Page 3 of His By Sunrise (Disreputable Dukes of Club Damnation #3)

“That is exactly right.” Edwin nodded. “To this day, I have no idea what happened or what set her off enough to want out of the marriage.” That was the truth.

His daughter had been five years old at the time, and he’d been in his sixth year of marriage with Charlotte.

Then she began to pull away from him both physically and mentally.

They rarely spoke, and were even more rarely in society with each other.

She kept to her room in their modest townhouse and he to his.

Very occasionally they would see each other for Olivia’s sake.

After another few months, she left him emotionally as well.

Communication between them had broken down and had trickled to minimal interaction.

At the end of that year, at her father’s urging—he was an earl after all—she took their daughter and moved back in with her parents.

A month later, his man-of-affairs delivered a sheaf of legal paperwork to his house saying there was cause within his marriage that indicated the union should be terminated.

Nearly six months following that, the case went through the courts and the marriage was dissolved. He’d probably only seen his wife a handful of times since then, and every time he asked to see his daughter, he was given some excuse or another on why that couldn’t happen.

It had broken his heart and made him into a bitter man.

Eggleton blew out a breath. “You know, Steppingford thought the same way as you fellows, but when he met the woman who is now his wife, things slowly began to change for him. And now? I have never seen such a devoted husband.”

“How would you know?” Edwin asked and then frowned as the crowd shifted off the dance floor at the close of the reel.

“Steppingford is enjoying a honeymoon at his country estate with his wife. From the last letter I received from the man, he has no plans to return to Town until well after Twelfth Night.” A stab of jealousy went through his chest.

I had that once, but it was taken from me.

Blackhawke chuckled, and the sound was so out of place with the mysterious man’s character that both Edwin and Eggleton stared.

“My letter said much the same, with the added, colorful statement that read, ‘I intend to fuck my wife with such intensity and frequency, that not even God would dare to thwart us on planting a babe in her belly’.”

Eggleton grinned. “That sounds like Steppingford.” Then he sobered. “When increasing is a secret dream of one’s wife’s heart, we will move heaven and earth to make that happen.”

Heat went up the back of Edwin’s neck. Charlotte and he had discussed having another baby, and he honestly thought they would have been successful, but then the separation had happened, and even now his head still spun at the speed in which she’d been wrenched from his life without more of an explanation from her father that he was “a scoundrel of the first order and so depraved in his urges that he should be thrown in prison.”

“I wouldn’t know,” Blackhawke said with a shake of his head.

“Having children, even to beget an heir, isn’t something I’m interested in at this time.

In fact, I don’t know if reproducing will ever be that for me, or even possible after the wounds I sustained in Portugal.

” He tightened his hand on the ivory head of his cane.

“But that is a story for another day. Would either of you gentlemen like to remove to the card room with me?”

“I will after I fulfill a promise to my wife and share this next set with her. It’s a waltz and she adores them,” Eggleton said as he moved onto the dance floor to stand before his duchess who greeted him with a grin.

“What about you, Nottingham? Fancy a game? Or perhaps we can move out to the terrace for a drink and a smoke?”

“You know, that would be the only thing about this evening that doesn’t prove a waste of time.” When the first notes of the waltz sailed onto the air by the string quintet, he glanced at the dancers that moved about the parquet floor, and then he gasped.

Is that...? Surely not. It couldn’t be.

“What is amiss? You look as if you’ve seen a ghost.”

Slowly, Edwin nodded. “Perhaps I have. Two of them, in fact.” He narrowed his gaze, but when the partners shifted during the steps of the dance, he was certain. “That is my wife.” Immediate tension shot through his body, making him hot and cold by turns.

“Truth be told, she isn’t your wife any longer.” The duke followed his gaze. “Additionally, she still has her looks. Or so I assume. I don’t believe I ever met your wife, for I have only recently come back to London.”

“Yes, she does seem well.” Damn it all to hell. And he couldn’t take his focus off her as she smiled and chatted with her partners as the steps and patterns changed within the set.

Her honey-colored hair glimmered in the candlelight, and he just knew there were tiny golden flecks in her brandy-hued eyes.

The periwinkle gown she wore had the sheen of gossamer.

It showed her curves to high advantage, and that damned low bodice allowed any man in attendance to look upon the top swells of her breasts.

The longer Edwin stood there, watching her like a hawk would observe his prey, the more annoyed her grew.

How dare she show her face here, at Ravenhurst’s ball!

The duke was his friend, not hers, so why the devil was she here at all?

Then his gaze flicked to the partner she returned to, the one she’d started the set with, and icy fingers of dread twisted down his spine while the heat of fury swept through his chest. The man partnering her had at one time been a good friend during his university days.

There had been some contretemps during that last year, and then the next thing Edwin had known, his friend was terrified at the fact he’d stabbed a peer.

Of course he’d defended his friend, but then later had been betrayed by that same person as if Edwin hadn’t gone to Newgate for that defense.

“How in the hell did that fucking man ever gain an invitation to this event?” With every word that came out of his mouth, Edwin’s ire rose.

Blackhawke frowned. “Who are you talking about?”

“The man who is partnering my wife.”

“Your former wife,” he said again.

“That is beside the point.” Briefly, he glanced at the man beside him.

“Said man let me go to prison for him, and then years later when I needed his help, he pretended as if he didn’t know me, wouldn’t give me the time of day if I had asked, treated me as if I were the grime in the gutter.

” He shook his head as he once more looked to where Charlotte danced with that blackguard.

“If you must know, that is William Carter, the Viscount of Danville, and outside my former father-in-law, he is the man I most hate on this earth.”

“I’m sorry, but did you say you went to prison for that man?” Surprise wove through the duke’s inquiry.

“I did.” As he watched Eggleton and his wife go by as well as Ravenhurst and his bride, no longer did jealousy course through him. Instead, it had all burned at the altar of the anger currently roaring through his chest. “How could Ravenhurst send out an invitation to that man?”

“Did he know of your history with Danville?”

“I would have no idea.”

“Have you told anyone at the club about your past history with prison?”

“No.” He shook his head. “It was too humiliating and didn’t reflect well on me.”

“Yet I suspect you took the blame for a crime you didn’t perpetrate. Only God knows why.” When Blackhawke rested his intense gaze on him, Edwin took a step backward. “Are you going to explain it to me?”

“Now?” A huff escaped him. “Not in this moment. However, I can all but guarantee I’m going to have words with the viscount tonight, and some of them will not be polite.

” He glared at the couple as the waltz came to a close.

“Good God, do you think he is courting Charlotte? Is that why they’re both here tonight?

” It made sense if Ravenhurst invited Danville and he escorted Charlotte here.

Before the duke could answer, he tugged on the hem of his waistcoat.

“I will not stand to see such a blackguard do anything with my wife. It’s outside of enough, and this time, I will have my revenge. ”

“How? And might I remind you, you are not married to her any longer?”

Edwin ignored that. “I don’t know how, but I will regain my respectability, and if it comes at the cost of theirs, so be it.” When he would have gone onto the dance floor, Blackhawke dropped a staying hand on his shoulder. “Let me do this.”

“I cannot. We are going to talk with Ravenhurst and Eggleton to gain you some proper counsel. Then you can make a plan without seeing yourself tossed from society.” He gave Edwin’s shoulder a shake and then met his gaze.

“Don’t be a fool. Carefully plan your campaign, for you don’t know when you might need society to have your back. ”

Unfortunately, that made sense, but he frowned. “Fine. But I can’t promise that I won’t cause a scene tonight.”

Charlotte is mine, damn it. And he didn’t care they were no longer married.