Текст книги "The Virtuoso"

Автор книги: Grace Burrowes

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“And will you be going, my lord?” Stanwick politely inquired as he prepared Freddy’s cup of tea.

“Wouldn’t miss it. I’ll be taking the curricle, weather permitting, because I don’t want to malinger there. I’ll just tip my hat, wish the man well, and spend a couple nights in Oxford.” With the scholars on summer holiday, the usual bevy of willing women would be more than happy for his custom, come to think of it.

“When shall I have you packed, my lord?”

“The invite is for Wednesday next, so I’ll depart Monday.” Freddy tapped the invitation against his lips. “I say, Stanwick, since when did we stop serving biscuits with our tea? A man could get more than a bit peckish‚ and me a lord of the realm.”

“I’ll see what the kitchen has to offer, my lord.”

Freddy watched him go, confident some sustenance would be forthcoming despite the deplorable impatience of the trades regarding payment of their bills. Good servants understood that a lord of the realm was above such things, and so food would continue to materialize on his table.

He was almost sure of it.

* * *

Given the last weekend’s mischief, Val decided he would remain on his estate that weekend. He urged Ellen, Nick, Darius, and the boys to vacate, and offered to hire the Bragdolls to patrol the grounds, but only Darius agreed to go.

And what errands he saw to in London, neither Nick nor Val wanted to ask.

To Val’s surprise, Axel and Abby Belmont decided to come for a visit on Saturday, the stated purpose being for Axel to lend his eye and hand to the addition on Ellen’s cottage—the unstated purpose no doubt being for the man simply to see his sons.

Val woke Saturday morning as he had every morning for the past five, in Ellen’s bed and in her arms. There were other bedrooms ready, enough that Val could offer the Belmonts some genuine hospitality should they be inclined to stay the night, but Val couldn’t bring himself to give up his nights with Ellen.

She was going to bolt. Val could feel it. His two oldest brothers had bolted for the cavalry rather than face Moreland’s insufferable high-handedness. He himself had bolted for Italy. His brother Gayle had bolted into the commercial complexities of a ducal estate in sore financial disarray. When Dev had come home from war, he’d bolted first into the bottle then into the wilds of Yorkshire.

Valentine Windham could sniff an impending departure miles off. Ellen was emotionally packing her bags, and there was not one damned thing he could do to change her mind.

But he was a man, so rather than stew endlessly without result, he eased himself out of Ellen’s bed as the first gray light filtered through the curtains, kissed her cheek, and retrieved his clothes from where he’d tossed them on a chair. He had a long list of things to do, and if he couldn’t resolve his situation with Ellen, he’d at least see about his list.

He was as bad as his father, thinking that passing bills in Parliament somehow compensated for being an inept, overbearing excuse for a papa.

“Val?”

“Here, love.” He returned to the side of the bed and crouched down half-dressed to meet her sleepy gaze. “Back to sleep with you, since I kept you awake for much of last night.”

She leaned out over the edge of the mattress and clamped her arms around his neck.

“What’s this?” he murmured, settling at her hip and smoothing her hair back.

Ellen leaned up, hugging his shoulders. “When will you tell me about your family? Really tell me, not just toss out a few placatory details?”

He was silent, his conscience trying to shout down his sense the time was not right. How would she react? My papa is one of the most powerful men in the kingdom, as well as one of the most determined and the most devoted to his lady. He’ll want legitimate children of us, so let’s make our farewells sooner rather than later.

“When will you tell me what’s really amiss between you and Freddy?” Val said quietly. He took her hand and kissed her knuckles, trying to convey he wanted merely to listen, not to judge, but such desolation came into Ellen’s eyes, he regretted his question.

“I’ll tell you. Soon, and when I do, you will wish I hadn’t.”

“Did you betray Francis, then?” Val asked softly, bringing her hand to his cheek.

“Yes,” Ellen said on an unsteady breath, “but not… not the way you mean. I wasn’t unfaithful, though that hardly matters.”

The room was gradually, inexorably growing lighter, but Ellen remained silent.

“We’ll talk when you’re ready,” he promised, pressing another kiss to her neck.

“And you’ll tell me about your family?”

Val smiled sadly. “When I do, I will wish I hadn’t—and you might too.”

* * *

“All is in readiness,” Darius confirmed as they watched the farm wagon jingle down the lane toward the village early the next Wednesday morning. “Though I can’t like this idea of yours, Val, simply confronting the man, no magistrate about, no one but Wee Nick on hand to enforce the king’s peace.”

