‘Do you care what he thinks?’ Elise asked pithily.
‘Of course not!’ Bea fumed beneath her sister’s arch expression. ‘Well...naturally I do not want him to think me incapable of putting pen to paper to tell him my opinion of him. Neither do I want him believing me cowed. I intended to give the impression that his offer of carte blanche was not worthy of any further attention.’
‘Well, if you don’t want Alex to stand up for you it only remains for you to tell Hugh yourself that his pursuit is most unwelcome and in vain.’ Elise crossed her arms over her middle and sighed. ‘It’ll be sad if Alex and Hugh have fallen out. Hugh can’t be an incorrigible rogue or Alex wouldn’t have been friends with him for so long.’
Bea felt guilty that her brother-in-law might have suffered an unpleasant argument because of her, but she was also exasperated because she’d not asked Alex to champion her.
‘Hugh is probably embarrassed to have overstepped the mark with you, yet won’t admit it. I’ll wager he’s already lined up a more suitable candidate.’
‘If that is supposed to make me feel better, Elise...’ Bea was torn between laughter and annoyance.
‘It is supposed to make you feel like damning the lot of them!’ Elise fell silent as their father entered the room.
‘For a lady, you cuss like a navvy.’ Walter was not averse to chastising his daughters, no matter their ages or the fact that the younger outranked him.
‘Sorry, Papa,’ Viscountess Blackthorne said meekly.
Walter pointed to his sister’s letter, a gleeful smile spreading across his face. ‘So, this woman Sir Colin must marry is a cheap flirt! Hah! Just what he deserves! I’ve a mind to go to town and tell him so!’
‘Why do you not, Papa?’ Elise suggested. She had not thought her father would undertake the journey, but he seemed fired up enough to do it.
‘I might...yes, I might...and while I’m at it I’ll ask the skinflint where my compensation has got to.’
‘Colin has not returned the money you spent on our wedding arrangements?’ Beatrice sat down on the chair opposite her father, looking shocked and concerned.
‘Not all of it,’ Walter confirmed. ‘I would remind the fellow of his promise face to face, as he has ignored my letter.’
* * *
‘So she told you, then...?’ Having voiced this sour response to being hit in the mouth, Hugh touched his bleeding lip. As he picked himself up off his hallway floor he sent his assailant a baleful look
‘She? Are you talking about my wife?’ It was an icy demand.
‘I wasn’t...no...I was talking about Beatrice.’
Alex Blackthorne stalked closer, flexing his sore fingers. He halted on seeing Hugh’s stance altering: his friend was balancing aggressively, preparing to defend himself. Alex might have got in one lucky punch and sent his opponent reeling, but he was certain he wouldn’t manage another. The two men were evenly matched in combat skills and had sparred, fenced and shot at targets together since the age of about twelve.
‘I haven’t seen Beatrice since she went home after the funeral. Elise told me what you’d done. You said you’d leave my sister-in-law alone.’
‘I can’t...’
‘You damn well will!’ Alex thundered. ‘If her father finds out you’ve propositioned her he’ll crawl to town, if necessary, just to shoot you.’
Hugh used the back of his thumb to smear away the blood trickling towards his chin. ‘Don’t tell him, then,’ he said bluntly.
‘That’s it, is it? Don’t tell him?’ Alex mimicked in disgust. He strode to and fro over the marble slabs in Hugh’s palatial hallway. ‘What in damnation’s up with you? You’ve got two willing women set up in London; you’ve got attachments in India you’re not willing to forgo. Still you’re not satisfied!’ Alex roared. ‘How dare you treat Beatrice as though she’s some cheap strumpet—?’
‘I’ve not,’ Hugh coolly interrupted. ‘She can have everything she wants—including all the discretion money can buy.’
‘She can have everything from you but a wedding ring?’
Hugh displayed even white teeth in a soundless laugh. ‘She doesn’t want one.’
That took the wind out of Alex’s sails. He stopped prowling and shot Hugh a dark look. ‘What do you mean by that?’
‘She told me she’d sooner be Burnett’s mistress than my wife.’
Alex continued glaring at Hugh but inwardly his attitude altered. If what Hugh had just said were true it put a whole different light on things. Ruining a virgin spinster was one thing; bidding against somebody else for a self-confessed paramour was another matter entirely. He’d done so himself on many occasions before he’d met Elise.
Alex thrust his fingers through his hair in exasperation, unsure now how to proceed. It was none of his business if Beatrice and the doctor had been lovers, or indeed if she’d succumbed to Hugh all those years ago when they’d been besotted with one another. His sister-in-law had made no complaint of having been ravished at any time.
Alex realised he probably owed his friend an apology, and beneath his breath he groaned at the mess of it all.
‘Actually, if we’re going to come to blows over grievances...’ Hugh approached in a single athletic stride and knocked Alex onto his back with an efficient jab. ‘It was my job to tell Beatrice about Rani. How much does she know about my time in India?’
Alex levered himself up onto an elbow. ‘I haven’t even told my wife about that damned web of deceit!’ he bawled out in his defence.
‘If it wasn’t you or Elise who mentioned a foreign liaison—’
‘It’s bound to have got out,’ Alex interrupted harshly. Your brother knows, after all, and so does Lord Mornington.’ Alex dragged himself upright. ‘You got yourself into the confounded mess so you’ll have to suffer the consequences of being so blasted noble...’
‘Drink?’ Hugh invited acidly. A thumb pointing over his shoulder indicated his study, situated along the corridor. He knew they were both feeling foolish for having swung first and asked questions second.
Hugh knew he was wrong for wanting Beatrice in his bed, but if necessary he’d fight his best friend to have her—because just a single memory of her silky lips slipping beneath his, and her moaning response to his ardour, was enough to send tormenting heat to his loins.
‘Promise me you’ll stay away from my sister-in-law and I’ll take a drink with you.’ Alex feared his terms and his olive branch would be rejected.
‘I can’t do that.’ Hugh turned away from his best friend, calling over his shoulder to a footman, who’d remained stoically seated in a shadowy alcove during the fracas, ‘The viscount’s leaving; show him out.’
Elise had hoped that the hostility between her husband and his friend might ease in a day or two, but she was disappointed on that score.
Raising herself up on an elbow and resting her rumpled blonde head into a cupped palm, she watched Alex pulling on his clothes. He’d welcomed her back to his side as he always did, by taking her to bed to make love to her at the earliest opportunity. As soon as his son had been settled in the nursery and his in-laws were safely occupied in unpacking and resting in their chambers Elise had been scooped into his arms and the stairs