Hopeless Heart (Regency Romance)

by Rebecca King

  Simeon didn’t answer. He merely sneered at her and glared at Will.

  “He has been watching you like the strange, perverted creature he is,” Will growled. “It is quite fortuitous that you were not alone in the house that night.”

  “We all see what you were doing,” Simeon snarled.

  “You sir, are a liar,” Will snapped.

  “You are nothing more than a common whore,” Simeon spat at Georgiana. He leaned toward her threateningly only to be hauled away by Will.

  “Keep away from her,” Will ordered.

  “It was you spreading gossip about me,” Georgiana whispered.

  “Everyone needs to be told about you and him,” Simeon replied, making no attempt to deny the accusation. “You are a whore. That’s why everyone is watching you. They suspect I am your next conquest.”

  There was a malicious glee in his eyes that was unnatural.

  “You can say whatever you like,” Georgiana replied carefully. “People will realise you are a liar eventually, especially when I tell them that you have been spying on me.”

  This seemed to incense Simeon, who slammed a fist into Will’s jaw so swiftly that Will didn’t even see it coming for him until pain exploded in his head.

  “She is no lady,” Simeon smirked. “Do you think I don’t know why you are in this hotel as well? Here to get a bit for yourself are you?”

  “Georgiana and I are to be married,” Will replied once the pain had eased. “While it is no concern of yours, we are here to choose rings and spend time with her aunt before our nuptials.”

  In spite of the trauma of the situation she was in, Georgiana positively yearned for Will to mean that. It was so strong that it stole her breath. She daren’t think about it at the moment, though, because Simeon’s face had turned puce with rage. There was now something almost lethal in the cold, hard stare he levelled upon Will that bordered on evil.

  “Get inside the room, Georgiana, and lock the door. Don’t open it again until I tell you too,” Will commanded.

  Georgiana hesitated. He wanted her out of the way where she would be safe. While her self-protective instinct warned her she should do just that, she still daren’t leave him. If anything happened to him because of her she would never forgive herself. This was her problem; something she had allowed to happen by accepting Simeon’s invitation to dinner. It didn’t seem right that she should simply abandon Will to deal with the situation all alone.

  Simeon dismissed her as insignificant and turned his fury on Will. “I am sure she has you convinced that she is holier than thou. Just take a look at the way she dresses. Only a common whore wears red and black dresses while staggering around like a drunkard. You didn’t waste any time getting her onto her back, though, did you?”

  “God, just how long have you been stalking her?” Will was more than a little disturbed, not at being seen making love with Georgiana, but that someone had been spying on them and he hadn’t noticed.

  “I don’t stalk her,” Simeon protested with no small air of arrogance. “I merely saw her parading around in a brilliant red dress as I was walking past.”

  There was furtiveness in the eyes that darted everywhere that warned them he was lying.

  “But you drive a curricle. Why are you walking in the village?” he demanded.

  Before Simeon dodged him, Will landed a punch on the man’s cheek that made him stagger back several paces. Will followed him.

  “You certainly weren’t walking down the main street like a normal person when you happened to see Georgiana,” Will continued. “You weren’t because I was there. If you loitered at the front of the house you would draw attention to yourself. That means you had to be around the back–in the bushes.”

  “Are you stalking her yourself?” Simeon challenged unaware of the condemnatory nature of his statement.

  “No, I merely have a more long-standing acquaintance with her unlike you,” Will replied. “I have full authority to order you to stay away from her.”

  “You are no authority over me,” Simeon replied and landed a heavy punch in the centre of Will’s abdomen.

  The air rushed out of Will’s lungs. He instinctively bent over but looked up in time to see the second fist Simeon threw at him early enough to sidestep it. He didn’t hesitate to punch Simeon on the jaw in return. The bone-crunching crack of flesh meeting bone was strangely satisfying. So much so that his punch was followed by a second thump to the man’s solar plexus.

  “Will!” Georgiana cried.

