Page 27 of For a Scandalous Wager (Breaking the Rules of the Beau Monde #3)

CHAPTER 26

“ W hy not return with me to Rosewood? We can both speak to my father.” Evelyn made a good argument, but Rochester had a meeting to attend in Mayfair.

“There’s more to this marriage thing than the banns, I vow.” He started guiding her toward the carriage driver she’d bribed to bring her to church this morning.

“What more can there be besides convincing my father? And if we’re both there, we can show a united front.” She turned to face him before they were within hearing distance of the driver.

“Are you afraid? How angry will he be with you?” The only example Rochester had to glean from was his own father, who lacked in every way.

“He’ll be like an angry hornet but hardly surprised. In time, he’ll get over it. You’ll see.”

Rochester had always considered Mr. Markham a hard man because he’d exiled his only son over a poor mistake. A very poor mistake from which Winn seemed to have recovered. If everything Evelyn’s father had done had been for her, then there must be hope.

“What does that feel like?” he asked, his curiosity unrelenting on the subject of fathers since he hoped to join those ranks someday.

“What do you mean?”

“To have a father forgive you?” The palm she rested on his cheek felt cool and comforting. Her expressive eyes held no pity, just honest concern.

“What happened to you as a little boy?”

“You already know my story, love.”

She shook her head. “No, I don’t. I know about one event. One very heart-wrenching event. But I know nothing about your childhood nor why you choose to live in the city.”

“I like Mayfair. I like having my own place and not sharing it.”

“You share it with Hudson, and for a time, you shared it with Mrs. Hawke, too. And what about me?”

He kissed her palm. “Everything I have is yours, such as it is. Hudson inherited his family estate, but he chooses to live in the city. What purpose would it serve for him to rent a townhome when I have room. So, yes, I suppose I do like sharing with the right people. My childhood home is not a healthy place for me to live.”

“But someday it will be yours. Will you not live there then?”

“ We will not. My brother is currently the acting steward, and he’s welcome to live there and keep the place as long as he cares to.”

“Do you see? You never speak of him.”

“Someday I will. Not today.” He smiled and kissed her nose. “Today, I need to know you will be safe.”

“Always. My father is not a bad man.”

“I never said he was. He has plenty of good reasons not to like me.”

“And one very big reason to adore you. For goodness’ sake, all that nonsense with Winn and Darrington happened almost five years ago, and Papa has forgiven Winn, even I can see that. What if you paid him back?”

He held up a hand.

She pulled it down. “Don’t say something idiotic like I cannot understand finance or that I shouldn’t worry because I’m a woman.”

“Evelyn, you challenge my manhood at every turn.”

She gave him a sidelong glance and a tilted smile.

“I accept the challenge as usual.” He shook his boot and pointed with a quirked eyebrow toward the ground. “I left a draft with your father for payment in full, including any fines, and offered to pay whatever fine Cumberland may bring. Which I assure you he will.”

“He took it? Because I thought you told me that he wouldn’t.”

“He never has before, but I gave him little to no choice this time. Unfortunately, at the time, I had no idea that my father had drained the funds from Heavenly House. I may not wish to live there, but the upkeep is still my responsibility.”

“Your father should be doing that with your brother’s help.”

“In a perfect world of which we do not live. I cannot stop the inheritance of title, nor can our son.” When he said that, she beamed. “So you see, Goose, the house might someday belong to little Albert.”

She giggled. “Not Albert.”

“What’s wrong with Albert? It sounds noble.”

“It sounds ordinary. Our children will not be ordinary.”

“Perhaps not, but they will be loved.” He searched her eyes for a promise, a silent pledge to help him be a good father because he had no life lessons, no mentor, no tutor on that account. The idea scared him more than he’d like to admit.

She rubbed the webs between his fingers, centering her concentration there—an obvious distraction. “I’ll speak to my father. Perhaps he’ll advance me my dowry.”

Rochester looked toward the sky, sighing and shaking his head. “You’ll no doubt have your hands full explaining this little excursion. Leave the rest alone, please. I’ll deal with it.”

“You take care of your business, and I’ll take care of mine. Namely, Papa.” She gripped his lapel with both hands, giving it a smart jerk. “Come for a visit soon. I’ll do my best to smooth things with Papa. And before you say a word, I will explain and take the blame for this little excursion.”

“How noble of you since I had nothing to do with your plan.” He smiled, burying his nose in her hair, holding her head against his chest, and breathing her in. “But I’ll never forget it either. Thank you, love.”

Rochester returned to his home in Mayfair with one victory in his pocket, a shilling in his shoe, and several more shots to go before the game was finished.

“You’ve put me in a real bind,” Hudson said later that evening when he found Rochester tossing an ivory ball between the bumpers of his fancy billiard table and wondering how much he could sell it for. He looked up when Hud entered but didn’t stop his habitual rolling of the ball.

“It seems I do naught but apologize these days,” Rochester said.

“To everyone but me. You owe me a dozen at least.”

Rochester breathed a tired sigh. “I’d love a day free of complaints.”

“Remind me when it’s your birthday, and I’ll see what I can do,” Hudson said tongue in cheek. “Currently, I have only pity available. Would you like me to feel sorry for you?”

“Why not? I’ve become quite pathetic, don’t you think?”

“Yes, you have, and I for one hate it.”

Rochester caught the ball on the next bounce off the bumper, left it sedentary on the baize, then walked to the bar and poured himself a double shot of whiskey.

