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‘London? I need you here, Harker. My steward tells me that my banker is due the day after tomorrow to discuss how the financial affairs of the estate will be handled in my absence in Ireland. I need to confirm the figures Soane left with me for the further building work and to make a final decision on the Hill House and the other matters you were looking into for me. I must have the funds and authorities in place to allow matters to proceed without my agents having to endlessly send to Dublin for my agreement on every detail.’
‘I will be back by then, my lord.’ He could be in London by that night, have a day to do what he had to do and a day at most to travel back. ‘I assure you of it.’
‘You are certain? You will forgive me if I press you, but it would be extremely inconvenient if this were delayed and Delapoole had to return to town.’
‘My word upon it, my lord.’
‘Excellent. I will let you get on then. Safe journey, Harker.’
Giles walked up the steps into Brookes’s, one hand unobtrusively under Lord James Albright’s elbow. It was all the guidance his friend needed, other than a murmured word now and again to help him orientate himself in the blurred world he refused to allow to defeat him.
‘Good evening, my lord, Mr Harker.’ The porter came forwards for their hats and canes.
‘Evening, Hitchin. Lord Andrew White in?’
‘Yes, my lord. He is in the library with Mr Wrenne and Lord Halton, I believe.’
‘Excellent,’ James remarked as they made their way down the corridor. ‘Three birds with one stone. I’ve never felt so helpless before—I wish I could get my hands on that swine White myself.’
‘I’ll hold him for you,’ Giles offered with a grin as he opened the library door. The room was empty except for the three men lounging in deep leather armchairs by the fireside. They looked round as the friends entered and Giles saw the mixture of wariness and defiance on White’s face when he realised who his companion was.
He guided James’s hand to rest on the back of a chair, then walked across. The three got to their feet to face him. ‘Harker. Do they let you in here? I thought this was a club for gentlemen.’
‘Quite patently it is not,’ Giles countered. ‘They appear to have admitted the three of you and you are lying scum who think nothing of assaulting a lady and blackening her reputation. Or perhaps you crawled in here through the sewers like rats?’
‘Wrenne, be so kind as to pull the bell, will you?’ White drawled, but Giles could see the wariness in his eyes. The beginning of fear. ‘Get a porter to throw out this bastard.’
‘And what about me?’ James asked. ‘Do you expect the porters to expel two club members on no grounds whatsoever?’
‘This is damned awkward, Albright.’ White’s bluff tone was at odds with the look of dislike he shot at James. ‘Your sister took exception to a situation that was completely misinterpreted, made a scene, accused me of lord knows what, broke off the engagement—If I had been permitted to come and explain at the time, this could all have been put behind us.’
‘You could hardly blame Penelope for her reaction,’ Albright said with dangerous calm. ‘You were found in another woman’s bedchamber.’
‘All a bit of fun that got out of hand. If Penelope had been a bit more sophisticated about it, we would still be betrothed.’
&
nbsp; ‘And what a pity that would be,’ James remarked. ‘This is bad enough, but at least she discovered that you were a philandering cheat before she was irretrievably tied to you.’
‘The devil!’ White strode across the room until he stood immediately in front of James. Giles shifted his position so he could watch the other two—he did not want a brawl in the club, but if James lost hold of the threads of his temper, that is what they might well have. ‘No one calls me a cheat! If you weren’t as blind as a bat I would call you out for that, Albright.’
‘And I would refuse your challenge, White. My grievance predates yours. You will apologise both to my sister and to the lady who you so grievously offended that night, or give me satisfaction.’
‘I will do no such thing,’ White blustered. ‘And meet you? You couldn’t hit a barn door with a blunderbuss.’
‘I fear you are correct,’ James said with such politeness that Giles felt his mouth twitch in amusement. ‘However, as in all cases where a duellist cannot fight because of infirmity, my second will take my place.’
‘And who is that?’ White swung round as Giles cleared his throat. ‘You? I’ll not meet a bastard on the field of honour.’
‘No?’ Giles drawled. ‘Then it will be all around town within the day that you and your friends are cowards who will not fight, even when the odds are three to one. My friend did not make it clear, perhaps, that the challenge includes all of you. The choice of weapons is, of course, yours, as is the order in which you meet me. We stay at Grillon’s tonight and I expect word from you as to place, time and weapons by nine tomorrow morning. I have no time to waste on you—the matter will be concluded by dawn the day after tomorrow.’
He took James’s arm and guided him out of the door, closing it on an explosion of wrath. ‘That went well, I think.’ The picture of Isobel struggling in that lout’s grip while he pawed at her was still painfully vivid in his imagination, but at least the gut-clenching anger had been replaced with the satisfying anticipation of revenge for her. He hoped they would choose rapiers; he would enjoy playing with them, making it last.
‘Exceedingly well. I might not be able to see much, but I could tell that rat’s face changed colour. Where shall we dine tonight?’
‘We are being followed.’ Giles took a firmer grip on James’s arm. In the darkness with only occasional pools of light, or the wind-tossed flames of the torches carried by passing link-boys, his friend was completely blind.
‘Who? How many?’