“Wee Nick,” said the man himself, “outranks the pusillanimous buffoon, has double his weight, double his reach, and at least five times his brain power. And should my charming presence fail to inspire him to good conduct, you will be waiting in the wings, ready to rescue us.”

“Rescue Val. What will you tell Freddy about Ellen?”

“As little as possible,” Val said. “She should be none of his concern, nor he any of hers. The entire purpose of this meeting is to see that’s the case.”

“At least you’re doing something about him,” Nick pointed out charitably, “though as to that, you’ve gotten a great deal done here in a short time.”

“Good crews,” Val said, glancing around. “Though I have to confess, it makes me nervous, the quiet. I can hear them banging away over at Ellen’s, but not to see scaffolding all over my north wing, not to hear the constant ring of curses and shouts and hammers, it’s unnerving.”

“You never heard much of anything before,” Nick said, “except all the notes in your head. You hear things now.”

“Possibly.” Val considered the notion. It was one thing not to listen, but Nick was accusing him of not hearing. His Grace was the one who never even heard others.

“You don’t get that gone-away look in your eyes as often as you did a couple months ago,” Darius added, “and you don’t make a fat, unhappy fist of your left hand a hundred times an hour.”

“I fisted my hand?” Val asked, staring at the hand in question as he spoke.

“I noticed it, because at first I thought it meant you were angry and ready to plant somebody a facer, perhaps even my charming self. Then I realized you didn’t even know you were doing it.”

Val’s gaze moved from one friend to the other. “It has begun to amaze me that I managed to walk upright and speak English on occasion, such a stranger have I apparently been to myself.”

“Not a stranger to yourself,” Nick corrected him, frowning down the drive, “more a visiting dignitary to those who care about you.”

Val fell silent, wondering what else his friends might have wanted to tell him, but for this tendency he’d displayed to become absorbed in his own artistic world, even while in the company of others. He realized abruptly he was doing it, again, while his friends exchanged a rueful smile.

“Bugger the both of you.” Val shoved them each on the arm. “I’m going to go through the house one more time. If you’d take the outbuildings, Dare, and you the stables, Nick, I’ll feel better.”

“Of course.” Nick strode off, leaving Darius to eye his friend.

“You’ve put the house in order this week,” Darius said. “The place looks good, and I assume you’ll be moving into it when Ellen’s cottage is done.”

“That would make sense,” Val replied, unwilling to voice his reluctance to do just that. Ellen back at her cottage seemed another step closer to him out of her life. If she ended their association, he could not bear to take up residence in the house alone, not with her toiling away in her gardens, one home wood and three universes of stubbornness away.

“So when,” Darius asked gently, “will you set up the piano?”

Val slewed around to stare at his friend. “ What piano?”

“The one your papa sent along with the team,” Darius said. “The one that’s been sitting in its crate in the carriage bays for the past week and more.”

Val cringed. “We left a piano in the carriage house?”

“Freddy will expect you to have a piano,” Darius said, his tone merely bored. “And we’ve half the morning to kill before he gets here.”

“And Nick’s considerable brawn to assist us.” He should noteven set the damned thing up. What was His Grace thinking, now of all times, to send Val a piano? It was so typical of their dealings, that his father would finally mean well and get the timing so exactly, ironically wrong. Val stared down at his left hand, which looked no different from the right of late. He could always crate up this gift later and send it back from whence it came.

“Let’s get this over with,” he muttered, telling himself no piano should be housed in a damned carriage house, and certainly not in hiscarriage house.

“If you insist.”

“You going to tune the thing?” Nick asked, draping an arm over Val’s shoulder when they’d gotten the instrument set up in a first-floor parlor. “I know you have your kit with you.”

Val’s lips compressed into a thin line, but Nick was right. He did have his tools with him—he always did.

“Ellen might enjoy playing it,” Darius suggested with devilish innocence.

“Bugger you both,” Val said on a sigh. Except a piano should be kept in tune.

His craftsmen had packed the instrument very carefully—for it was one of his, damned if it wasn’t—and the piano was in fine shape, not even needing much tuning. Val closed the lid and looked around the room for the bench that had been delivered with the piano. He positioned it before the piano and noticed a corner of white paper sticking out from under the seat.

A note in his father’s slashing, confident hand.

Valentine,

You play these things better than I have ever done anything, save perhaps love Her Grace. She picked this one out after trying all that were ready for sale at both of your shops. She said it was particularly lovely in the middle and lower registers, whatever that means. Her Grace will be sending along some of your music, though I told her it would be better for you to come choose what you wanted from Morelands, as an old fellow might get to see his youngest (and only bachelor) son that way, but there is no reasoning with Her Grace on certain points.