  Will refused to listen and kept the focus of his attention firmly locked on his opponent.

  “Get inside the room, Georgiana, and stay there,” he growled without bothering to look at her.

  Georgiana saw the raw fury on his gaze and, for once, did as she was told.

  “All I have to do is wait,” Simeon said, his face contorted in a twisted smile that was a mixture of cruelty and mirth. “She will come running to me once you have gone home to marry your future bride.”

  “Georgiana is my future bride,” Will replied. “So you have been finding out all about her, but your information is wrong. I am going home and taking Georgiana with me.”

  Georgiana stared at the door in dismay. She certainly had no intention of going home anytime soon no matter what Will said. The only place she was going was back to Aunt Ruth’s. Suddenly desperate to get there, Georgiana began to pack.

  Out in the corridor, the men landed several more punches. Blood flowed as cuts and bruises were created but neither was willing to be the one to concede defeat.

  “You are strange,” Will snapped. “But that’s your problem. Mine is making sure you keep your grubby hands off my future wife.”

  Will shoved Simeon roughly down the corridor, away from Georgiana’s room, and pummelled him with a series of volleys that left Simeon dazed and struggling to stand upright. Will yanked him around and planted a fist in the middle of his face, hoping to floor him. Blood immediately began to seep from Simeon’s nose, but he still refused to drop. Instead, he seemed to gather himself because he suddenly snarled and ducked low before surging forward in an attempt to tackle Will. Will side-stepped him and took advantage of the man’s imbalance to yank him around again. He placed a solid punch to Simeon’s gut which doubled him over and, with an upper cut to his jaw, finally watched Simeon collapse into a heap on the floor.

  “You will stay down there,” Will urged as he wiped his bloodied mouth with the back of his hand.

  Simeon didn’t appear to listen because Will had barely finished speaking when he surged forward and began to throw hard punches at Will’s head with brutal force.

  Will defended himself, but struggled to find a way to thwart the man’s maniacal ferocity. He was vaguely aware of someone approaching them but daren’t lower his protective arms enough to see. Instead he stood still and prayed that salvation had arrived.

  Georgiana stormed down the corridor obliterating the warning voice of conscience that worried her. She kept her gaze locked firmly on Simeon’s back she stomped straight up to the grappling men, lifted the vase she carried, and slammed it mercilessly down upon Simeon’s head. He crumpled sideways without a murmur.

  “Thank God for that,” Will growled as he shoved the man’s heavy frame off him and moved away.

  With studied the unconscious man and shook his head in disbelief. Every inch of him ached from the fierce pounding he had just received. It was only the sight of the dark patches beginning to appear on Simeon’s face that made his own bruising worthwhile.

  “Will?” Georgiana cried tentatively.

  It was obvious that she was deeply distressed both by what she had experienced in her bed chamber and witnessed of the brutal fight. He should comfort her, and would have done if he hadn’t been so furious with her.

  To his later consternation, he began to speak before he considered the wisdom of what he was about to say and made his relationship with her a heck of a lot worse.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN<
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  “Just what in the Hades did you think you were doing having dinner with him?” he thundered as he rounded on her. “Do you have any idea how close you came to being raped?”

  “Oh, don’t say thank you,” Georgiana snapped. “I just saved your life.”

  “I saved you as well,” Will shouted. “Maybe I should have left you to him?”

  “Maybe I should have left you to him too,” Georgiana countered.

  “Get back into your room and stay there. I am going to fetch the manager,” Will ordered as he stepped around Simeon’s unconscious body and started to walk down the corridor.

  Georgiana snapped. “I am not going to take orders from you.”

  Will’s patience evaporated. Rather than going downstairs, he stopped before her and leaned forward until they were almost nose-to-nose.

  “I warn you now that I am no mood for an argument with you. I have never known such foolhardy, selfish, and reckless behaviour in my entire life. I am ashamed to say that I was foolish to let you stay with Ruth. It is clear she has no idea what you get up to when her back is turned. Neither of you can be trusted,” Will snapped.

