Chapter 22
Stephen stood in his grandmother’s library at a quarter past midnight with Peaches at his side and felt something curling in his gut that certainly wasn’t fear but felt too damned close to it for his taste.
He supposed that was an improvement from the intense irritation he’d felt fifteen minutes earlier when he’d been interrupted in the very act of pulling Peaches into his arms for a midnight kiss by one of his grandmother’s footmen summoning him to the library.
He’d arrived fully prepared to tell his grandmother to remember that he didn’t need her permission to wed where it suited him only to find that there was something going on that seemingly had nothing to do with his amorous adventures.
His grandmother had been there, standing in the middle of her library looking thoroughly peeved.
His brother Gideon had been off to one side with Megan, both of them wearing identical looks of, well, nothing.
Then again, they had both seen enough over the years to have mastered the art of hearing the most appalling things without reacting.
Tess and John had rounded out the group.
He had been rather relieved to see that John hadn’t brought his sword.
Though he half wished he had brought his own.
He now stood looking at the illustrious Duke of Kenneworth, who seemed to believe he was holding court, and folded his arms over his chest. “You’ve dragged us all away from a lovely party,” he said briskly, “and we’ve humored you because we have decent manners.
Please do us the favor of enlightening us as to the nature of your business so we can return to our familial entertainments. ”
David looked at him with a cold smile. “I was just waiting to make sure you in particular were here, Haulton, before I began. It’s a pity your mother and father couldn’t join us, but we’ll make do with what we have.”
“What in the hell are you talking about?” Stephen snapped.
He didn’t often lose his temper, but he could safely say that David Preston was approximately ten words from seeing it in full.
It was one thing to be tormented by the fool and his viper of a sister Irene in public; being irritated by them in a family home was just too much.
“Yes, I’m finding the drama a bit much as well,” Lady Louise said shortly. “Perhaps, young man, you forget who issued the invitation tonight and what bad behavior means for your social standing in the future.”
“I wouldn’t worry about me,” David said smoothly. “I would be more inclined to worry about you.”
Stephen watched his grandmother bristle. “Why should I worry about myself?”
“Because after you hear what I have to say,” David said coolly, “you’ll find you have quite a bit less sterling to use in splashing out for these affairs of yours.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Lady Louise said.
“I’m not sure David knows how to be anything but ridiculous, Grandmother,” Stephen said, “but perhaps he has some amusing anecdote with which to entertain us.” He shot David a look. “It had best be very entertaining to have interrupted such a lovely evening.”
David motioned toward the door. Stephen looked over his shoulder and realized that Irene and Andrea were standing there.
They seemed, however, less eager to become part of the group than he would have thought them.
He exchanged a look with John, who reached for Peaches and pulled her over to stand next to him.
John then stepped in front of his wife and his sister-in-law and folded his arms over his chest. Stephen didn’t suppose David Preston was intelligent enough to realize he’d just put himself in a room with men who wouldn’t actually think very long before they tore him to pieces. He turned back to the problem at hand.
“Do you need yet a larger audience, David?” he asked shortly.
“If you’ll shut your ever-running mouth,” David said, his eyes full of something that wasn’t at all pleasant, “I’ll be brief. I am here to offer you the chance to save not only all your assets but your family name as well.”
Lady Louise rolled her eyes with as much enthusiasm as she ever permitted herself. “You’re mad.” She caught the eye of her head butler standing just inside the doorway. “Hollingsworth, call the authorities.”
“Hollingsworth, stay where you are,” David said sharply. He looked at Lady Louise. “You’ll listen to me, old woman, and you’ll listen well.”
Stephen hadn’t realized his grandmother had come to stand next to him until he felt her fingers pinching the back of his arm hard enough that he flinched.
“I am holding on to my temper by the most tenuous of grasps,” Lady Louise said in a voice that sent shivers down Stephen’s spine. “Pray take a different tone, Your Grace, before I have you blacklisted by everyone worth knowing.”
“Yes, spew it out,” Stephen drawled with deliberate disdain, “before we all perish from the suspense.”
David’s mask slipped fully. “I shall,” he said, looking at Stephen with undisguised hate, “and I’ll direct my remarks at you. I have no idea why, but my cousin Andrea wants you.”
Stephen blinked, because that was the last thing he’d expected David to say. “What?” he managed.
