Page 3 of The Devil to Pay

Pip shook his head, looking like a man with the weight of the world upon his shoulders.

“Why not? I mean, he’ll find out. Assuming he doesn’t know already. Hell, she’s over two years old, is she not?”

“Yes, and my father is well aware something is amiss, but he’s giving me the space to sort myself out and not making enquiries.”

“So you think,” Jules replied with a snort. “His grace puts the fear of God into me, but he’s got nothing on Montagu. The man’s omniscient, I swear it.”

“Christ, Jules, are you trying to give me a heart attack? I hardly sleep as it is,” Pip said crossly. “I’ve kept my distance and put all my energy into raising Tilly and getting Goshen Court back on its feet.”

Jules raised a sceptical eyebrow.

“You should have seen it when I got here,” Pip retorted. “You’ve no idea of the energy and effort I’ve put into this place, never mind sinking near every penny I have.”

“All right, I take your point, but how does that help?”

Pip ran a hand through his hair, leaving it standing all on end. “I don’t know. I just feel that if they see I’ve made a success of this god-awful place, and a home for my daughter, they might not feel so… so disappointed in me.”

“Ah, yes, that’s the thing, isn’t it?” Jules said, a familiar sinking feeling in the pit of his belly. “They can rant and rage and get as furious as they like and that’s all fine, but when you disappoint them….”

He shuddered and Pip nodded.

“I can’t bear it,” he said with feeling. “And this… in my father’s eyes, this is about the worst thing I could possibly have done. He’d have been happier if I’d murdered someone, I swear.”

“Bloody hell, no wonder you ran for the hills,” Jules said, with real sympathy this time. “Ah well. Least I can do is keep you company for a while.”

Pip sent him a jaundiced look. “How kind,” he said dryly.

“Well, I like that!” Jules scowled at him, affronted. “Anyone would think you don’t care for me above half.”

Pip let out a huff of laughter and sat down in an armchair by the fire, arranging his long legs in an untidy sprawl as he regarded Jules over the rim of his glass. “You realise we are in the middle of nowhere? There are no pretty females anywhere close by, no entertainments, it’s dark by four o’clock, and it rains most of the time.”

“Sounds perfect,” Jules said stubbornly. “But if you don’t want me….” “Stow it,” Pip replied, sounding amused. “What exactly did you do to make this seem such an inviting prospect?”

Jules rubbed the back of his neck as heat prickled up his spine. He felt vaguely sick. “There’s a fair chance I might be named in a crimcon,” he admitted, darting a glance at Pip, whose eyes had widened in shock.

“No!” he breathed, so horrified Jules knew he had done right in fleeing before the story broke.

Being named as the other party in a criminal conversation where a husband accused his wife of adultery and sued her lover in the courts was about as scandalous as it got. Jules supposed he could congratulate himself on not having sired a bastard, but that was hardly consoling. His father had recently delivered him ‘yet another’ speech about his profligate way of life and his need to grow up and become a responsible human being. He would be the Duke of Bedwin one day, after all… words guaranteed to make him want to curl up in a ball and sob.

Pip let out a low whistle and shook his head.

“And I thought I was in it up to my neck,” he replied, a wry smile quirking his lips.

“Well, you needn’t sound so pleased about it,” Jules replied tersely. “But yes, brothers in arms, I reckon. I can stay, can’t I, Pip? I won’t be any trouble, I swear it.”

Pip gave a bark of laughter and rubbed a weary hand over his eyes. “Yes, yes, do as you please, though the idea of you not being any trouble… good God. Make yourself at home, though. I’ll be glad of your company, for Mrs Harris certainly doesn’t trouble herself with conversing with me. Little Tilly is an absolute darling, but her vocabulary is a tad limited for the moment.”

“You adore her,” Jules observed with a smile.

Pip’s rather harsh features softened at the observation about his daughter, and he nodded, turning to look at Jules. “She is my world.”

Chapter 2

Jules,

Still no headline in the news sheets, though the ton is humming with gossip that Lord Haversham has discovered the identity of his wife’s lover and is out for blood. I have it on good authority his friends are trying to talk sense into him before he commits to suing you and making a spectacle of himself and his wife alongside you in the courts. I’d pray if I were you, for it’s going to be a damned nasty business if he goes through with it.

―Excerpt of a letter to The Most Hon’ble Jules Adolphus, The Marquess of Blackstone (eldest son of Their Graces Robert and Prunella Adolphus, The Duke and Duchess of Bedwin) from Mr Leo Hunt (son of Mr and Mrs Nathanial and Alice Hunt).