amongst those sharks who call themselves our peers."

Caroline recoiled as if struck, her hand flying to her mouth in dismayed shock. "Are you truly suggesting I brought this on myself?" she cried, anguish and indignation warring in her breast. "That I am somehow culpable for Edwards' depraved obsession, for his twisted machinations?"

"I'm saying you were naive!" Sebastian's control finally shattered like a clay jug dropped from a height, his bellow of anguished accusation echoing through the foyer. "Naive and reckless with the reputation I have sacrificed so much to safeguard!"

The instant the words left his lips, Sebastian knew he had gone too far. Caroline flinched as if he had raised a hand against her, anguish and anger writ large across her tear-stained features.

"How dare you?" she breathed, hands trembling with the force of her emotion. "After everything I've endured, all the pain and humiliation I have suffered to become your wife, you have the audacity to make it seem as if I have brought disgrace upon us both!"

Shame washed over Sebastian in a cloying wave, the bitter tang of self-recrimination burning his throat. He opened his mouth, a stammered apology half-formed on his lips, but Caroline had already turned away.

"No, don't bother," she spat, wrapping her arms around her torso in a self-defensive posture. "I don't have the stomach for more of your petty jealousies disguised as noble indignation right now."

Sebastian let out a deep sigh and folded his arms. "I think," he said tersely, watching his wife's stiff figure where she stood frozen, "it is better if I return to Nathaniel's."

She turned back quickly, her eyes wide and for a second Sebastian wanted nothing more than to take her in his arms and make her forget that a man like Edward Pembroke existed.

Angry pride kept him from doing so, though he looked at her with a sliver of tenderness. "The party should be drawing to a close soon," he muttered, avoiding her gaze. "I have things to discuss with Nathaniel."

She did not believe his blatant lie, he knew when he found the courage to face her. Still, in an effort to maintain his rage from exploding once more, he turned away and made his way back to the carriage–leaving his wife behind.