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Colin would never allow him to see Evie in the near future, and Daniel feared that he would only cause her more pain if he arrived at her doorstep too soon.

With this, she could find some comfort in doing something she had always loved.

It was the least he could do.

CHAPTER 29

There had to be a rule somewhere that guests were forbidden to drop by in the week after a wedding—especially those who came without prior notice.

However, even his usual cold glares and scowling could not move the two men who now occupied the sofa in his study, try as he might.

Guests really should know when their presence is not appreciated.Friends all the more so.

“I thought that it was customary to leave newlyweds alone in the days after their wedding,” he remarked glacially.

“Apparently, Colin did not get the notice.” Ethan snickered but promptly shut his mouth when Daniel glared icily at him.

“Neither did you, it would seem,” he shot back.

He was truly not in the right mood to be dealing with his friend’s remarks, however well-intentioned they were. All he wanted to do was drink himself to intoxication—or at the very least, numb that damned feeling that seemed to have seized his chest ever since he left Evie in his study that morning.

Even the thought of exiling Thomas Salsbury to the Americas hardly gave him the satisfaction anymore.

Perhaps exile was much too lenient.But if I did even more, Evie would have some words to say about it.

And he really did not want to cause her any more undue stress than what he had already caused her.

“And he was right to do so,” Hudson told him pointedly, his low voice barely a rumble as he looked at Daniel with a raised eyebrow. “More or less, you coerced the lady into marriage for your devious purposes, without being forthright with her.”

Daniel winced inwardly at his words but chose not to say anything. He simply poured himself another glass and downed it, relishing the burn down his throat.

Hudson was the most reclusive of their group, and for him to come out at such a time spoke volumes of how much his actions had affected all of them.

Daniel groaned and ran his fingers through his dark hair. “That is the worst part of it—that he was actuallyright. I admit Ishould have informed him beforehand of my intentions to marry Evie.”

Ethan simply raised an eyebrow at him and then accepted a glass of brandy.

“I should have been honest with her, as well,” Daniel added with a sigh. “That might be my greatest regret in all this.”

“Well, acknowledging one’s own faults is the first step to recovery.” Ethan grinned at him.

Daniel did not know how many glasses he already had but still poured himself another one.

“I do not know if there will be any way to recover from this,” he said with a grimace. “I might have hurt Evie far too much to ever make it up to her.”

“You have the rest of your life,” Hudson grunted. “You owe her that much.”

And Daniel knew that damn well. He knew that even if he spent the rest of his life making it up to her, it would never be able to compensate for the hurt he had caused her.

The look in her eyes in his study still haunted him in a way that nothing ever did.

Not even his own mother’s death in his arms had quite the effect on him.

At least Thomas Salsbury and his odious sister will not be able to bother her anymore.

With the Earl and the bane of Society’s existence carted off to the Americas by the next morning, Evie would never have to worry about that poor excuse for a man haranguing her. He had made sure of it.

Ethan sighed. “I think you still have not learned your lesson in all this, though.”