Chapter 10 #3
When Roberts failed to materialize after a few days, Max was beginning to think his strategy was working, as another minor scandal surfaced to fascinate the gossips. He went to a meeting at his father’s house and found both his brothers in the hallway eager to speak to him.
“Good morning,” Max said somewhat warily. “What do you two want?”
“I tried to stop him,” George burst out. “But Tom insisted that Father had to know.”
“Know what?”
“About you and your disgraceful activities in Suffolk,” Tom said rather grandly.
“Why on earth would you do that?” Max asked Tom. “You are aware that he can’t disinherit me and give you all the titles?”
“I’d handle the responsibility far better than you.”
“You’re probably right.” Max held his brother’s gaze. “Trust me, if I could give it all to you, I would. I’ve been trying to live up to the duke’s impossible standards all my life.”
A flicker of doubt crossed Tom’s face, but he quickly recovered. “You’re a reprobate.”
“I am my father’s creature.” Max shrugged. “I hope you sleep well in your sanctimonious little bed tonight, brother, secure in your decision to expose an innocent woman to the ridicule of the ton.”
“You’re the one who’s in trouble, Max.”
“Trouble, yes, but as we both know, Father can’t disinherit me, and society will forgive me anything because I am his son. The lady in question is not so lucky, is she? You’ve contributed to her losing her reputation for the rest of her life. I hope you’re proud of yourself.”
Thomas rolled his eyes. “The Musgrove family are already socially irredeemable, so she’ll—”
Max stepped into his brother’s space. “Don’t you dare speak ill of her or her family.”
“Or what?” Thomas asked.
Max shoved him out of the way and went into his father’s study. There was no sign of Stephen, and the duke sat behind his desk, his attention fixed on a letter in front of him. He made no attempt to offer Max a seat.
“Perhaps you might care to explain yourself,” the duke said.
“I’m more than willing to do so, sir, if you’ll tell me what you’ve been told.”
“Your brother says that there are rumors suggesting that when you were in Suffolk, you were not in fact involved in a carriage accident, but were involved in an illicit tryst with a woman.”
He looked up, his gaze cold. “Don’t lie to me. Just tell me the truth.”
“Firstly, there was a carriage accident,” Max said.
“I told you the truth about that. What I omitted was that there was another person with me. We were both thrown out of the carriage when the wheel came off, and we ended up in a ditch. I lost consciousness, and it was only due to my companion that I made it to safety that night.”
“This other person was a woman?”
“Yes.” Max held his father’s skeptical gaze. “She was not there willingly, but she still cared for me and made sure I recovered sufficiently to continue my journey.”
“You abducted her.”
The coldness and distaste in his father’s voice was shocking.
“Not intentionally.” Max sighed. “It is hard to explain.”
“Try.”
“Landon bet me that I couldn’t persuade Lady Carenza Musgrove to appear in public with me.
I insisted that I could, so we took my carriage to the Musgrove townhouse.
Landon was driving, and I was supposed to go inside and do the persuading.
As we stopped outside the house, someone came out.
I opened the door of the carriage, handed her in, and then we moved off. ”
“And?”
“This is where things went wrong. Landon abandoned the carriage to his driver and directed him to drive out of London as fast as he could go.”
“Why didn’t you stop him?”
“Because I was too busy placating my far-from-happy companion. She thought she’d stepped into her family carriage and was on her way back to Norfolk, only to find she was stuck with me.
We had some kind of altercation, and the next thing I remember is her shouting at me to wake up.
I found we were in a ditch on a dark country road in the middle of nowhere. ”
The duke looked up. “Please go on.”
“Landon had taken my purse, we had a broken carriage, and very little money, but I promised my companion that I would see her safely to her family seat in Norfolk, and that’s what I did.”
Max tried to gauge from his father’s expression how well his story was being taken.
It was impossible to tell, so he continued.
“Unfortunately, when we stopped for the night in Southwold, Roberts saw me. I tried to keep him away from the inn, but at one point, he also saw my fellow traveler and decided that we were eloping, hence the rumors. That’s the truth, sir. I swear it.”
The duke slowly nodded. “There is one thing I would like to clarify. Whom exactly did you abduct?”
Max raised his chin. “Lady Allegra Musgrove, your grace.”
“And what do you intend to do about it?”
Max frowned. “I’ve already apologized to her, sir. She accepted my explanation, and we parted on good terms.”
“Good terms … when you have ruined her.”
Max flinched.
“You are probably unaware that her father is a very good friend of mine,” the duke said. “You will have to marry the girl.”