Johanna Lindsey (23 page)

unless Denton was ready to talk.

He let go of Juliette. She immediately ran over to Denton and slapped him as hard as she could.

“Do not ever let him near me again!”

Denton fingered his cheek, but he didn’t seem the least bit surprised by the violence. Sebastian sighed. He suspected he’d learned absolutely nothing, other than lies—and that his brother’s marriage was made in hell. Margaret had definitely been right about that.

He crossed to the door. Juliette scurried out of his way. He was done with her. He asked his brother for the second time that day, “Why don’t you divorce her?” Denton said nothing. Juliette did. She laughed and taunted her husband. “Go ahead and tell him.

What is the worst he can do? Kill you? How many times you’ve wished for death instead of marriage to me. Now is your chance, chéri.”

“Shut up, Julie!”

She just laughed harder. Sebastian reached for the door. He’d heard enough to make him want to kill someone, so it was a good time to leave.

But before he left them to go at each other’s throats again verbally, he warned, “My father has had one too many accidents. If he has another, I’ll be back, and one of you will pay for it.”

“Seb—” Denton began to refute what had just been implied, but Sebastian closed the door.

If he heard another excuse or lie he’d probably go through the roof. Frustration he didn’t deal with well. Actually, now might be a good time to visit that French groom in the stables. That ought to be a brutal enough encounter to relieve some of his frustration.

M
ARGARET NOTICED SEBASTIAN in the parlor when she and Abigail returned from Edgeford.

Abigail didn’t catch sight of him and went straight upstairs, but Margaret joined Sebastian. She wasn’t sure if he’d spoken to Dr. Culden earlier or knew yet that his father’s condition had improved.

But he seemed to have been waiting for her and said, “Ah, there you are, Maggie.” He started to approach her. She positioned herself so that a table stood between them, but that didn’t work. Sebastian walked around it. So she quickly related her news to get his mind off pursuing her.

“Douglas’s fever broke last night,” she told him. “The maid had to wake some of the footmen to help her change his bedding. He’s been awake numerous times today, though he’s still quite weak. Will you wait a day or so before talking with him? Should I let him know you’re here? I’ve avoided him myself. I think he suspects, or remembers, seeing you in the hall, and he’s going to ask me pointedly—” He kissed her to silence. It worked very well, stirring quite potent memories of the night before.

“You chatter too much,” he said as if providing an excuse for kissing her. “Tell him whatever you like, if you can be sure it won’t hinder his recovery.”

Margaret drew herself up stiffly and said, “Don’t do that again, please.”

“What?”

“The kissing,” she whispered primly.

He sighed. “Back to square one, are we?”

“It’s a matter of prudence. I’m going to have a difficult time explaining a divorce, or getting married, for that matter, if I have a child who people believe can claim the title which, due to our lies, would not legally be his.”

Deep down, she was actually hoping Sebastian had an answer for that, that he’d marry her for real if it came to that. He didn’t.

He nodded, though he did say, “One could wish you weren’t quite so astute, Maggie. One could even wish you didn’t think so bloody much. Very well, I’ll keep my hands off of you. And I’ll speak to my father now.”

She wasn’t expecting that or for him to leave the room immediately to go upstairs. She followed him slowly, worried that it was still too soon for a confrontation between him and his father, but was hesitant to stop him, when for all she knew Douglas might be delighted by his return.

She drew up short in the corridor, when she saw Sebastian standing outside his father’s door. He glanced at her but said nothing. There was an odd look in his eyes that she didn’t recognize. Was he worried? Anxious? Both emotions seemed beneath him. He was a bulwark. He was The Raven. And he entered the room abruptly now and closed the door behind him.

Margaret bit her lip. She ought to join him. Her presence might make a difference. But she didn’t think Sebastian would want her support right now. He might be willing to reveal emotions that he wouldn’

t reveal if she were present. Besides, he would have been the first to suggest it if he thought she could help. She went back downstairs, fervently wishing him luck.

Douglas was sleeping. Sebastian was almost relieved, a reprieve, as it were. Except he wasn’t going to leave. He didn’t think his wait would be long. Douglas was propped up in his bed. He’d been awake and reading, the book laying on his thigh, his hand still on it.

The maid who was sitting across the room said nothing when he entered and left quickly at his nod toward the door. Sebastian took the chair by the bed, but he didn’t stay in it long. He paced some. He was more nervous than he’d expected. No other man alive could inspire that emotion in him. But his father could.

The fight he’d had with Anton in the stable earlier had turned out to be quite satisfying, despite the fact that the man seemed vaguely familiar to him and he couldn’t figure out why. He didn’t get any answers from the chap about the accidents. Very loyal to Juliette, he was. And he’d put up a good defense. The stocky Frenchman had held his own nicely, giving Sebastian a splendid workout.

Thinking of that relaxed Sebastian a little, allowing him to put his defenses in place, one by one.

When he was finally ready, he turned back toward the bed, intending to wake Douglas, only to find his father’s eyes on him. For how long? Douglas should have spoken, asked what he was doing there, anything. That he’d said nothing indicated he had no intention of talking to Sebastian at all. The gravestone…

“I’m not dead,” Sebastian almost snarled. “I’m not a dream, either. Nor am I here by choice. So don’t worry, I’ll leave just as soon as I can assure Maggie that you aren’t going to exit your room, trip over a cord, and fall down the bloody stairs.”

“What the devil are you talking about?”

“Well, that’s something,” Sebastian said dryly. “At least you talk to ghosts.”

“Sebastian.”

