IT WAS A LARGE town house, but the small back garden and terrace were completely walled in. Montgomery stared at the wall he was considering climbing. Six bloody feet tall! He should have just dyed his hair like Charley, then they both could have gone through the front door with their fake names as part of the countess’s party. He could have averted his face during the announcement. Charley didn’t need to worry about being discovered here, but Montgomery’s face had recently been seen in London, so his false credentials wouldn’t necessarily keep him from being noticed by the wrong people, though he didn’t expect the noblemen he’d supposedly cuckolded to attend a debutante ball. Not that he cared if he moved back to the top of the gossip lists—well, actually, he did. He’d rather Vanessa not hear about those sordid affairs, fake or not.
“Your ancient bones can’t manage it?” Charley said as he leapt up to snag the top edge of the wall, pulled himself up and climbed over it.
The boy obviously considered this a fun adventure, which is why he had declined entering the house with the countess. Montgomery certainly didn’t. He should have stayed in the Blackburn house. He didn’t have to attend every ball Vanessa went to.
At least Rathban’s ball had been a much smaller affair with a carefully selected guest list. From the very long line of coaches out front, he knew this ball was far more grand and would include a fair number of crashers like himself—and too many gossips. He could still turn about, but it was too late to drag Charley away with him. The boy was already on the other side of the wall. And he told himself the only reason he was going over that wall was because he still had to keep an eye on Charley.
But it was Vanessa he looked for as soon as they entered the house. He saw her on the dance floor with a young man, resplendent in her pale yellow gown, too damn beautiful again. She appeared bored, which shouldn’t delight him but it did.
Charley had already gone off to ask one of the debutantes for a dance, leaving him to get ambushed, which is what it felt like when he heard, “Father is in town. Have you visited?”
That took his eyes off Vanessa. His sister Claire looked lovely tonight in a dark emerald gown that complemented her auburn hair and green eyes so like his own. She gave him a kiss on the cheek before he could reply, “No, and try to restrain yourself from sharing the news that I’m back in London.”
“I didn’t know you’d left. Where are you staying? A new flat?”
“With friends.”
“You ought to ask me to dance while we catch up.”
“We can catch up another time. I am otherwise occupied tonight.”
She glanced back to find out who he was looking at, but her eyes stopped on another lady. “Ah, her, your mistress.”
He followed Claire’s gaze and groaned when he saw Lady Halstead. “Don’t start, Claire. You know nothing about it.”
“But I do—Lady Halstead is not the only one. From what I heard, you were on your way to filling your stable with old mares.” And having gotten that nasty tease in, she patted his cheek. “Maybe now you’ll dance with me?”
“Maybe now I’ll throttle you. What are you even doing here?”
“Giving my husband a reason to divorce me.”
“He’s here with you?”
Her mouth turned pouty. “No, but several of his friends are and will surely tell him what a wonderful time I’m having—without him.”
“Why don’t you just get it over with and forgive him. You know you will in the end.”
“I will not! He cheated on me. He’s lucky I didn’t try to cut off—”
“Bite your tongue. If I didn’t sympathize with him before, I certainly do now. Will dancing shut you up?”
She smiled. “It might.”
He started to lead her onto the dance floor, but she paused to whisper, “Find me after you’ve dispatched this fellow. I don’t think he needs to be introduced to me.”
Montgomery didn’t recognize the older man who was walking straight toward him until he said, “I’ve sent for my seconds.”
“Lord Halstead, I presume?”
A curt nod. “We shall settle this tonight.”
The man was in his fifties and of diminutive stature, at least a half foot shorter than Montgomery. There was no anger in his expression, just deadly resolve. After four written demands for a duel and now this fifth one, Halstead obviously felt a duel was mandatory given the situation, whether the reason for it was true or not.
But Montgomery’s resolve hadn’t changed, either. He wouldn’t kill a man over something he had only pretended to do. And yet he still couldn’t give up the absolute truth to the fellow.
So he said in a low tone, “Let me propose this instead, a test of marksmanship tomorrow. You can even bring your seconds, and we will shoot at targets, rather than each other. If you win, I’ll agree to a true duel then and there. If I win, we can put this nonsense behind us.”
Halstead hadn’t looked angry before but he certainly did now. “You want me to audition for a duel with you? By God, I should challenge you again for that slur on my marksmanship!”
“You can kill me only once.”
“To my regret, but I’ll have my once. You’ll be hearing from me—”
“Can we not do this again?” Monty said in an earnest whisper before the older man marched off. “I didn’t bed your wife, man. I only tried to. What a man does when he’s foxed shouldn’t lead to anyone dying. And I do vaguely recall being rebuffed by her.” And then with a note of regret in his voice, he added, “But if you insist—?”
There was a very long pause before Halstead said, “Perhaps not.”
Montgomery was a little incredulous as the man walked away from him. Bloody hell, it was that easy? Maybe he should try that excuse on Lord Chanders tomorrow as well and see if his luck held. It still wasn’t the truth, but it preserved George’s supposed innocence, and the respective wives’ fidelity. Drink was the scoundrel instead of himself!
He caught up to his sister and whirled her onto the dance floor. “I’m feeling much better,” he said with a grin.
“Nasty business all solved?”
“Very likely.”
“How many more must be placated?”
“Just one. But don’t believe a word you’re hearing, Claire—just don’t defend me, either.”
“We thought you were more discreet,” she huffed.
“We?”
“Father has been in London all this time since you and I last spoke. D’you think he’s gone deaf and wouldn’t hear these rumors?”
“How angry is he?”
“Very.”
He sighed. “You were correct, I am discreet—unless there’s a reason I ought not to be. Trust me. You will laugh about this nonsense someday.”
She raised a brow. “That’s it? I’m to make do with a promise of an explanation—someday?”
“You could remember that I’m your favorite brother—”
“Who says you are?”
“And you know me very well, so you must have already concluded that there is more to this than silly rumors.”
“Who says I have?”
He gave her a tender look before kissing her cheek. “I do, because I know you very well, too—except when it comes to your husband. Shall we discuss him again?”
“I think we’re done talking,” she said, and left him there in the middle of the dancers.
But the music had stopped, and as Vanessa passed him, he pulled her away from the fellow escorting her back to her mother. She gave him an inscrutable look, but he didn’t have time to wonder why when the orchestra started playing and he began to dance with her.
“Again you don’t ask?” she said curtly.
“Again I don’t want to cry if you rebuff me.”
That should have gotten a smile from her, but her expression didn’t change. She was definitely annoyed about something.
“I was wondering if you would come tonight, Montgomery Townsend.”
And there it was. If she’d heard his real name here, he didn’t doubt she’d heard a great deal more.
Which she confirmed when she nodded toward Lady Halstead. “Really? Her? She’s old enough to be—”
“Yes, yes, so people keep telling me,” he cut in, then added drolly, “I must not have noticed.”
“Too foxed at the time?”
“Or it was too dark.” He didn’t want her to think badly of him, so he leaned closer to whisper, “Some things are not what they seem.”
She gave him a skeptical look before glancing away. He was struck with an odd frustration because she was displeased with him and he couldn’t say anything that would get him back in her good graces. But he couldn’t believe that she was jealous over rumors about affairs that had supposedly occurred before they’d even met. Was she just very disappointed in his choice of paramours?
And then he noticed who Vanessa was suddenly glaring at and laughed. “My sister Claire is here. She’s going to wonder why you’re casting daggers at her.”