CHAPTER 13
The ride to London had done nothing for Philip’s mood, but it was nothing brandy and good company couldn’t remedy. The combination hadn’t failed him yet.
“Another one?” Philip asked above the cheerful noise of the gentlemen’s club, beyond the private room where he and his friend were seated.
Zachary knocked back what was left in his drink and nodded. “Not too many, mind you. I have things to do tomorrow, and not all of us can drink like a fish.”
“It takes practice.” Philip smirked and raised a hand to instruct the nearby waiter.
A man in starched livery gave him a nod and disappeared from the room. They knew Philip and Zachary well enough to know the order without bothering to interrupt.
“I have to say, I was surprised you summoned me tonight,” Zachary said, leaning back in his chair.
“Why so?”
“I assumed you would want to spend as much time with your betrothed as possible,” he replied. “Was that not the purpose of her staying with you before the wedding?”
Philip’s lip curled. “Can we talk about something else? I am weary of it already.”
“There’s nothing to discuss that is more interesting than your impending nuptials, Philip.”
“That can’t be true.” Philip wished his glass had been refilled already. “You must have some tales to tell. What important things do you have to do that will limit your brandy this evening?”
Zachary groaned. “Tiresome meetings.Nothinginteresting.” He shrugged. “What can I say—London has gone quiet. All anyone talks about is you and Lady Selina.”
“They should find something else to gossip about,” Philip grumbled.
Had he really come all this way just to speak of Selina? The one person he was here to forget about. A gentlemen’s club was supposed to be safe territory where concerns andtroubles couldn’t follow, but apparently, his betrothed had been permitted over the threshold.
“Answer me this, and we can talk about something else,” Zachary proposed.
Philip squinted his eyes in suspicion. He didn’t much care for blind bartering.
“You ask, I’ll decide if I answer,” he said coolly.
“Are you marrying her to get revenge on your father?”
“Didn’t you ask me that already?”
Zachary puffed out a breath. “Fine, let me be clearer. Are you marrying her to make your dead father angry by making the daughter of his sworn enemy part of your family?”
“I am marrying her because it is the honorable thing to do,” Philip replied.
He had no idea if he sounded convincing. He had had one too many glasses of brandy already, to be sure.
Zachary quirked an eyebrow, unconvinced. “Philip, I say this as your friend—youhaveto let go of the past. Focus less on revenge and more on the fact that you have gained yourself a beautifulbride. You will ruin her life otherwise; you won’t be able to help it.”
“I do not recall asking for your opinion.” Venom dripped from Philip’s lips.
He saw Zachary as a brother, but that did not give the man free rein to say what he liked without consequence. And calling Selina ‘beautiful’ with such enthusiasm was not the way to temper his mood, nor was bringing up his father.
“Someone has to give it,” Zachary countered. “It won’t come from your sister or your grandmother, which leavesme. You could be happy, Philip, but you will destroy any chance of that if you go into this out of revenge. Happiness cannot grow in scorched soil, old boy.”
The brandy glass shattered against the wall behind Zachary’s head, the last dregs trickling down to the wainscoting. Zachary hadn’t flinched. The look in his eyes was pitying—a look that would have sent another glass shattering against the wall if Philip had one nearby.
“It wasn’tyourfather who tortured you,” Philip hissed, hands clenched into fists. “It wasn’tyourfather who sent you to war as if you were disposable.”
An entire battalion would have cowered at the sound of his anger, but Zachary remained unaffected.
