Chapter 19
SEBASTIAN WAS ABOUT TO INTRODUCE one of those unpleasant subjects to his brother right about then.
Denton hadn’t been around after he returned from examining the site of the accident.
He’d come back for the doctor’s evaluation, though, and before he could make himself scarce again, Sebastian put an arm around his shoulder and steered him outside where they could talk without interruption.
“Why do I feel as if I’m being forced to have a conversation with you, Sebastian?” Denton asked, staring pointedly at the hand still on his shoulder.
“Because you are.”
“You can bloody well let go of me now,” Denton replied stiffly.
“I was joking,” Sebastian said, releasing him when they reached the old tree on the side of the house where they’d made that tree house so long ago.
“Sure you were,” Denton said curtly. “Gone all this time, but you haven’t changed, have you? And where did you go? How many times I thought I’d see you in London, but I never did. Did you actually leave the country?”
“Yes, and I had no intention of ever coming back. I’ve been living on the Continent, no place in particular, really. I travel a lot, since my jobs tend to take me to all corners of Europe.”
“Jobs? You actually work for a living?”
Sebastian had to laugh at Denton’s appalled look, a typical reaction of the privileged gentry. “What did you think I was going to do to survive when I left here with nothing?”
Denton flushed with color. “I assumed, well, actually, I didn’t assume anything, but I certainly didn’t think you’d be taking on common jobs.”
“There’s nothing common about what I do. People pay me a lot of money to accomplish what they can’t manage to do on their own.”
“Such as?”
Sebastian shrugged. “Retrieving stolen valuables, righting wrongs, resolving differences, extracting innocents from incarceration. A little of this and that. I’ve become what you might call a mercenary. Now it’s your turn. Your attitude is rather defensive for a reunion, Denton. Why is that?”
Denton raked a hand through his black hair.
There were actually a few gray hairs at his temples, which were not really noticeable unless you were looking closely.
His amber eyes were bloodshot, which was very noticeable, and had dark circles under them.
Denton’s eyes had never been quite as bright as Sebastian’s, more on the brown side.
His skin was pale, too pale, as if he rarely went outdoors.
There was a small scar on his cheek, another on his brow, neither of which had been there the last time Sebastian had seen him.
All in all, Denton looked too dissipated by half, exhausted, like a man who overindulged his vices too frequently.
He was a year younger than Sebastian, yet he actually looked like the elder brother now.
Denton finally sighed. “It’s just a shock, seeing you again. I never expected to.”
“Neither did I expect to see you again,” Sebastian said. Then offhandedly he added, “I find I’ve missed you.”
“Liar,” Denton almost snarled. “You never had time for me. We were never close.”
“I know. I’m sorry for that,” Sebastian said sincerely. “But you weren’t easy to get close to. You built your resentments too early.”
“Why in the bloody hell are you bringing that up? It’s done, under the bridge, as it were. You can’t change the past, Seb.”
“I suppose not,” Sebastian agreed. “But if that’s not causing your defensiveness, what is?”
Denton appeared incredulous. “Good God, you show up. That’s enough right there by itself, ain’t it?
But then Father has to be carried in the house, hurt so bad he can’t even see straight.
And Maggie married you. I still can’t believe that.
You fall in the pigsty and still come out smelling like a bloody rose, don’t you?
I’m having a hard time assimilating it all, and I was already a nervous wreck before you even got here.
So what the hell did you expect, a laugh and a hug? ”
“I didn’t expect to find that you’re in love with my wife, or married to Giles’s wife,” Sebastian said in a hard tone. “Where is that jade, anyway?”
Denton blanched at his bluntness but said, “Don’t come home after eleven years and start making assumptions, when you know nothing about what’s gone on here.”
“Then why don’t you tell me, and start with how you ended up married to the adulteress who instigated the duel that wrecked my life?”
“She didn’t instigate anything,” Denton said. “She swore that you—”
“She lied,” Sebastian cut in.
“Be that as it may, you weren’t here to say otherwise, and she managed to convince me at the time. She was lonely and depressed living with Cecil, who was totally shattered after Giles’s death. I had begun visiting her to cheer her up.”
“It took marriage to cheer her up, I suppose?”
Denton blushed. “No, I was just going to set her up as my mistress, and did, but—things happen. She was enceinte.”
Sebastian raised a brow, actually surprised. “You have a child?”
Denton’s complexion reddened even more vividly. “No, she lost it.”
“Of course,” Sebastian said dryly.
Denton glared at him. “That was my own response, if you must know. But I’ve made my bed. I’m dealing with it as best I can.”
Which didn’t seem to be at all, Sebastian concluded, but he’d been harsh enough, so didn’t say so. “You mentioned already being a nervous wreck. Why?”
Denton sighed. “Because Juliette is in London shopping. Happens every time she goes. She spends atrocious amounts of money when she’s there, frivolously. Father goes through the roof when he gets the bills.”
“Then why don’t you go with her to put a curb on her extravagance?”
“Because when I do, we end up causing a scene that titillates the gossips for months. Father objects to that even more.”
“One of your fights?”
“I see Maggie has filled you in.”
“Hardly. She didn’t say what you fight about.”
“The question should be what we don’t fight about. That list would be much shorter.”
Sebastian shook his head. He was having a hard time grasping all the implications Denton’s attitude raised.
He’d expected, under the circumstances, for Denton at least to profess an undying love for his wife, his excuse for keeping her.
But apparently no one liked Juliette, not even her husband. So why were they still married?
He didn’t really expect an answer, but he asked anyway, “Why haven’t you divorced her?”
Denton exploded vehemently, “Good God, after eleven years you come home with a flimsy excuse and immediately start stirring the pot. Well, I’ve news for you. My wife and I are none of your bloody business.”
“I disagree,” Sebastian said darkly. “Your wife caused me to kill my best friend and lose the life I’d known up to that point.”
He hadn’t meant to show the new side of him, at least not to his brother. But he could tell by Denton’s brief look of wariness that he just had.
He shook off the air of menace he could so easily assume and even offered somewhat of a smile.
He said mildly, “I debated on letting Maggie come home a’tall.
Her place is with me now, and my place isn’t here.
But I’ve missed Abbie. I wanted this chance to see her again before it’s too late.
Her advanced age puts a narrow window on that opportunity.
If you want to call that a flimsy reason, so be it. ”
Abashed, Denton said, “Sorry. It appears you’ll have plenty of time to visit with Grandmother now. Are you going to stay until Father recovers? Culden wants Maggie to play nurse. Figures father will at least listen to her about remaining in bed till he’s better.”
“I haven’t thought that far ahead. I expected to have to fight my way in to see Abbie. I didn’t expect Father to be so delirious he didn’t even recognize me.”
“Rather a stroke of . . .”
Denton didn’t finish, causing Sebastian to laugh shortly. “Bad luck? Well, I doubt I’ll be here long in any case. When do you expect your wife back?”
“In a few days, possibly the end of the week.” Then suspiciously, “Why?”
Sebastian shrugged offhandedly. “I may leave before then. I’m not sure I can come face-to-face with that woman again—without killing her.”
“That’s nothing to joke about, Seb.”
“I wasn’t joking,” Sebastian said simply. “By the by, what happened to your leg to cause a limp?”
Whether it was his remark about his wife or the mention of the limp, Denton walked away without answering. Sebastian let him go. They both had enough to think about for the moment.