Page 53 of How to Start a Scandal

‘I don’t mind tedious stories,’ he replied patiently.

‘My parents.’ Her fingers curled around his arm, gripping him more firmly. ‘Their marriage is—’

A bang exploded from behind Seth. Quicker than gunshot he shoved Violet behind him even as the images descended upon him.

Brent standing straight and tall, his blue stare meeting Seth’s for one brief, determined moment before the cannonball slammed into the young soldier.

Blood everywhere. On Seth’s uniform. In his mouth. Hot pieces of the man who had been in front of him.

Oh, God.

Bullets whizzing by him, slow and thick, as if in water, like fat bees buzzing past. Until one tore into the head of the man beside him. The collision of metal with flesh sending the soldier careening backwards...

Blue eyes entered his line of sight, watching him carefully, mouth moving slowly.

‘It was a tray,’ a gentle voice said as the woman’s lips moved. ‘A dropped tray just behind you. Come, let us go outside.’

A hand curled around his and he found himself being led through a room that was threatening to close in on him out into the cool embrace of darkness.

‘Breathe.’ That same voice spoke in his ear.

He sucked in a mouthful of air. It carried with it the sweetness of flowers, a damp chill of night on the edge of a rainstorm. There was no gunpowder in his nostrils. No blood in his mouth. He blinked and found he stood on the veranda with his hands braced on a stone railing.

A comforting heat pressed against his fingers. He glanced to his left hand and found a woman’s lace glove resting atop it. He followed her arm to a pair of perfect breasts, then a beautiful face. A familiar face.

Violet.

Mortification fired through him. ‘Forgive me.’ He cleared his throat and straightened. ‘I...’

I what? I’m a coward? I’m broken? I can never leave this hell in my head? Or maybe, You should forget me before I draw you into these depths with me?

She gave him a gentle smile, one absent of pity, thank God. ‘You needn’t explain if you’d rather not.’ Her hand continued to rest on his and he had no plans to move it.

In truth, he didn’t care to explain it. He never wanted to speak of it again.

However, he had an obligation to. He had asked to court her because he hoped to eventually wed her. If he were to do either of those things, she should know him. Truly know him.

And that started with telling her the truth.

Chapter Fifteen

Seth drew in a deep, calming breath in anticipation of what he needed to say, what he’d been dreading to confess. ‘I am not the same man I was when I left for the military.’

‘I’m quite aware of that,’ Violet said it sweetly and he knew she misunderstood.

‘Yes, outside of all that.’ Seth looked out to the garden with the small lamps burning like golden globes in the distance. Half the moon’s face was hidden, obscuring the natural brilliance of its light. It looked like a night for wooing angels, not sharing demons.

The veranda behind them was empty, lit by the glow from the town-house windows. The muted sounds of laughter and music wafted from the closed double doors.

He and Violet were alone on the balcony, but for how long?

This was the ideal opportunity to tell her. Why, then, did it feel like ripping off a bandage that had become stuck to the wound?

‘I spent a lot of my time away fighting in battles,’ Seth said. ‘But none was as bad as Waterloo.’

Violet kept her attention fixed on him, her face illuminated by the half-moon, making her smooth skin appear creamy. ‘I imagine no battles are easy,’ she said softly.

He gave a mirthless chuckle. ‘They are not. I remember the first time I fought when I—’ His mother and Caroline had reacted poorly to the details of Brent’s death and he immediately staunched his words lest he cause offence.