Lady Louise made a noise of impatience. “He absolutely will not marry a girl from some obscure village in the south. I don’t care what she thinks she wants.”
David shoved his hands in his pockets and rocked back on his heels. “You’ll soon realize that Andrea will most assuredly have what she wants.” He looked over his shoulder. “Andrea, come tell everyone what you found.”
Stephen watched Irene give Andrea a shove that sent her sprawling—or it would have if Stephen hadn’t leapt forward and caught her in his arms. He set her on her feet, then frowned at her.
“Why are you mixed up in this?”
She pulled away from him, then went to stand next to David.
She lifted her chin, but wouldn’t look at him.
Stephen stepped back to stand next to his grandmother, more because it bought him a moment to think than anything else, though he supposed preventing his grandmother from stabbing David with the first thing she could lay her hands on could only be a good thing.
He was surprised at how thoroughly he had misjudged David’s cousin—unless she had become caught up in something she hadn’t been able to control.
He found himself less than eager to find out what that something was.
“I was going through my father’s papers,” Andrea said, her voice trembling, “when I found something in a sealed envelope. He was, of course, a great collector of antiquities, so there were many things of a particular age.” She looked at David nervously. “I think—”
“Which you shouldn’t,” David said, patting her on the head.
“I’ll finish for you, Andrea, lest it prove too taxing.
You see, what our little Andrea found in her father’s papers was actually something that belonged to one of my ancestors.
” He looked at Stephen. “Aren’t you curious as to what it was? ”
Stephen didn’t like the look in David’s eye. He wasn’t sure if the duke was strung out on drugs or if he were just mad, but he supposed it didn’t matter. He didn’t answer David, but he nodded.
“It was the winnings of a game of chance—”
“Unsurprising,” Lady Louise said curtly. “The only thing that is surprising is that you have a hall left with all the gambling your father did.”
David’s expression hardened. “Yes, well, he was a reckless man.”
“So are you,” Lady Louise shot back, “for you spend just as much time at the sport as he.”
“Fortunately for me,” David said coolly, “I am far better at it than he was, and I have the wit to do my own research instead of relying on the work of others.” He shot Stephen a look. “I believe that is your area of expertise, Haulton.”
“And I believe you’re an idiot,” Stephen returned, “but that is beside the point.”
“And you didn’t find the deed,” Andrea said in a low voice. “I did.”
“Shut up, Andrea,” David snarled.
Stephen blew out his breath. “Very well,” he said impatiently, “someone did the work, David read about this game of chance, then decided it meant something to him.”
“And I couldn’t possibly be less interested in what that something was,” Lady Louise said briskly. “Come, children, back to the party—”
“Just one moment,” David said sharply, “if you please. I’m not finished.” He looked at Stephen. “In that stack of Andrea’s father’s papers, I found an envelope with an unbroken seal.”
“I found it,” Andrea put in.
David whirled on her. “If you don’t shut up—”
“If you touch her, you’ll leave clapped in irons,” Stephen said coldly.
“Clapped in irons,” David echoed, turning back to him with a laugh. “What a quaint turn of phrase. But you always were one for history, weren’t you? With any luck, you’ll be limited to reading about it.”
Stephen pursed his lips. “Why you would care I can’t imagine, but go on. What was the deed to?”
“Yes, do tell,” Gideon drawled. “A gold mine in Africa?”
“No,” David said, not taking his eyes off Stephen, “it is a quitclaim deed to Artane and everything entailed on it.”
Stephen blinked, then he laughed. “A valiant effort, David, but a futile one.”
David smiled. “You don’t think I’m that stupid, do you, Stephen?”
“Actually, I do think you’re that stupid,” Stephen said. “None of my ancestors would ever have been so foolish as to wager our hall on a game of chance.”
“I had the paper authenticated, dated, and my lawyers very busy researching all possible legal challenges to my claim,” David continued. “And to save you time wondering, there are none. It’s solid.”
“Let me see the deed,” Stephen said, making certain he sounded utterly bored. “For the amusement of it, if nothing else.”
“No,” David said simply.
“Let me understand this,” Lady Louise said, elbowing Stephen aside. “Do you have the cheek to tell me that someone from Kenneworth at some point swindled my son-in-law’s hall away from him?”