Hudson watched him, his eyebrows drawn as he progressed farther into the room. “What the hell happened?”

“The banns have been canceled. Evelyn showed up at the church to appeal them herself, the goose. And Cumberland’s claim on her is void.”

“Good news, then. So why are you here sulking?”

Rochester shot him a look. “Am I?” He poured another drink for his cousin and handed it to him. “I suppose you’re right. Pathetic, as I said.”

“Surely you have a plan to court her and woo her father into blessing the marriage. Or just elope, for God’s sake.”

Every nerve ending in his back pulled tight, and his jaw ached from biting down. “Oh, how I wish it were that simple. Unfortunately, even the emergency—whimsical as Evelyn calls it—elopement plan is off the table. An officially impossible shot, my friend. My only hope is to convince her father that… oh, hell, I don’t know.” He ran a hand through his hair and downed the rest of his drink.

Hudson leaned against the high bar, folding his arms, and studied Rochester. “I would expect you to be celebrating after successfully foiling the banns, but here you are throwing back drinks and wasting time on the boredom of tossing expensive billiard balls about. Who could stop an elopement? Scandalous, yes, I suppose, but unstoppable all the same. Obviously, something took place between the banns and here. So, what was it?”

“Nothing really, just my future plans going to hell in a handbasket. What if I have to sell this place? I cannot—I will not take a wife to my family home. Not only is it full of ghosts for me, but it’s not livable, especially once children come. How can I take a wife when the only promise I can make is that I love her?”

“That sounds like the most important thing.”

“Love tears people apart. I’ve seen it, and so have you. And here I am, making the mistake of falling hard.”

Hudson took a seat, his glass dangling from his fingertips. He swirled the liquid around, hypnotically staring into the tumbler. “I know you don’t believe that.”

“You never commented on my brother’s questionable parentage.”

“Probably because deep down, I suspected something of the sort. If I was one to deplete my good humor with the past, I might hate your father more than you do, but Rochester, it’s not worth it. Can’t you see that?”

“Yes. After this last trip, I do see it, but I still would not take a wife there.”

“My house is virtually empty. You know you’re as welcome there as I am here. Blood is thick between our families.”

“A husband wants to feel like a man.”

“What exactly does that mean if it keeps you from wedding or from living?”

“How would you feel if you couldn’t provide for the ones you love? If you couldn’t put a roof over your children’s heads. I know I have places to go. But I wanted things to be perfect.”

“Oh, well, just perfect is all.” Hudson pulled back the entire contents of his glass. “Why didn’t you say so? Perfection is my specialty.”

“You’re an ass, Hud.”

Hudson chuckled, placing his glass on the lamp table.

“Darrington has an in with a group of investors responsible for the new Belgravia. It’s a long game, but it would secure my name in the community and give me leverage to borrow when needed, like now. I’m happy I paid Mr. Markham, truly I am, but if I’d been apprised of the condition of my familial home at the time, I’d have thought twice.”

“I know you, and you’d have paid your debt first. So, do the obvious, Cousin, borrow it from me.”

“No,” Rochester said flatly without a pause.

“Why not? Give me a good reason.”

“I’ll give you the same reason I gave Darrington when he offered the same solution. Friendship. Simple as that.”

“That’s humbug, and you know it. We aren’t friends—we’re family.”

“An even better reason to leave it alone.”

“I see,” Hudson said, picking at a tiny thread poking from the seam of the armchair. “You’d rather sell off this place and live in a rundown estate with a raving lunatic? Which, by the way, would force me to purchase this house because if you plan to remain on the gaming circuit, both of us need a place in the city to live. And I warn you, this beautiful, perfectly built-to-your-specs billiard table is going to see more action because I plan to abuse it regularly with my mistress.” Hudson sat back smartly, folding his arms and legs and looking quite satisfied.

“As if you had one,” Rochester smirked.

“I don’t know all your secrets, and you certainly don’t know all of mine. Although I’m not sure whether I can afford to buy a house and afford to keep a mistress. My tastes are rather expensive. Just keep that in mind while you do your best to ruin my life along with yours. We can’t all be charmed.” Hudson shrugged as if it were all child’s play.

But Rochester knew he was serious, at least about the house. And he was also correct. They both needed a place to live in London.

“If I agree to give it some thought,” Rochester said. “Will you stop needling me like a fish wife?”

“That is the goal, yes.”

In the end, Rochester accepted a portion from Hudson and a quarter from Darrington, then he met with Mr. Torrent and Lord Bastion, making a deal—an investment in the development of Belgrave Square.

Darrington’s warning of a long return was accurate, but the arrangement did for Rochester’s name exactly what he had hoped it would. It elevated his business position, and the banks opened their doors, allowing him to borrow enough to see Heavenly House repaired, the property turned around, and to procure a physician for his father.

Unfortunately, it still left him short of funds, and keeping his Mayfair home was a stretch, not to mention adding the cost of a family. He felt the tangled web of debt closing around his neck. This was a complicated game calling for precise movements like juggling balls that had been lit on fire one by one until every toss threatened to burn him down.

Heavenly House would eventually turn a profit with Noah now on Rochester’s side. The Belgravia project would subsequently produce a fine future. But with everything going off at once, it was conceivable he’d be forced to consult Evelyn for help, after all.

Hadn’t this all begun with those four little letters?

HELP.