Chapter 4
A Drastic Decision
The Duke of Statony, who did not usually drink, poured himself a second glass and drank it down in one go. The solitude of his study did nothing to calm him.
He had just quarreled with his best friend over his sister. They had even come to blows.
His cheekbone throbbed with a rather unpleasant insistence, his lower lip tasted of blood, and the spilled ink went on spreading over the parliamentary papers. None of that mattered, because Arden had kissed Eveline and then declared before him, at the top of his voice, that she was his.
Arden, the very man who years earlier had reacted to the suggestion of marrying her with horror, had just left his study after announcing that no one would free him from that engagement.
Oliver understood nothing, and it was not for want of intellectual capacity. He considered himself an intelligent man and had proved it more than once in the House of Lords.
He detested not understanding the situation.
He could not solve the problem with ducal obstinacy, for Eveline had always been a territory where his authority meant nothing.
His sister could not be governed by orders—he had learned that the hard way.
Nor did surveillance work with her, and still less would irreproachable earls who, it seemed, could go from nursemaids to possessive fiancés in a single afternoon.
The study door opened again.
Oliver did not need to turn to know it was Alice.
No servant would have come in after hearing the furniture crashing to the floor, and no one else in the house had the serenity required to invade the study of a duke who had just brawled with his best friend.
By that hour, the staff would already be aware of what had occurred.
‘Heavens, Oliver.’
There was worry in his wife’s voice, but no surprise.
‘It has not been as serious as it looks.’
Alice closed the door slowly and came towards her husband. She had taken off her gloves long before. She stopped a step away from him and held his chin with one finger to survey the damage.
‘Your friend and you have fought without weighing the consequences.’
‘I threw the first punch; he only defended himself.’
‘That does not improve the situation.’
‘That depends on the perspective.’
Alice examined his cheekbone carefully.
‘Was it very satisfying?’
Oliver looked at her.
‘Giving him a punch?’
‘Yes.’
‘For two seconds.’
‘What a disappointment. I had hoped masculine violence offered more advantages than merely affording satisfaction for a couple of seconds. I had not considered that you were like a Spartan, ready to defend your sister’s virtue with your fists. ’
In spite of himself, Oliver let out a sound that resembled a small laugh far too closely. Alice moved away from him and picked up a clean handkerchief from a nearby tray. She came close and began to wipe the blood very carefully. He let his duchess fuss over him.
‘Arden has left without packing,’ she remarked.
‘Yes, I imagine so. ’
‘Is he as battered as you?’
‘More or less.’
‘At least he is still alive, and I shall not have to hide his corpse during dinner.’
‘I do not think anyone will be in the humor for dinner tonight.’
‘Oliver, in this house there is always dinner. Whether anyone tonight has the appetite or the dignity enough to enjoy it is another matter.’
The duke set the handkerchief aside and looked at his wife with a mixture of gratitude and exasperation. Alice had the perverse talent for handing the world’s reality back to him just when he was about to declare war on the universe.
‘I understand nothing of what has happened today,’ he confessed.
Her expression softened.
‘Tell me what has passed with Arden—besides the fists involved, I mean.’
Oliver rounded the desk and leaned against the edge.
‘I shall begin with my sister. Eveline had spent months paying too much attention to Edward Linfield. You saw it. I saw it. He did not delight me, because no gentleman will ever delight me for her, but he was acceptable. Good family, a decent fortune, useful connections, suitable manners… He was not a complete idiot, which already set him above a good part of the men breathing in London, title or no title.’
‘A touching consideration.’
‘Do not mock me.’
‘I shall try with less enthusiasm. You must admit the situation is… strange. Even now, I myself do not know how I am to face it. ’
Oliver ran a hand through his hair. He was still incredulous.
‘It seemed Eveline was encouraging him. Not in a scandalous way, but enough for me to think she was weighing the possibility of allowing him to court her. And suddenly I find her kissing Arden in the garden, before our guests, when it is obvious that my sister and my best friend cannot remain in the same room without behaving like two nations on the brink of a diplomatic conflict. Eveline has always been clear in showing her displeasure towards him, though I must admit my supposed best friend was more subtle—but I noticed it.’ Alice said nothing about it.
That was the first sign of danger. Oliver looked at her more closely and asked: ‘Do you know something I ought to know?’
