Chapter 3
A Tense Meeting
The last carriage left the main avenue of Hounslow Park with a swiftness unexpected at a country gathering and perfectly suited to a newborn aristocratic scandal.
The Duchess of Statony had taken charge of seeing off the guests with such serenity that they might well dedicate a statue to her in Hyde Park for the feat.
Eveline had been sent to the duchess’s sitting room with Alice, while Arden was summoned to the duke’s study.
And so there stood those two men who had never imagined their great friendship would be put to the test in such a fashion.
And Statony had spent several minutes saying nothing, which, for a duke capable of turning silence into an efficient instrument of torture, was considerably more dangerous than an immediate outburst.
The study at Hounslow Park lay in the eastern wing of the house, far from the terrace, the garden, and any servant who might commit the recklessness of breathing too near the door.
The curtains remained open, though the afternoon light was beginning to lose its strength.
On the desk still lay several papers relating to a parliamentary measure that, scarcely an hour before, had seemed to Oliver of some importance.
At that moment, Statony would have set fire to the House of Lords sooner than think of what he had just witnessed.
His best friend and his sister?!
Merciful God…
Arden stood before him, the lapels of his coat badly rumpled and a tiny cut on his lower lip, caused perhaps by the vehemence of the kiss or by Eveline’s teeth.
Statony did not wish to know. In fact, he would be most glad never again to be forced to imagine his sister’s mouth near that of his best friend.
That could not turn out well! The conversation looming required something more than composure, so he poured himself a brandy and drank it down in one go.
He did not offer the earl a glass, and Arden did not ask for one.
‘You were kissing my sister,’ the duke broke the silence at last.
His friend, who had borne the wait until then with a calm he did not feel, inclined his head a little.
‘I cannot deny the evidence of my own acts, Statony.’
The duke set the empty glass down on the desk.
‘Is that all you have to say?’
‘I do not think it would suit you to hear the rest.’
‘I assure you that nothing you could say to me will prove worse than having found you plundering my sister’s mouth in a gazebo, before my duchess’s guests.’
Arden closed his eyes for an instant.
‘I did not intend for anyone to find us.’
‘You will understand that I find your assertion of little practical use. You were kissing my sister,’ he repeated, for he certainly could not quite believe it yet.
‘You have mentioned that part several times already. ’
‘I intend to mention it until one of us finds an explanation that does not oblige me to tear off your head. My sister, Arden?’
‘Your sister, yes, and you may well repeat it for a long while.’
Statony looked at him with a cold incredulity.
For years he had trusted that man more than any other person.
Arden was the only one with whom he could speak without weighing every word.
He was his best friend, the one who had leave to contradict him without ending up banished from his life.
He believed in him so completely that he had even entrusted him with watching over Eveline on more than one occasion.
Arden was honorable to the point of exhaustion.
Or at least he had been, until that very afternoon.
His loyalty had always proved unbreakable…
Again, until that afternoon, for it seemed he was also capable of kissing his best friend’s younger sister with enough enthusiasm to leave her breathless.
Statony would not easily forget the state in which he had seen his little sister after his best friend had…
God! He did not wish to think of it more than necessary, but the image would not leave his mind.
Oliver picked up the empty glass again, merely to hold something so that his ducal fingers would not end up around the earl’s neck.
‘Some years ago,’ he said, ‘I put to you the idea of marrying Eveline. Just when all that scandal broke out with—’
Arden’s gaze settled at once on the duke.
‘I remember. There is no need to mention the scoundrel,’ he checked him.
‘You clutched your head when I proposed it.’
‘I did not clutch my head. And you did not mean it seriously.’ Nathaniel remembered that episode well; it had occurred just before Statony decided to marry his duchess.
‘Arden, we shall never find out whether I put it forward as a real possibility, because you seemed to contemplate throwing yourself out the window when I mentioned it, and I did not press the matter.’
‘Because you had just suggested I marry your sister.’
‘And yet, less than an hour ago, you were plundering’—he drew out the word—‘my sister’s mouth. Do you not see how contradictory this whole business is?’
The earl let out a slow breath.
‘I did not want to marry.’
