Don't Look Back

Chapter 50

Damp from her walk with Charlotte, Georgiana found herself at the porch of the Crown Hotel breathless and conflicted from her conversation.

Sir Radmore smiled as he stood at the door. "Haven't seen you for a while?" he commented.

Her head shook irritably. "No, I have been walking with Charlotte. She had some...news," she remembered the secrecy.

He laughed. "He has been gone near a week." he blew out a puff of smoke in her face. "Any news?"

Georgiana rolled her eyes. "Yes, yes, now can I go in, this rain is sucking the spirit from me."

"I suppose it is times like these you long for Antigua?" Sir Radmore asked.

Georgiana blinked a few times realizing it had been months since she had spared a thought towards it in any way.

"Yes, the weather is much improved, there." her reply was dismissive to his comment. "How goes the business of the day?" she asked as she was eager to change the subject.

He shrugged. "Well enough. The season will conclude and many will quit this place and go back whence they came... so will most of our highest gamblers."

She shrugged. "Yes, but we knew that. And once the new stables are built imagine the steady flow then."

Sir Radmore frowned. "Ah, the rumored stables of Lady Worcester." A smile played at the corner of his mouth.

Georgiana nodded. "What?"

"There are no horse races here now," he commented and then nodded in thought. "Think of all the money that will flow when they start."

"That all you can think about?" she countered. "Money?"

He shrugged. "Well, no." he looked at her. "I do on the occasion think of other things. Come, let us have a drink and talk."

She pushed past him. "Why do you think I am here? We have business after all."

He flicked out his smoke and turned. "Business, can it not ever be just a friendly call?"

Georgiana pulled her gloves off as she entered the smoke-filled area and waved it off. "Perhaps it would be more friendly if the atmosphere was more tolerable," she replied with her back to him.

Waving her to his office in the back he politely gestured to her. "I suppose you might prefer a cup of tea to a scotch or a brandy."

"A brandy would be preferable." she turned and eyed him carefully. "Tea, it's for English ladies."

He grinned now widely and nodded. "Yes, I suppose it is." he could tell she was in an odd humor.

Georgiana sat down stiffly and awaited the man, impatient for a drink.

"You seem out of sorts Miss Lamb," he said bringing her a glass with the bottle. One glass remained at his desk.

Looking at him stonily Georgiana took the offered beverage and threw it back her throat and placed it on his desk with a hard thud.

"Another."

He frowned now confused and poured it a little fuller this time.

"Now now, it must be interesting to make you drink like Mr. Crowe." he watched her snatch it again and throw it back with a wince.

Her heart hammered and felt taken over by sudden impulse.

"Brandy is not meant to be drunk like that, perhaps you would have preferred whisky," he said blinking as he scratched his forehead.