You are to keep Sean, if you please. Morelands’s stables are too large and busy for one of his years, but he would not ask for lighter duties. This was Her Grace’s idea; the piano was mine.

I hope you are keeping well, as am I—which you would know had you had the courtesy to correspond with your own papa from time to time. And polite, chipper little thank you notes to placate your mother do not count.

Moreland

Val had to chuckle at the aggravating blend of what? Officiousness, bashful innuendo, and simple familiarity in the short note. His Grace was never, not in a millennium of trying, going to be a subtle or calming sort of person. He was direct, ruthless, and devoted to his duchess. Since a heart seizure a year ago, there had been some softening, but Val still felt the blatant attempts to manipulate, even in the terse little epistle.

He was to visit his father.

He was to write to his father.

He was to play the piano, though his father had railed at him for years that music was a nancy-pants way for a man to go through life when it went beyond drawing room competence. Never mind the gift of a piano was at complete odds with all those lectures! If His Grace wanted to change histune, then all other tunes simply ceased to exist—past, present, or future. It was an amazing quality, to alter reality at will. The trick of it was probably the first secret passed along from one duke to the next. He’d have to ask Gayle about it when next he saw his brother-the-heir.

He closed the lid of the piano bench, but not before he noticed one other document—a bill of lading marked “paid.”

It was a beautiful instrument. Val sighed as he regarded the gleaming finish. A grand, of course. His mother would not content herself with less for him. He lifted the lid and sat, vowing to himself he was just testing the tuning.

To keep his vow, he limited his test to the little lullaby he’d composed for Winnie and sent north with St. Just. Winnie was a busy child. She darted around the estate like a small tornado, poking her nose into adult business at will with the canine mastodon, Scout, panting at her heels.

So he’d written Winnie a cradle song to play when Scout was having trouble settling his doggy nerves or when Winnie wanted something quiet and pretty to end her busy days with. It wasn’t the first piece he’d written for her, though it might be the last.

Gently, he laid his hands on the keys, the familiar cool feel of them sending a wave of awareness up his arms and into his body.

“I’ve missed you, my friend,” he told the piano quietly, “but this is just a visit.”

The notes came so easily, drifting up into the soft morning air and out across the yard. Simple, tender, lyrical, and sweet, the piece wafted through the trees and flower baskets, through the beams of sunshine, and out over the pond. On the balcony of the carriage house, Nick and Darius exchanged a smile as the final notes died away.

“It’s a start,” Nick said quietly. “A modest start but a good one.”

Thirteen

When he finished dressing for his caller, Val had an hour left of his morning, so he crossed to the house and made his way to his library. He sat for long minutes at his desk, wondering what he could write to his father that wouldn’t be considered a placatory thank you note—the challenge had been tossed down, and Val wasn’t inclined to ignore a challenge. Not from Moreland, and not given the state of Val’s life.

To His Grace, Percival, the Duke of Moreland, etc,

It crossed my mind if a short, placatory thank you would not count, perhaps a long, effusive, entirely sincere thank you might. At the risk of self-aggrandizement, the instrument chosen for me is truly lovely, and I do appreciate it.

I am pleased to report I even have a music room for your generous gift, though the estate I found here at the beginning of the summer was in sad disrepair and not habitable by other than rodents, vagrants, and bats. All three have been evicted, and the next few weeks will see the manor finished in all its details. Darius Lindsey, Axel Belmont, and Axel’s sons have been particularly helpful in this regard, and now no less than Nicholas, the Earl of Bellefonte, has put his hand to the effort, as well. This has been an enjoyable project, but daunting, for the neglect of the house is only one aspect of the estate’s troubles.

I believe one Frederick, Baron Roxbury, has made a great deal of other difficulty for me here, and I have yet to uncover his motives. As the former owner of the property, he can have no legal interest in the place, and yet he seems to bear ill will toward both me and the late baron’s widow. Any insights Your Grace can offer regarding Roxbury’s situation would be appreciated.

My regards to my sisters and Westhaven, should you see him before I do. We sent St. Just on his way north roughly ten days ago and hope to hear good news from him and Emmie in the very near future.

You remain in my thoughts and prayers,

Valentine

“Beg pardon, Mr. Windham, but your guest is here.”