‘As you may suppose, I was with Eveline while you were interviewing your friend.’
‘Of course you spoke with Eveline.’
‘She was very upset.’
‘I find it hard to imagine why,’ he said ironically.
‘Oliver, please,’ she chided him.
The warning was low, but most effective. He shut his mouth.
Alice approached one of the armchairs in the room. She did not sit. She rested a hand on the back and drew breath. Her intent was to weigh well every word she was about to say. Oliver noticed it and tensed. When his wife reacted that way, a disastrous truth usually awaited.
‘I am going to tell you something she has told me because she trusts me,’ she began, ‘and I know that, in a way, I am betraying her. I would not do it if I did not believe you need to understand it before making a decision that could hurt her.’
Oliver straightened.
‘What is the matter?’
‘Before Arden appeared, Eveline was meeting with Mr. Linfield. Though she was not trying to trap him, if that is what you may be thinking. Did Arden tell you anything in this regard?’
‘No. He did not mention Linfield at all. Go on,’ he urged her.
‘She was trying to find out whether she could feel anything more than affection for him,’ Alice continued.
‘She likes him very much. She considers him good, convenient… a safe suitor. She believed you might approve of him and that he would offer her a respectable life, but she did not know whether that was enough. She told me she wanted to know whether there could be passion between them, and that is why she asked him for a kiss.’
Oliver went so still that even his cheekbone seemed to stop aching for an instant.
‘My sister asked Linfield to kiss her to test whether she could feel passion, and then she ended up kissing Arden?’
‘So it seems, yes.’
‘Where does my sister get these ideas?’
Alice looked at him with unmatched tenderness.
‘From us, apparently.’
‘From us?’
‘Your sister watches us every day, my love. She sees how you look at me when you think no one notices. She sees how Henry climbs on top of you and how you feign indignation before surrendering. She sees that our marriage is not merely convenient or correct. Eveline wants the same thing we share. She does not want a respectable cage, nor a husband who offers her only a good name, a high income, and sufficient protection. She needed to be sure Mr. Linfield could give her something more.’
Oliver nodded. That made a certain sense.
He had thought so many times of Eveline’s reputation, of her future, of the danger of scoundrels, of the need to protect her from others and from herself, that he had not perceived that simple truth: his sister was not seeking only security.
She was seeking love. And he, who for years had not known how to give it to her well even as a brother, kept trying to order her life from the outside.
‘Let me guess: Linfield will not be able to offer her what she wants,’ he murmured.
‘That is so. Eveline does not believe it, though I must point out that they did not actually kiss.’
‘Because Arden appeared?’ he supposed.
‘Yes, he was there to sabotage the matter in a most unedifying manner, as I understood it.’
Oliver let out a dry sound.
‘Unedifying is a delicate way of saying he threatened to challenge him to a duel. Am I wrong?’
‘What you ought to ask yourself is why Arden at once frightened the gentleman off when he heard she had asked him for a kiss.’
‘He had not gone only to spy on her.’
Alice inclined her head.
‘No?’
Oliver opened his mouth, closed it, and decided that defending Arden on that point was untenable. He was not merely protecting her. There was more. He had finally learned it, and from the mouth of the very protagonist of that scandal.
‘No, he wanted to make sure she did not choose that suitor. ’
‘Perhaps. Or perhaps all of this is an enigma,’ the duchess opined.
‘You are mistaken on the main point, because I have already resolved that while I was fighting with him. It appears Arden has been hiding a great secret from me.’
Alice’s gaze sharpened with great interest.
‘Did he tell you that he loves her?’
Oliver let out a laugh without humor.
‘Not exactly in those words.’
‘Of course he will not tell you, because he is a man. You all find it hard to admit the truth about your feelings.’
‘Please, do not remind me that I sent my secretary to propose marriage to you in my name.’
‘Very well, I shall not.’
‘Do not use that tone with me, Duchess,’ he admonished her.
‘What tone would that be?’
‘The tone of ‘you men are the simplest of creatures and yet you manage to fail at the simplest things’.’
‘It was not my intention to be so plain, but now that you say it, you have summed it up very well. Arden has made a great muddle of all this, my love. ’
Oliver ran a hand through his hair again.
‘How did I not see it, Alice?’
The question came out lower than he intended. His wife left the back of the armchair, went to him, and smiled at him.