The Bachelor Bargain (Secrets, Scandals, and Spies) by Michaels, Maddison (short books to read TXT) 📕

“I shall not leave it be.” She banged her cane on the parquet floor, her expression fierce for a moment before sadness replaced it. “Particularly as I am partly to blame for your misery. For Livie’s misery, too.”

“Explain yourself,” Sebastian demanded.

“I was the one to plant the seeds of doubt in her head. You see, I, too, was once in love with an unsuitable man,” she began, and then went on to explain about her groom. “I lied to Livie when I said I only sometimes regretted not fleeing to America with Jacob. The truth is, there hasn’t been a day I haven’t regretted my decision. Not one single day.”

“Yet you still warned her away from me?”

“I thought it was a mere flirtation between you two.” Demelza sighed. “I didn’t realize how much she loved you.”

“She doesn’t. At least not enough to try to overcome any obstacles.” He could still hear her words of rejection in his head. Words that still wounded every time he thought of them.

“You must understand where she’s coming from,” Demelza urged. “Giving up all you know and your loved ones is not such a simple thing.”

“It is if you truly love someone.”

“Things are not so black-and-white when it comes to matters of the heart. You of all people know that.”

“What I know is that she’s made up her mind,” Sebastian replied. “She’s chosen her family, and that is that.”

“I thought you were a fighter, Sebastian Colver. Is she not worth fighting for?”

The woman was peering so intently at him that Sebastian got the sensation she was looking into his soul. “She’s made her decision.”

“Then you do not love her as I thought you did.” Demelza shrugged. “Clearly whatever you felt for her was fleeting.”

“Fleeting?” he yelled. “I would give my life for her! That is how much I love her.”

“Then fight for her!” Demelza implored. “Do not let her slip through your fingers and live with the burning agony of regret in your heart every day, as I do.”

“I can’t.” It was torture to say so, but it was the truth. “You have no idea how many times this past fortnight I’ve wrestled with the idea of pleading with her, of begging her to change her mind. But I will not do so, because even if she did, she would end up resenting me. She would resent me for making her give up her family and friends. Resent me when Society shuns her and continues to. Resent me until any love she felt was but a bitter memory.”

“You are not giving any of us credit,” Demelza declared. “Yourself least of all.”

“What do you mean?”

“With the power you hold over a great portion of Society, in combination with my own influence and her father’s, do you really think any of those fools would dare to shun her, and by doing so offend any of us?”

The thought stopped Sebastian in his tracks. It was true; he could certainly intimidate a majority of Society to accept Livie as his wife or face his wrath. But he couldn’t intimidate all of them, for that he would need the support of the Dragon Duchess and Livie’s father, the duke. “You would support our union?”

Demelza nodded. “I love my niece. So yes, if she chooses you, then I will support her decision. After all, I’ve lost her mother, who was like a sister to me, and you can be certain I will not lose Livie, too. I will ensure Society accepts your marriage. As will her father and brothers.”

“Her father and brothers don’t strike me as the sort of men to simply accept such a thing.” Though he was business partners and friends to an extent with Alexander, he couldn’t imagine the man simply accepting his baby sister marrying someone with Sebastian’s reputation.

“They love her,” she assured him. “She is the glue that has kept them all together after her mother’s death. They will never abandon her, regardless of who she chooses as a husband. They are made of far sterner stuff than to care what Society thinks of them.” She sighed heartily. “If you doubt me, though, why don’t you go and speak with Olivia’s father yourself, for they have all just arrived.” She nodded down below.

Like a desperate man, Sebastian’s gaze swung helplessly to the ballroom below, his eyes hungrily searching for even a glimpse of Livie. His fingers gripped the railing of the balustrade tightly as he caught sight of her.

Dressed in a sapphire blue gown with crystal beads sewn in the bodice, and her hair swept up, leaving the porcelain skin of her neck tantalizingly bare, she was a sight to behold. Sebastian could only stare at her, as she wove through the guests below, her cane glinting by her side as she approached Charlotte, who had just finished a dance.

A sharp pang of longing and loneliness ran through him. He’d missed her. Far more desperately than he’d even realized.

“Don’t let her slip through your fingers, Colver,” Demelza whispered beside him. “Don’t live with a lifetime of regret as I have. Fight for your love.”

She patted him on the back and then turned around and, in a swish of her skirts and cane, she left him alone in the alcove. Alone, to drink in the sight of Livie and wonder if he was willing to risk his heart again.

Chapter Fifty-Three

Seeing Charlotte brimming with happiness filled Livie with such joy that for a brief moment, she forgot her true reason for attending. Sebastian.

Even just the thought of his name made her heart lurch.

She hadn’t seen him yet, but he was certain to be here somewhere. Now she just had to muster up the courage to find him and tell him that she’d made a mistake. That she should have been braver with her heart.

“Is everything all right?” Charlotte asked. “You seem a bit distracted.”

“I’m sorry.” Livie grabbed the girl’s hand. “I do have a lot