next, Mr FitzDevelin,’ Miss Alstone chimed in to speed him on his way.
What else could he do but bow as gracefully as he could, then smile a quick farewell at Miss Sophia Kenton and the little rogue sitting on his father’s shoulders? Miss Alstone was already discussing the weather with Kenton while Lord Shuttleworth waited impatiently to see Wulf off the property.
‘My wife is very near her time, FitzDevelin,’ his lordship told him as they strolled away. ‘Come here again and I’ll have you roped on your horse and left to wander wherever he takes you. And stay away from my sister-in-law.’
‘I came on my brother’s behalf, my lord,’ Wulf made himself argue. He wanted to thump someone to make himself feel better as well, but it would do neither of them any good to alarm the very pregnant Viscountess.
‘I trust my sister-in-law to know her own mind and so should you. She and Mr Haile will only have parted after a lot of heartache and I hate to see her troubled.’
‘You are in her confidence, then?’ Wulf heard himself say urgently, as if he was her rebuffed suitor and not Magnus.
‘No, but she hates to break a promise and you can tell your brother so when you get back to London. He obviously doesn’t know her as well as he thinks if he thought sending you to plead his case would get her to change her mind.’
‘He doesn’t know I’ve come.’
‘Then you’ll be the butt of his displeasure as well, won’t you?’
‘Probably,’ Wulf said with the sort of defensive young man’s shrug he thought he’d grown out of.
‘I suppose you cared enough to come here on a pointless quest bullheaded,’ his lordship said as if he was trying to find excuses for the sort of boyish mischief Wulf never had the chance to commit.
‘My brother is eating his heart out. He’s taken to the bottle and refuses to shave for days on end and not even our younger sisters can get a smile out of him. If you had a half-brother you loved, wouldn’t you do anything to see him happy when he’s hurting so badly?’
‘Yes, which is why you’re walking to my stables to collect your horse and not being carried there by my grooms to be put on it and driven off fast as the nag will go.’
‘I’d best be grateful for small mercies, then,’ Wulf said with a rueful grin and decided he’d like this man under other circumstances.
‘Don’t try too hard until you’re away without arousing my wife’s suspicion you’re here on a mission of your own,’ Lord Shuttleworth said as if he knew Wulf’s reasons for coming here were only half-unselfish and that was impossible, wasn’t it?
‘Consider me warned off, my lord.’
‘A shame, but I won’t have my wife or her sister upset if there’s anything I can do to prevent it and that’s a fault I’ve long shared with Sir Hugh and the current Earl of Carnwood.’
‘I’m not your equal, my lord, but there’s no need to point it out with every second word. Trust my stepfather to be sure my irregular birth is engraved on my heart, much as Mary Tudor claimed Calais was on hers.’
‘It’s not a matter of quality or inequality, but common sense. Tangling with you or your brother now will drag my sister-in-law’s good name through more mud and I can’t have that.’
‘Nobody will know I was here if you don’t tell them and I didn’t give your stableman a name.’
‘Which was why he sought me out and, as a reward, I’ll be granting him a cottage of his own this Eastertide so he can wed his sweetheart. So some good came of your impromptu visit.’
‘I shall preen myself even as I ride away with my tail metaphorically between my legs, my lord,’ Wulf said and was surprised by a bark of genuine laughter from his reluctant host.
‘Smug or not, that will be a challenge.’
‘I’m used to it,’ Wulf said ruefully and wasn’t that the truth?
‘I suppose you must be and as a rule I care more about a man’s head and heart than the way he came into the world, but I know my sister-in-law has been hurt and I care more about her than your sensitivities, so I’m prepared to be inhospitable in your case.’
‘I came here on my half-brother’s business,’ Wulf said as his temper began to tug at its tethers. Magnus was ill and Isabella Alstone was clearly in perfect health and coolly composed, so why was she the one who needed protecting?
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