Val’s only officially hired servant, a footman named Davies, appeared in the doorway. There were women in the kitchen today, because Val had known he’d have company coming, but as for the rest…

“Thank you, Davies.” Val rose, tugged down his waistcoat, and shrugged into his morning coat. “Please show my guest into the formal parlor and have the kitchen send up the tea tray. Does Lord Bellefonte know our guest has arrived?”

“He does, my lord, and is arriving from the carriage house as we speak, by way of the kitchen.”

Val let his features settle into the expression worn by a duke’s youngest son—polite, faintly bored, but benevolently tolerant of his many, many inferiors. When he joined Freddy Markham, Freddy was standing by a window with an upside-down Waterford vase in his lily-white hands.

“Good day, my lord.” Val smiled just a little. “Do I take it your journey from Town was pleasant?”

“Windham.” Freddy grinned and set the vase down. “Spent last night in Oxford seeing the attractions and appreciating the summer ale. Put me in quite good spirits.”

By the slight cooling of his smile, Val let it be known Freddy’s failure to use his host’s courtesy title was not appreciated.

“How pleasant for you,” Val remarked, his tone implying something else entirely. “Shall we be seated?”

“Oh, so we’re to do tea and crumpets. Lovely, but I have to say, you’ve certainly gone to a lot of trouble over the old place.”

Val shrugged. “It has good bones. One hates to see something of value allowed to go to waste for simple lack of attention.” Freddy’s brows rose, but his expression suggested he couldn’t quite put his finger on where in that remark the insult to him lay.

“One does,” he replied, a little less exuberantly. “Shall we have a tour? I haven’t seen the interior for years and years.”

Val lifted one eyebrow. “You’ve seen the exterior, then?”

“Oh, well…” Freddy shot his cuffs and ran a finger around the inside of his collar. “If I’m in the neighborhood, I occasionally take a spin out this way just to have a look.”

“And what would there be to look at? I understand from my tenants their farms were of no interest to you.”

“No interest?” Freddy frowned. “What have I got to do with their farms? They’re the farmers, right? And here’s our tea!”

“Allow me to pour.” Val did a creditable job with a teapot. He’d attended any number of his sisters’ tea parties as a child, and it was a skill any mincing dandy—real or impersonated—had to perfect. When he passed Freddy his tea, Val had the satisfaction of seeing Freddy’s hand trembled slightly.

“I say.” Freddy smiled brightly at Val. “Since it’s just we fellows, would there be something we might doctor this with to set the day to rights?”

Val silently passed along to Freddy the decanter of very good brandy Freddy had no doubt spied on the sideboard.

“Am I late?” Nick sauntered in without knocking. “I am, and I beg the pardon of the assemblage. Roxbury.” Nick met the man’s eyes but did not bow, because Nick did, clearly, outrank Freddy.

“You’re Reston.” Freddy rose, all smiles again and stuck out a hand.

“Owing to a recent bereavement,” Val interjected, “he’s Bellefonte now.”

Nick inclined his head and pointedly ignored Freddy’s hand. From his great height, Nick stared down his nose, blue eyes glacially cool, until Freddy bowed in response.

“Tea, Bellefonte?” Val gestured toward the tray.

“Of course.” When Nick spied the brandy, he arched a disbelieving eye. “Lord Valentine, you are not ruining a perfectly good pot of libation with that profane practice of brandying the tea, are you?”

“Of course not,” Val replied pleasantly as he poured Nick a cup.

“Bellefonte was visiting friends at Candlewick,” Val explained to Freddy, “and deigned to grace us with his presence today. We are acquainted through family.”

Val and Nick deftly dropped one titled name after another, until Freddy was all but trying to disappear into his teacup between longing glances at the brandy decanter.

Val rose when the teacups were empty. “We’ve had our tea, and Lord Roxbury did not come all this way to listen to us reminisce. The point of his sortie was to see the progress made with the property, so let’s give him a tour of the house, shall we?”

Val started in the kitchens, and room by room, rattled off the repairs, renovations, and restorations required. He tossed in the work needed on the roof, in the yard, in the outbuildings, and on the grounds. The list was endless, and while it should have made Freddy ashamed, the only visible result was to light a sullen spark of anger in his eyes.

They’d toured all four floors when Lord Roxbury asked for the use of a water closet and was shown to a guest room.

“I’ll be happy to meet you gentleman out front, if you’d like to stroll the grounds now we’ve seen the house?” Lord Freddy offered.

“We’ll await you on the front terrace,” Val replied, not meeting Nick’s eye for even an instant. They walked off, leaving Freddy to ostensibly use the water closet.