‘That was made quite clear at the time.’
‘And least of all Eveline.’
Statony went very still.
To say that was a mistake. Arden knew it the moment the words left his mouth, for the air of the study grew heated.
It was one thing for Statony to want to strangle him for having compromised his sister, and quite another to hear that his best friend considered her a burden fate had just dropped upon him.
‘I advise you,’ said the duke very softly, ‘to choose with care what you say from this moment on.’
Arden held his gaze.
‘I have spoken the truth. I did not want to marry her. That does not mean I intend to dishonor her and vanish.’
‘You were kissing my sister!’ he burst out at last.
‘And I am going to marry her,’ Arden told him without raising his voice.
‘Most generous of you, but that does not make me forget that you were kissing my sister at a rather public party, with a thoroughness that will haunt me to the grave.’
Arden, seated before the duke’s desk, turned his gaze towards the nonexistent flames of the hearth.
‘I have no excuse.’
‘A sensible sentence at last.’
‘Nor am I going to pretend that I have one.’
‘That would be difficult, even for you.’
‘The situation will be resolved by the marriage.’
Statony let out a brief laugh without the least cheer.
‘The situation? Arden, my sister is not a piece of furniture. She is Eveline. She is my little sister,’ he insisted.
‘I know.’
‘Do you? Because this afternoon you seemed to have forgotten it, along with all the social rules you so enjoy applying to others.’
‘I did not forget it for a single moment, I assure you. ’
The answer was too low, though the duke heard it.
Statony studied him more closely. Arden did not defend himself as a man caught in a piece of mischief would. Nor did he behave like a libertine forced to repair some damage. He could not have done so, for his best friend detested scoundrels and would never become one of them.
‘Very well. Let us examine the options, because in truth I understand nothing. Could it be that you misinterpreted the instructions I gave you about keeping an eye on my sister?’
‘Do you mean when you fell to your knees before your duchess, and could see nothing but her, and asked me to become your sister’s nursemaid, Statony?’
‘Do not be dramatic.’
‘That is how I remember it.’
‘I asked you to watch over her.’
‘That is exactly what I just said.’
‘No, you added the word nursemaid to play the victim. And you know very well that it is always the gentleman who bears the responsibility of keeping a lady’s reputation intact. ’
‘Statony, I have spent years keeping your sister from causing true calamities. ’
‘Because you agreed to keep an eye on her.’
‘I agreed because you are my friend.’
‘That did not entail kissing my confounded sister.’
Arden clenched his jaw.
‘No, of course not.’
‘I am glad we agree on so delicate a point.’
‘I was only trying to keep her from…’ He sighed. He would not tell his friend anything about the kiss she had wanted from that whelp. He cleared his throat, then added: ‘I had not planned to kiss her.’
‘What a relief. It would have been worrying to discover you had devised a strategy to ruin Eveline among the violets in the middle of my duchess’s party.’
‘I have not ruined her. She remains intact.’ He avoided telling him how much he had wanted to put Eveline into a bed and… He shook his head and tried to cast out those thoughts.
Statony, who had been on his feet the whole time, rounded the desk slowly and placed himself before the earl, who remained seated.
‘Arden.’ He used his title as a clear warning.
‘What more do you want? I am going to marry her.’
‘That does not erase what has happened.’
‘No, but it will keep the damage from spreading.’
‘And what of the damage you will do her?’
Arden frowned.
‘What do you mean?’
‘I mean that I know Eveline. She is impulsive, yes, and at times she would be capable of arguing with a wall just to contradict me, but marriage should not be a penance accepted out of honor. I will not hand her over to you for you to turn her into the punishment for your own mistakes.’
‘I would not do that.’
‘You just said you did not want to marry her.’
‘Because I did not want to marry anyone.’
‘I do not believe it. You have a title; at some point you would have to marry. Besides, you said, and I quote you exactly: ‘least of all Eveline’. ’ Arden did not answer, and Statony smiled with a coldness rather unpleasant before adding: ‘There it is—you do not want her.’
‘Do not twist my words.’
‘I need not. Though you are saying little, you are being very clear.’