Alex’s jaw dropped, and his rust-colored eyebrows nearly reached his hairline. “Youmarried her?”
“We were just pretending,” Henry insisted. “But things progressed from there—”
“And you told the Richardsons you were married?” Alex interrupted.
“Well, yes, but then I told Miles the truth—”
“Good lord, Henry.” Alex fell into a spindly chair and ran his hand through his hair, leaving it standing on end. “Why can’t you ever let things be simple?”
Henry scoffed. “Oh, you’re one to talk.”
“Leave me out of this. What happened with Lady Eleanor?”
What didn’t happen? “We started as friends, but then… it became more.”
“You were lovers, then.”
The word was not apt for what he felt for Ellie.Loverswas too disposable, too easily dismissed as purely physical.
When Henry didn’t respond, Alex continued. “Can I assume she didn’t want to continue with this affair when you returned?”
“She did, but then I…”
Alex pursed his lips. “What did you do?”
“I asked her to marry me.”
The words hung in the air for a long moment before Alex shook his head as though clearing out his hearing. “You asked her to marry you?”
“I did.”
“And she…”
“Refused me. Vehemently.”
“As she should have.” Alex sat up. “Is that why your engagement ended? Did you tell Miss Brightling about Eleanor?”
“There wasn’t time,” Henry said, picking at his nail to remove dried paint. “Since her father saw us together.”
Henry was uncertain if, in the entire decade of their friendship, he had ever heard Alex say quite so many profanities in such a condensed period of time.
“What the hell mess have you created, Henry?”
His throat tightened, the pain of disappointing his friend nearly as painful as losing Ellie. “I know. She will never have me now, even if she did love me.”
“Do you love her?”
Henry scowled. If only it were so simple. “Desperately. But I’m not enough for her.”
Now it was Alex’s turn to scowl. “Why do you say that?”
“Look at me!” Henry cried, throwing his arms wide, a clump of green paint flinging from the end of his paintbrush and splattering on the wall. “I’m a mess, a disaster of a human. My only contribution to the world has been as a lord of chaos, to make others have a good time. My legacy is a string of mindless liaisons, drunken debauchery, and general mayhem. I’m a selfish arse who only thinks about himself and his pleasure. Why would I ever be good enough for her?”
Alex blinked at him and released a low laugh. “Is that really how you see yourself?” When Henry said nothing, Alex shook his head. “Why do you think you’ve been my dearest friend for the past decade? I had no desire to live like you, to drink and seduce women and go to parties—”
“Aren’t you glad you listened about the Waverly ball, though?”
Alex’s face lit up with a slow smile. Henry had persuaded Alex to attend the ball where he met his future wife, not relenting until he agreed. “I will always be grateful you were a persistent arse that night. And that’s exactly the point. You always give the best of yourself to the people you care for. You want to make them happy, to make their worlds brighter. But you never take happiness for yourself.”