“Don’t give him too long,” Nick murmured as they walked, “it’s the work of a moment to nip up the attic stairs and strike a spark on that pile of kindling.” Val nodded as they turned the corner of the corridor and found Darius waiting for them.

“What an insufferable little ass,” Darius whispered, rolling his eyes. A door opened and closed down the hall, then footsteps sounded on the narrow stairs leading into the attics.

“Let’s go.” Nick tugged on Val’s arm, but Val held still, listening to the pattern of the footfalls.

“Now. We’ll leave the door open, Dare.”

They climbed the attic steps silently, pausing at the top to listen. Freddy was jiggling a can half full of liquid, swishing it around, presumably to let some slosh over the lip, then swishing it again. The can was set down, and another silence ensued, during which the distinctive scratch of flint on steel came clearly through the stillness of the attics. Val moved; Nick silently followed.

“Why the hell won’t you light, damn you?” Freddy was muttering at the pile of tinder.

“Because,” Val said, “the wood has been kept quite damp, and you really do not want to swing for arson, Roxbury.”

“Windham!” Freddy rose to his feet, his face turning an interesting shade of red. He slipped the flint back into his pocket and glanced around, as if an excuse would come winging to him from the rafters.

“Downstairs.” Val gestured through the attic doorway. “Now.”

“You can’t prove anything,” Freddy hissed in a low, mean voice. “It will be your word against mine.”

“And mine,” Nick added pleasantly from Val’s elbow.

“And mine,” Darius chirped from Val’s shoulder. “I believe you’ve been invited downstairs, Roxbury?”

Val let Nick and Darius escort an abruptly quiet Freddy back down to the formal parlor. It was a bit of a progress, since they had to cross the house and descend three floors, and in that time, Val wondered why he didn’t feel a greater sense of triumph. His instincts had been right. Ellen’s warning had been accurate—Freddy had been out to destroy the house, but Val still had to wonder why.

And in the next fifteen minutes, he wanted to find out.

Needed to.

“You have one chance,” Nick said when they’d reached the formal parlor, “and one chance only to explain why you just tried to burn Lord Valentine’s property to a cinder.” He pushed Freddy once on the chest, dropping him into a chair. Freddy looked from Nick to Val and back to Nick again.

“I’d spill,” Darius said with a sympathetic shrug. “The man wants the truth, and after all, there was no harm done.”

Freddy huffed out a semblance of an indignant sigh. “There is no need for all this drama. You caught me fair and square, and I’ll take my lumps and go home.”

“Fair and square?” Nick’s tone was laden with menace. “You’re fool enough to lose an estate on a wager, and you think fair and square served when you’re caught trying to torch that same estate, Roxbury? There are servants here, women and girls, who wouldn’t know the attics were in flames until it was too late. And in a house this age, fire would spread even without the lamp oil you so obligingly provided.”

“How did you know it was lamp oil?”

Nick rolled his eyes at Darius, leaving Val to stifle a derisive snort. How could a man this stupid have come so close to achieving his ends?

Nick leaned in, letting his size silently speak volumes. “Talk, Roxbury. Now.”

“Best heed the man,” Darius offered. “He has a devil of a temper, and you’ve threatened his friend. Then too, if you’re thinking of taking your chances in the Lords”—Darius paused and shook his head—“consider that one.” He nodded at Val. “Moreland will take it amiss you disrespected his son, and Moreland has the Lords in his ducal pocket.” Darius offered Nick a small smile. “Not to denigrate your influence, my lord.”

“Of course.” Nick returned the smile but let it die when he turned to Val. “We’re wasting time, my lord. Let me have five minutes with this miserable excuse for dog shite, and you’ll have your answers.”

“Please!” Freddy shot out of his chair as if cued for it in a stage play, only to have Nick’s single, meaty hand shove him right back onto his seat. “I can explain, and it isn’t complicated. I was simply, well, going to encourage you to sell the place back to me.”

“By creating a series of accidents?” Val posited, settling into a comfortable wing chair. “Starting with loose slates on my roof? Including a couple of bonfires in my residence? Continuing on to an attempt to collapse my hay barn while the roof was being restored?”

Freddy’s complexion went from ruddy to sheet white in a moment. “How do you know?”

Val snapped his fingers and rose. “And I forgot! You tried to destroy Ellen Markham’s cottage by dropping a damned tree on it. Fortunately, the lady wasn’t inside, and only her peace of mind, sense of safety, and pitiful savings were obliterated along with her residence.”