  With each word she listened to Georgiana’s heart wept. The scorn on his face said it all. In fact, so strong was the affect it had on her that her head bent backward beneath the force of his words and the pain they brought her. Tears gathered in her eyes to the point that the world blurred. She stared at him blankly, unsure what to say that had not already been said to try to get him to see her as a woman. She was saved from having to reply when Simeon suddenly lunged to his feet and staggered toward her, his hand outstretched.

  Will grabbed his arm before he reached her, and threw it away and then landed a solid punch on the man’s chin that was so fierce Simeon spun around in a circle and fell limply against the wall. This time he didn’t get up.

  “Touch her again and I will tear your black heart out,” Will said, his voice full of menace.

  Georgiana barely saw this renewed altercation. She was still struggling with the way Will had looked her up and down so distastefully she knew her association with him was damaged beyond repair. The disgust in his gaze was something she had never seen before, and was so similar to Simeon’s disparaging glare that Georgiana began to doubt herself. In deference to her mild worry at being the recipient of Simeon’s scorn, Will’s disgust cut deep.

  “I am sorry,” she whispered.

  Deep inside she still wasn’t sure she should be apologising, but she did anyway. Maybe she had been foolish, but her slight fall from grace didn’t warrant this kind of scorn, did it?

  “You are sorry.” The derision in Will’s voice interrupted her thoughts and drew her attention back to him. “Do you have any idea what you have done tonight?”

  “I didn’t do anything,” she whispered, now openly crying. “How can you be so unfair?”

  “Unfair?” Will thundered. “He was practically crawling down your throat! You were kissing him, Georgiana!”

  Unfortunately, because of Will’s shouting, several of the hotel’s guests had come out of their rooms to see what all the commotion was. Georgiana’s cheeks were aflame.

  “We need to go somewhere a little more private,” she whispered.

  “Don’t you think you have had enough men in your room for one night?” Will snapped.

  “I didn’t ask either of you to enter my room. He forced his way in,” Georgiana shouted. She looked at Simeon in contempt before she turned her furious gaze on Will. “Neither of you are welcome. Neither of you should consider me interested in you. If you want to stand out here and behave like fighting cocks then get on with it, but don’t blame me for your stupidity.” She threw them both an exasperated glare. “If we have drawn the attention of the hotel’s guests it is purely because you are two oafs fighting like children!”

  Now that she had started to rant the words flowed unchecked. She pierced Will with a glare that made him blink and take a wary step back.

  “I have said all of this to you before until I am blue in the face. We are not betrothed, nor are we related. You are also not my guardian. So, you are in no position to tell me what to do! The only person who has poured scorn upon me is you. I am sorry if you consider me such a scandal. I am sorry if you consider everything I do unbecoming of a lady, but I cannot ever remember asking you for our opinion.” She snorted contemptuously and threw him a glare that was nothing short of scornful. “I may–and I repeat ‘may’–have made a foolish mistake tonight, but I did so out of innocence and not with any sense of purpose. I wasn’t asking anyone for anything or making offers either before you insult me further by daring to suggest it. In fact, you are the only one making a scandal out of nothing. You are the only one who has ruined my entire life! I am sorry, but I don’t see why I should apologise to you because I have done nothing to you.”

  “You were kissing him,” Will shouted, pointing at the now smirking man still leaning against the wall. “That bastard had his hands all over you.”

  The memory of seeing her in another man’s arms was enough to make his blood boil. He physically trembled with rage. His temper wasn’t helped by the stunning realisation that he had come so close to losing everything that mattered to him.

  She mattered to him. Georgiana was more important to him more than anything else in his world.

  “Stop it,” she screeched. “Just stop it. I was there, remember? But I didn’t ask him. Do you think I enjoyed it? Do you? Do you think I wanted someone like that to kiss me?”

  “Did you arrange an assignation with him?” Will demanded.

