The Wedding Runaway (15 page)

~*~

Victor paced back and forth in the Sheridans
'
drawing room. The room had once been green with crocodile-legged furniture
,
now the room was ivory and gold with a touch of burgundy here and there. Something horrible had once happened in this room
,
but for all his questions
,
Tony would never reveal the exact details. Actually
,
that whole night had been rather eventful.

Sophie had been on the roof rescuing the Sheridans
'
son while a certain Lord Algany fell and broke his leg. During all the commotion, the man who ended up marrying Victor
'
s half-sister Margaret had been shot.

One of these days Victor would get the whole story. Tony entered the room
,
his limp held to a minimum. They exchanged greetings and condolences and caught up on the past few months since they had last seen each other.

"
Felicity is sending out invitations. She always feels she is obligated to start off the season with a small gathering. Let me get her
,
I
'
m sure she
'
d want to see you.
"

"
Oh
,
no
,
don
'
t bother her. I know she is probably elbow deep in ledgers.
"

Felicity ran all the businesses left to her by her first husband. To fill his time
,
Tony had started conducting discreet investigations for the upper Ten Thousand while his wife made money hand over fist.
"
Are you doing any investigations?
"

"
Nothing I could speak about.
"
Tony smiled. Lines crinkled around Tony
'
s unearthly pale eyes.

Victor would swear Tony could look straight through a man and see parts of his soul. Now that he was here
,
Victor was reluctant to ask for Tony to second him as if the whole episode with Leonard would disappear if he did not think of it.

Tony gave him an enigmatic look and said
,
"
Do you need something looked into?
"

How had he known?
"
I would like you to learn why my mother-in-law is in Newgate.
"

"
There probably is a public record. Maybe newspaper accounts.
"

"
Yes
,
well, I shouldn
'
t like to be seen making the inquiries.
"

"
I
'
ll be discreet. What else do you need?
"

"
Very well
,
I need your services as a second.
"

Tony blinked and leaned back.
"
Of course
,
you may always count on me to stand by you. What about Keene
,
or do you mean to fight him again?
"

"
He is pledged to my opponent. And I
'
ll need the use of the pistols. You do have them still
,
do you not?
"

"
Yes
,
got them back after they were stolen the last time. You don
'
t really want to use them
,
do you? It
'
s like opening a Pandora
'
s box.
"

"
I know they are inaccurate. That is what I want
,
just to stand there and aim at each other and miss. I just want to scare a certain young gentleman who is too...above himself for his own good.
"
Victor winced as he said that.

"
The real danger is the curse. There is no telling who will win on that front.
"

"
I
'
m not ever marrying again
,
and I don
'
t know that I believe in the curse.
"
Only God knew if he would feel anything for a woman ever again. Perhaps his first marriage had soured him so that only boys attracted him now. Not that he was winding down that twisted path. He
'
d send Leonard running back to Boston
,
long before that got out of control.
"
If you don
'
t wish for me to use the pistols
,
then—
"

"
I
'
m happy to let you use them. Did Keene tell you I found writing under the lining? It
'
s in Spanish and rather cryptic.
"

"
The curse
,
I suppose?
"
Victor stood and followed his host down the stairs.

"
Yes
,
pretty much as we
'
ve been told. The winner will get a happy marriage and the loser a marriage worse than hell. There is a verse about breaking the curse.
"

"
Really?
"
All right, so he knew that he had lost the first duel he fought with the cursed pistols
,
but he really did not intend to marry again. There was no saying that his being the loser of the first duel wouldn
'
t follow him forever. In fact
,
he rather suspected it would. Of course if all went as planned
,
Leonard would never actually fire one of the pistols.

Tony opened the door to the library and gestured Victor inside.
"
I haven
'
t worked out all the verses. Spanish isn
'
t my best language
,
and it does seem to be in an unusual dialect.
"

Tony pulled a walnut box out of a cupboard and lifted the lid. He shifted the red velvet lining, revealing an etched copper plate.

Victor stared down at the ornate Spanish tooling and the mother-of-pearl grips on the pistol handles. They were beautiful weapons
,
and they made his stomach turn.

"
I
'
ll take my duties as second seriously
,"
said Tony.

That meant Tony would do his best to see the disagreement settled without confrontation.
"
Yes
,
I should expect you to
,"
said Victor.

A cold feeling skittered down his spine. Perhaps it was the memory of the day Keene shot him. Or that these cursed pistols had led to the horror of his marriage. Or perhaps some unease about the future
,
should he actually have to use them in a duel with Leonard.

The butler opened the door.
"
Mr. Davies
,
sir
,
my lord.
"

"
What took you so long?
"
blurted Victor.