The warning note worked very well, harked back to his youth. It was all Douglas had ever needed to do with his sons, simply say their names in that particular tone, and they felt reprimanded enough to end any argument or excuses they had lined up.

“Beg pardon,” Sebastian said. “I’ll make an effort to stick to the facts, one of which is, Margaret’s trip to Europe wasn’t to tour and shop as she let on. It was expressly to find me and convince me to come here.”

“Why?”

“I’m getting to that. She had no luck in convincing me, since I swore never to return to England.

She managed to trick me, though, into taking the job, which she’s already paid handsomely for. So I’ll see it through until I can assure her that she’s just a silly woman with an overactive imagination. If you will cooperate long enough for me to do that, then I can get the hell out of here and we’ll both be left in peace again.”

“I could have sworn you mentioned facts,” Douglas said coldly. “When are you going to get to them?”

Sebastian withered a little more inside. His father was now wearing the exact same expression he’

d worn the night he told Sebastian to get out and to never darken England’s shores again. Had he really thought there could be a reconciliation? Good God, what a fool he was.

“Fact. Margaret thinks you’re in danger.”

“Rubbish.”

“It’s her opinion. Not mine, and obviously not yours. But it’s why she hired men to find me, and when that didn’t work, why she spent four months trying to find me in Europe herself. She had it set in her mind that I can solve whatever is afoot here. I believe Abigail gave her the notion. Margaret thought I would volunteer to do so. She was wrong in that. She’s probably wrong in her other suspicions as well.

But that’s what I’m here to find out.”

Douglas actually began to look interested. “What sort of danger?”

“Fact. You’ve had considerably more than a fair share of accidents recently.” His father flushed slightly, which Sebastian found interesting, but Douglas merely replied, “Nothing untoward.”

Had his father paused a little too long there in saying that? “Fact. You live in a house with a viperous bitch capable of anything.”

Douglas sighed. “Can’t very well dispute that.”

“Fact. Denton would actually like to divorce his wife but says he can’t. She has some sort of hold over him that ties his hands. Do you know what that is?”

“No, and you’ve found out more than I ever could. He won’t discuss his wife with me a’tall.”

“Defensive, is he? With you?”

“Yes, extremely so where she is concerned.”

“And your conclusion?”

“He’s ashamed of her. He’s ashamed of himself for getting involved with her. He did offer to leave. I selfishly talked him out of it. He’s all—”

There was a brief pause, which goaded Sebastian to finish, “—all you have left?” Douglas dropped his head back like a man in defeat, then winced when his wound hit the headboard. “I was going to say all my mother has left. This would be a house of silence if it were only she and I here. She won’t talk to me, you know.”

“So I’ve heard.”

“Denton keeps her company. I’m grateful for that. And Margaret was a godsend while she was with us.”

“Are you in love with your ward?” Sebastian asked pointedly.

Douglas blinked, then scowled. “What claptrap is that? She’s a wonderful girl, but she’s young enough to be my daughter.”

“So? When did age ever stop a man from—?”

“That’s quite enough, Sebastian. I can’t imagine where you got that notion from, but it couldn’t be more off the mark. I felt compassion for her when she first came here. She’d just lost her father. But I was never attracted to her in the way you’re implying. She was like a breath of fresh air. She brought normalcy back to this house. More’n once I actually hoped Denton would—”

“Seduce her?”

“No!” Douglas burst out, then with a sigh, “I had hoped she might provide him the incentive to fix his ‘mistake,’ but it was obvious she wasn’t interested in him that way. To be honest, I was just looking for a way to keep her in the family, so to speak. We were all gloomy when she moved back to White Oaks after she came of age.”

It was apparent that no one had yet told Douglas who Margaret had married. Sebastian would as soon keep it that way until after he was gone. Douglas wouldn’t hear of it from Abigail, since she didn’t talk to him. It was doubtful that Juliette would visit him. Denton was the only one who was likely to mention it. He’d have to have another talk with his brother.

It wasn’t that the “marriage” seemed to be no longer needed as a bridge, since Douglas was cooperating enough at least to discuss the situation with him. But he’d never intended to leave without making a clean breast of it. And considering his father’s wish to have Margaret in the family, it wasn’t likely to go over well that he hadn’t really married her. In fact, the thought of having Douglas find that out now made him feel distinctly uncomfortable.

“Other than the obvious reasons why Juliette would want to be part of this family, wealth, title, et cetera, can you think of anything else, anything a’tall, that would make her want to stay here, when she apparently doesn’t like England?”

Douglas frowned. “What are you implying?”

“Perhaps a grudge against the Townshends?”

“You mean of the vengeful sort?”

“Yes.”

“I can’t imagine why,” Douglas replied. “I’d never heard of her before—” Sebastian cut him off abruptly. “We can get through this in a civilized manner as long as you don’t bring up that part of our history. Now it occurs to me that I never heard her family name. Have you?”

“Yes, but it was unfamiliar. Poussin, I believe it was, or something like that. I only heard it once.” Sebastian had met a lot of people in France, but no one by that name. On the other hand, if Juliette’s motive was revenge, it was doubtful she would have given her real family name to any of them.

It occurred to him to ask, “Have you ever been to France? Perhaps you could have met her family, offended or harmed them in some way without realizing it?”

“You are gadding up the wrong tree. I know it’s considered a rounding off of the education, as it were, but I never took the tour. I was too interested in getting a commitment from your mother at the time to want to be out of the country. And I married her with unseemly haste.” Sebastian had never heard that before. Ordinarily he wouldn’t pry, but this trip to Edgewood would very likely be the last time he ever saw his father. “Why?” he asked baldly.