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. “Sheis 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.
