“Well, people are certainly curious about you, Emery,” Henry said, leaning back against the window. “But they don’t seem convinced that you are happily married. Many of them seem to believe that I must have done something scandalous and that you married her to cover up for my indiscretion.”
“Like what?” Lucien demanded. “What could you have done?”
“I’m not sure exactly,” Henry said slowly. “It’s been hard to get a straight answer from anyone, because of course, they don’t want to offend me and alienate the brother of a duke. But apparently there are rumors that I had asked someone else to marry me, even though I was already engaged to Emery.”
“That makes no sense,” Lucien growled. Then he paused, and his eyes narrowed as he took in his brother’s guilty expression. “There can’t be any truth to that, could there?” he demanded.
“No, of course not!” Henry said at once. He hesitated. “I would never have dishonored Emery like that. However, there was an incident, a few nights before the wedding, when I was in my cups, when I may have mentioned there was another lady I wished I could marry. But I had not mentioned anything to the lady! Nor to Emery. I would never.”
Lucien suddenly recalled something his brother had said in Cornwall.There is someone else. A young lady to whom I have formed a deep attachment.At the time, Lucien had been so incensed by his brother’s presumption that he should follow his heart over doing his duty that he hadn’t thought to ask more about this mysterious young lady to whom his brother had formed an attachment.
“Who is she?” he asked now. “Who is the lady you said you wished you could marry?”
As predicted, his brother flushed scarlet. “It doesn’t matter,” he said quickly. “I have not spoken to her of any of my feelings nor even seen her--except for once at a small gathering, andnot alone--since the debacle with the wedding. Right now, I am focused only on helping rectify my mistake and help restore our family reputation.”
“Well you clearly have more work to do!” Lucien snapped. “Because our reputation is not restored. To whom did you mention your attachment? Could this person have spread this rumor?”
Henry lowered his eyes, as if in shame. “It was at White’s,” he mumbled.
Lucien let out a groan. If he hadn’t been holding his drink in his hand still, he might have put his head in his hands. “How could you be so foolish?” he snarled. “Mentioning another woman a few days before your wedding and in a hotbed of gossip like White’s?”
“I was in my cups!” Henry said, scowling. “But you’re right. I’m very sorry, Lucien.”
Lucien didn’t know what to say. He was angry at his brother, but more than that, he was worried. If they weren’t able to fix things, Leah would be tainted by association.
He took the moment to take a long sip of his scotch, and when he lowered his glass, it was to see Henry watching him with a sheepish look on his face.
“What is it now?” he asked, his trepidation growing.
“Er, well, it’s a bit awkward,” Henry said, his cheeks growing pink again.
“Spit it out.”
“Well… It turns out that my loose tongue is not the only rumor that has reached London.”
Lucien’s stomach sank. “What else?”
Henry looked down at his feet. His ears, Lucien noted, had turned scarlet. “I have heard it from several reliable sources that the gossip from Dredford Castle is that you and the new Duchess do not sleep together in the same bed.”
Silence echoed throughout the room, as long as a shout, and Lucien felt his own face begin to heat. Fortunately, Henry was still staring down at his feet, which spared Lucien the shame of having to make eye contact with him.
“This rumor,” Henry continued, in a voice of utter embarrassment, “has reinforced for some that the marriage is not a happy one, and was perhaps done in the spur of the moment to distract from some greater scandal. It has led some to speculate that we, as a family, are hiding something particularly dire. Something that might be ruinous for us.”
Lucien said nothing. He felt trapped. Whatever he said, he felt he would be either confirming the rumor or lying. And this wasthe last thing on earth he wanted to discuss with his younger brother--not to mention his wife’s former fiancé.
At last, when the silence had stretched out to an uncomfortable length, Henry looked up. His face was still pink, but he looked remarkably determined when he spoke again.
“Look, Lucien, the relations between you and Emery are none of my business,” he said, and despite the awkwardness of the situation, Lucien had to admire how straight-forward his brother was. “I know that the two of you don’t know each other well and that there was certain animosity about the circumstances of the marriage. What you two decide to make of your marriage is your own business.”
“Get to the point,” Lucien snapped, and Henry nodded, blushing again.
“My point is, while we are in London, I believe you will have to do whatever you can to rectify this rumor.”
“And what would you suggest I do?” Lucien asked, a hint of condescension in his voice.Is my little brother really about to recommend I consummate my marriage?
“I believe that you should not have the Duchess’s chamber prepared and that she should sleep with you in the Ducal chamber.” Henry said all of this very quickly, and at the end of it, he looked away again, over Lucien’s shoulder.
Lucien had never wished more in his life that he could just disappear. The awkwardness of this conversation was unbearable. And yet, he also knew it had taken an incredible strength of character for his brother to bring up something so deeply taboo. It must have been torture for Henry to tell him, but he had done it for the good of the family.
