Dolly is right, you know.’ Elise pushed the letter across the table so her sister could not help but look at it. Their father had insisted they both read it and discuss if action needed to be taken. ‘Are you going to quash these rumours that you’re hiding away, desolate? Come to Mayfair with me and hold your head high at the best places. That will show them all!’
‘You have not even discussed with your husband about inviting me to stay with you,’ Bea pointed out mildly.
‘Alex always loves to see you, and besides he is quite furious with that rakish—’ Elise bit her tongue. In her enthusiasm to get Bea to London she had almost let slip that her husband’s rage was directed at his best friend rather than Sir Colin Burnett.
Bea frowned. Her sister was now keen to escape her gaze and she could guess why that might be. ‘Oh, please say you haven’t told the viscount that Hugh propositioned me.’ After a tiny silence Bea angrily threw onto the table a half-folded pillowcase.
‘Really, Elise!’ She pushed to her feet. ‘You promised you would not—’
‘I swear I did not betray you!’ Elise interrupted anxiously. ‘Alex could tell I was dreadfully upset after you went home following the funeral and he kept on and on at me for a reason. He thought I might have lost the babe, and that made me even more tearful, so I admitted I was fretting about you. I swear I did not mention Hugh’s name, or the nature of your problem...but Alex guessed in the end, and I confirmed it for I could not lie to him.’
Beatrice pivoted about, white fingers flying to cover her gasp. ‘That’s why Alex went off to London without waiting for you to accompany him!’ she breathed. ‘He’s gone to challenge Hugh over it.’ She could tell from her sister’s forlorn expression that she’d hit on the truth.
‘I honestly did not ask him to, Bea; in fact I tried to make Alex see the sense in calming down before setting off.’
Bea thrust two hands into her silky hair, cupping her scalp. ‘He will think that I acted like a whining child, running to my brother-in-law to complain about him.’
‘Do you care what he thinks?’ Elise asked pithily.
‘Of course not!’ Bea fumed beneath her sister’s arch expression. ‘Well...naturally I do not want him to think me incapable of putting pen to paper to tell him my opinion of him. Neither do I want him believing me cowed. I intended to give the impression that his offer of carte blanche was not worthy of any further attention.’
‘Well, if you don’t want Alex to stand up for you it only remains for you to tell Hugh yourself that his pursuit is most unwelcome and in vain.’ Elise crossed her arms over her middle and sighed. ‘It’ll be sad if Alex and Hugh have fallen out. Hugh can’t be an incorrigible rogue or Alex wouldn’t have been friends with him for so long.’
Bea felt guilty that her brother-in-law might have suffered an unpleasant argument because of her, but she was also exasperated because she’d not asked Alex to champion her.
‘Hugh is probably embarrassed to have overstepped the mark with you, yet won’t admit it. I’ll wager he’s already lined up a more suitable candidate.’
‘If that is supposed to make me feel better, Elise...’ Bea was torn between laughter and annoyance.
‘It is supposed to make you feel like damning the lot of them!’ Elise fell silent as their father entered the room.
‘For a lady, you cuss like a navvy.’ Walter was not averse to chastising his daughters, no matter their ages or the fact that the younger outranked him.
‘Sorry, Papa,’ Viscountess Blackthorne said meekly.
Walter pointed to his sister’s letter, a gleeful smile spreading across his face. ‘So, this woman Sir Colin must marry is a cheap flirt! Hah! Just what he deserves! I’ve a mind to go to town and tell him so!’
‘Why do you not, Papa?’ Elise suggested. She had not thought her father would undertake the journey, but he seemed fired up enough to do it.
‘I might...yes, I might...and while I’m at it I’ll ask the skinflint where my compensation has got to.’
‘Colin has not returned the money you spent on our wedding arrangements?’ Beatrice sat down on the chair opposite her father, looking shocked and concerned.
‘Not all of it,’ Walter confirmed. ‘I would remind the fellow of his promise face to face, as he has ignored my letter.’
* * *
‘So she told you, then...?’ Having voiced this sour response to being hit in the mouth, Hugh touched his bleeding lip. As he picked himself up off his hallway floor he sent his assailant a baleful look
‘She? Are you talking about my wife?’ It was an icy demand.
‘I wasn’t...no...I was talking about Beatrice.’
Alex Blackthorne stalked closer, flexing his sore fingers. He halted on seeing Hugh’s stance altering: his friend was balancing aggressively, preparing to defend himself. Alex might have got in one lucky punch and sent his opponent reeling, but he was certain he wouldn’t manage another. The two men were evenly matched in combat skills and had sparred, fenced and shot at targets together since the age of about twelve.
‘I haven’t seen Beatrice since she went home after the funeral. Elise told me what you’d done. You said you’d leave my sister-in-law alone.’
‘I can’t...’
‘You damn well will!’ Alex thundered. ‘If her father finds out you’ve propositioned her he’ll crawl to town, if necessary, just to shoot you.’
Hugh used the back of his thumb to smear away the blood trickling towards his chin. ‘Don’t tell him, then,’ he said bluntly.
‘That’s it, is it? Don’t tell him?’ Alex mimicked in disgust. He strode to and fro over the marble slabs in Hugh’s palatial hallway. ‘What in damnation’s up with you? You’ve got two willing women set up in London; you’ve got attachments in India you’re not willing to forgo. Still you’re not satisfied!’ Alex roared. ‘How dare you treat Beatrice as though she’s some cheap strumpet—?’
‘I’ve not,’ Hugh coolly interrupted. ‘She can have everything she wants—including all the discretion money can buy.’
‘She can have everything from you but a wedding ring?’
Hugh displayed even white teeth in a soundless laugh. ‘She doesn’t want one.’
That took the wind out of Alex’s sails. He stopped prowling and shot Hugh a dark look. ‘What do you mean by that?’
‘She told me she’d sooner be Burnett’s mistress than my wife.’
Alex continued glaring at Hugh but inwardly his attitude altered. If what Hugh had just said were true it put a whole different light on things. Ruining a virgin spinster was one thing; bidding against somebody else for a self-confessed paramour was another matter entirely. He’d done so himself on many occasions before he’d met Elise.
Alex thrust his fingers through his hair in exasperation,