Keene gave him an odd look and brushed off his sleeve.
"
Whatever possessed you to offer Ponsby a king
'
s ransom for that horse? I cannot afford so much.
"

"
How is Leonard?
"
Victor didn
'
t want to talk about the horse.

"
He is upset. How do you expect him to be? He doesn
'
t wish to fight with you
,
because he said you
'
ve been very kind to him. I expect he
'
ll meet whatever conditions you set.
"

Victor threw himself onto a sofa.

Apparently ready for the moment
,
Tony handed him a glass of brandy.
"
Is this fight justified?
"

"
Of course it is
,"
said Victor.
"
He implied I murdered my wife. I know there are rumors.
"

"
Bound to be rumors after her last appearance in London
,"
said Keene.
"
She provided a lot of grist for the mill.
"

Victor shuddered.
"
I didn
'
t kill her.
"

"
We know that. Not even Leonard suspected that or meant to imply it. Perhaps you inferred it?
"
said Keene.

"
For God
'
s sake, whose side are you on? You were there.
"
Was his own half-brother turning against him?

"
I
'
m
his
second. Remember? You appointed me. And he only said what he said after you threatened to kill him.
"

"
I didn
'
t threaten to kill him. I just threatened him with bodily harm or a nasty dunking.
"
Victor leaned forward and rubbed his forehead. He didn
'
t want to hurt Leonard
,
he just wanted to kill his unnatural urges toward the boy.
"
He needs to go home.
"

"
Please
,
Victor
,
I have a bad feeling about this
,"
Keene said.
"
Let me go back to Mr. Hall and tell him you have accepted his apology
."

"
No. He is not getting out of this so easily.
"
Victor rubbed his face
,
hiding the wash of emotions.

"
Then if you would name your conditions for satisfaction
,
we will see if Mr. Hall is willing to meet them
,"
said Tony.

"
I will be satisfied if he makes arrangements to return home to America immediately.
"

Victor raised his head from his hands, the others were silent so long.

"
And if he does not agree to that condition?
"
Tony asked.

"
Then he must give me the reasons he ran away from home in the first place. If there is merit in his need for refuge here in England, then I shall cede my request that he return home and offer my apologies for the blow with the glove.
"

Victor tossed back his drink. The brandy soothed and burned all the way down. He only hoped it would reach into the crevices inside his heart and heat them
,
if just momentarily.

He allowed that he might have killed his wife. Not so much by outright deed
,
but by his expectations and needs.

God forbid he should ever ruin another person
'
s life with his desires. Getting Leonard out of harm
'
s way was the best thing for both of them.

~*~

When Keene gave Lydia the condition of returning home to America to avert the duel
,
she refused.

He wouldn
'
t force her to go home. She
'
d go when she was ready.

As for the alternative condition to tell Victor why she ran away
,
she couldn
'
t very well tell him she ran away from her own wedding. What
man
would ever need to flee a country to escape matrimony? That she now suspected her fiancé
,
the man she once thought she loved
,
would use her to take over control of her father
'
s business was neither here nor there.

She could probably avert the whole duel by confessing her sex
,
but she was hurt and angry. And if Victor knew she was a woman
,
he would probably force her to return home anyway.

Darn it
,
she had gotten along well enough before he interfered in her life.

Keene knocked on her door
,
early in the morning before the sun awoke. And Jenny—who up until then had followed orders to stay out of sight—tried to stop Lydia from leaving
,
by yanking on her arm and crying out
,
"
Tell him the truth.
"

Lydia clapped a hand over Jenny
'
s mouth and dragged her back into the bedroom before she spilled the beans.

"
Stop it
,
Jenny. I have to go. I have to do this.
"
Lydia untangled her legs from her servant
'
s skirts. A man could have yanked the girl along
,
but Lydia had needed to wrap her arms securely around her servant and use the whole force of her superior height and weight to force Jenny into the back.

"
You
'
ll be killed
,"
wailed Jenny
,
when her mouth was uncovered.

A sickening sense of dread slid down Lydia
'
s spine. She would have to tell Victor. Although her mind refused to believe this would go forward. Surely
,
it would stop before it went too far. Were men this uncivilized about a misunderstanding? Certainly
,
they couldn
'
t be this barbaric in these days.

It all had to be a sort of male ritual
,
like two peacocks squawking and making feints at each other as if they would tear each other from beak to talon
,
but then after a ruffled display of feather and puffed chest they would swagger away as if they were both champion of a fight that never happened. She
'
d watched just such a display a month before between two of the plumed birds on the grounds of the White Tower.

"
Leonard
,
we need to leave. I can help you settle your affairs in the carriage
,"
called Keene from the other room.

Jenny followed her as far as the bedroom doorway and stood with her fist stuffed in her mouth and tears streaming down her face.

Keene held open the door for her.
"
Come
,
Leonard
,
we do not wish to keep the others waiting.
"