“How do you know?” Freddy cried again. “I wasn’t trying to kill anyone; I merely wanted you gone and happy to sell the property back to me for a pittance.”

“Freddy…” Darius shook his head slowly. “If they didn’t know before, they certainly do now.”

“Leave us.” Val spoke to his two friends through clenched teeth.

“Val,” Nick muttered, “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Neither do I,” Freddy added, glancing nervously all around the room.

“The windows are locked,” Val informed him, “and my friends will be right outside the door. They will not interfere, however, unless I ask them to.”

“Val.” Darius met his friend’s eye, raised his left hand to his waist, and made a tight fist. “Be careful.”

Val nodded and let the silence build. Nick merely rolled his eyes and followed Darius from the room.

“So what are we about?” Freddy asked, swallowing audibly when the lock clicked shut on the only door.

“We’ll settle this like gentleman.” Val shrugged out of his coat. “And I promise not to kill you, because I understand you’ve only the one heir, and his claim to Markham blood is quite attenuated. Surprises me I’d care about your miserable succession, but I think it would mean something to Ellen.”

“Ellen?” Freddy ran his finger around his neck cloth again. “Is this about her?”

“Coat off, Markham.” Val started rolling back his cuffs. “I’ll even let you take the first swing, and yes, part of this is about Ellen. You are no kind of man if you think preying on your cousin’s widow is acceptable.”

“She’s managing,” Freddy muttered as he struggled to get out of his coat. “She’s the kind of female who will always manage, and how was I supposed to squeak by on a bloody damned allowance like some schoolboy!”

“She manages.” Val removed the signet ring from his smallest finger. “Why couldn’t you?”

“Because a gentleman has needs,” Freddy nearly shrieked. “You should know that.” He extricated himself from his coat and put his fists up.

“It isn’t considered sporting to keep the rings on, old man,” Val said, limbering up his fists.

“It wasn’t stealing,” Freddy retorted, an odd note of genuine relish in his voice. “She owed me, Windham. She will always owe me.” With that, Freddy put up his fives and took up a stance reflective of the scientific approach favored by the bloods who frequented Gentleman Jackson’s salon.

Val, youngest of five brothers, took one look at his opponent, resisted the urge to thank God for small favors, and laid Lord Roxbury out flat with one right-handed punch.

And as disappointing as it was, Val limited his retribution to that one very effective blow.

* * *

Darius resumed his assigned role as the more sympathetic bystander and assisted Freddy to his feet.

“He drew blood!” Freddy stared at his fingers, touched them to his lips, and found more blood.

“You essentially bit yourself,” Darius said, handing Freddy a glass of water while Nick and Val looked on dispassionately. “I’d offer you some ice, but that amenity is yet in short supply in these rustic surrounds. You might want to use your handkerchief or cravat on that lip, though.”

“But blood leaves an awful stain,” Freddy said, his words slightly slurred. “Stanwick would leave, and then where would I be?”

“Can’t have that.” Darius shook his head. “Have we sent for Lord Roxbury’s equipage?”

“His curricle is in the drive,” Val said. “Sean is walking his team.”

“So that’s it, then?” Freddy rose unsteadily, but Darius did not offer any more support. “You plant me a facer and we call it even?”

“No.” Val let Nick assist him back into his morning coat. “That was simply to address the requirements of honor, and damned unsatisfying it was, Roxbury. I’ll be calling on the local magistrate, and you’ll be hearing from me.”

Freddy’s split lip began to bleed down his chin, but nobody offered him a handkerchief, so he was compelled to use his own. He blotted the blood daintily, eyeing Val all the while.

“The Lords won’t convict me, and I can have you charged with assault. Duke’s son or not, you’re just a commoner, and I hold one of the oldest titles in the land.”

“I didn’t say you’d be charged,” Val replied mildly, “but I will say, before witnesses and men of honor, as well, if you ever try to extort another farthing from Ellen Markham, I will hunt you down and wrap your balls around your scrawny neck until you expire, and then I will feed your carcass to the pigs.”

Freddy’s bloody lips compressed, but then a short, ugly laugh burst from him.

“You won’t have me charged.” He patted the handkerchief against his lip. “You know you’re holding the low cards now, Windham, so I’ll take my leave of you with a little kindly advice: Ellen Markham is capable of murder. Family loyalty prevents me from seeing her tried for the crimes she’s committed, but let me suggest that even if you’re besotted with her, you’d be a fool to trust that woman farther than you can pitch her, much less with the lives of your children. She’s dangerous, and make no mistake. I keep my distance from her for reasons my late cousin would understand only too well.”