  “No, I did not,” she replied swiping at the tears on her cheeks.

  “Did you ask him to your room?”

  “No, I did not,” she said honestly.

  He heaved a sigh. She was telling the truth. His anger began to wane. In its wake left a tense uncertainty neither of them understood. He hauled her against him and slammed his lips on hers. It was a kiss that spoke of possession rather than brutal force, and began to heal the hurt and worry in both of them.

  Georgiana clung to him, too needy to resist the force of the raw desire that swept through her.

  Oblivious to the startled gasps of the people in the hallway, Will continued to kiss her the way he had wanted to for a long time now. The kiss was a possession, a command to which he would accept nothing less than her total compliance. She belonged to him in just the same way that he belonged to her, and he wanted her to understand that. If he was honest, it had always been the case. He just hadn’t known it before now.

  Neither of them had any idea how long they stood wrapped in each other’s arms. The rest of the world faded into insignificance while their mouths mated with rapturous abandon. It was only when the particularly loud slam of a door nearby rattled the walls that Will finally lifted his head. Rather than move away as propriety demanded, he rested his forehead against hers briefly while he willed her to understand.

  “It’s going to be alright, Georgiana,” he assured her.

  “It can’t be,” she cried miserably. “It can’t ever be alright again.”

  Will leaned back to study her. “Let’s go inside,” he whispered as he nudged her into her room beside them. There was no sign of Simeon now, but Will wasn’t prepared to lower his guard yet, and wanted to get Georgiana to safety before he reappeared.

  Georgiana entered the room before him and waited until Will had closed the door and secured it. Once they were alone, she turned toward him.

  “Did he hurt you?” he began.

  Georgiana shook her head but made no objection when he caught one of her hands in his and studied the red finger-marks visible on her wrists.

  “He hurt you,” he whispered.

  “I didn’t invite him here. He followed me,” she re-iterated.

  Will nodded. Now that he had calmed down a little, logic had resurfaced. He knew Georgiana. In spite of her recent behaviour with the brandy and skinny dipping, she wouldn’t be foolhardy enough
to invite a new acquaintance to her room, especially a man.

  “I am sorry I doubted you,” he said.

  “I have been foolish,” she conceded.

  She knew that in spite of his overbearing manner, Will only wanted what was best for her. Given Simeon’s behaviour tonight, Will had been right to caution her. She didn’t want to consider what might have happened had he not been around.

  Will didn’t correct her. He still hadn’t completely forgiven her, mostly because he couldn’t quite get the image of her kissing Simeon out of his mind. Each time he relived the nightmare a jealous rage surged through him that eradicated every ounce of self-control he had ever possessed.

  “Don’t do it again,” he warned. “I can’t stand you kissing another man.”

  Georgiana revelled beneath the raw possession on his face he made no attempt to hide. Unfortunately, she then remembered that she was standing in the arms of a man who was engaged to someone else. Still, it was difficult to move away, especially when those arms were something she needed right now.

  “We can’t do this,” she whispered as she reluctantly pushed out of his arms. “It’s wrong.”

  “You are safe with me, Georgiana,” he assured her wondering if it was the memory of Simeon’s brutality that made her wary.

  “I know,” she replied sadly. Once she had put several feet distance between them, she turned and studied him. “While I cannot thank you enough for your help tonight, you should leave now. We can’t keep doing this.”

  “What?” Will interrupted.

  “We should not kiss,” she replied bluntly. “Will, it isn’t right, or fair on your fiancé.”

  “I need to speak with you about that.” Will ran a frustrated hand through his hair.

  “Don’t,” Georgiana pleaded quietly. “I can’t do this right now.”

  “Why? We need to discuss the wedding eventually,” Will said quietly but meant their wedding–his marriage to Georgiana-not his wedding to Penelope.

  “Another time, alright?” she asked. Bravely, she offered him a smile that shook alarmingly and quickly turned away before he saw how much it wobbled.