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“I don’t mind having a reputation as an eccentric.”
James waved this off. “You say that now, but give yourself a few months and you’ll come around.” He crossed the room to find a decanter and poured himself a glass. This he raised. “You’ve a name and title to live up to, Edward. The burden changes you. We can waste time snapping at one another, or we can handle this as gentlemen and brothers.”
“Ah. How do gentlemen and brothers handle things, then?” Edward asked.
His brother still hadn’t seen Free. She sat frozen in place, watching the two of them.
James went back to Edward, glass in hand, and punched his shoulder in what Edward guessed was meant to be a gentlemanly, brotherly fashion. “You look positively middle class in that garb, and we can’t have that. So I’ll drag you back to town and introduce you to my tailor. After that, I must show you around to all the right people. You’ll have to marry—the right wife will open doors, no matter what your past. In fact, I know just the woman, if you’ll trust me.”
Ha.
“You’ll make me an allowance that befits my station. We’ll smile at one another in public. That will tell everyone that no matter how unusual your past might have been, you’ve agreed to play by the proper rules.”
“I see,” Edward said gravely. The allowance, he suspected, was his brother’s primary object—and the only reason he’d not yet turned ugly. “There are numerous flaws with that plan, but one problem seems insurmountable.”
James raised an eyebrow.
“I’m already married.”
His brother’s chin jerked up. “That was one of the rumors from yesterday that I had hoped was not true. Surely, what I heard must have been garbled in some fashion. Even you would not stoop so low as to marry—”
“Oh, I didn’t stoop to marry,” Edward said. “Rest assured on that count.”
“Ah.” James looked visibly pleased.
“In fact, you can meet her yourself. Turn around.”
James did. Edward could tell the moment he caught sight of her. The change that came over his brother was absolutely electric. He almost snarled, and he took two steps back.
“This is a joke,” he said. “The rumors, her here… It’s a joke.”
Free stood.
“It’s not a joke,” Edward told him.
“Oh.” James swallowed. “My God, Edward. This is bad. Really bad. Worse than anything I feared yesterday.”
He hadn’t said a word in greeting to Free. He’d not acknowledged her beyond that bulging of his eyes, and Edward felt his anger begin to come to a boil.
James turned back to Edward. “You can’t marry her. For God’s sake, Edward. Think about what the Delacey family name means. We’ll figure out…something. I promise. We’ll have her…”
“I go by Edward Clark,” Edward said. “I have been called Clark for the last seven years. I’m not going to be a Delacey again, and I sure as hell won’t ask my wife to take on that name. If it comes down to it, I’ll take her name before I take on Delacey.”
James sputtered. “That’s absurd. And so is she. I know that she”—he pointed accusingly toward Free—“can utterly bewitch a man. God knows I’ve experienced it myself. But—”
Edward’s hand clenched on his brother’s shoulder. “A piece of advice,” Edward said. “Don’t insult my wife. Whatever you’re about to say? Swallow it.”
“Why, because she’s so utterly seduced you that you’d strike your own brother? That’s proof enough that you need to hear what I’m saying, however hard those truths must be for you.”
“My own brother?” Edward said. “This is the brother who tried to have my wife’s business burned to the ground? The brother who had lawfully issued permits quashed, who conspired to have her thrown in gaol and assaulted with who knows what sorts of torture?”
Free stood and took a step toward James. “This is also, I take it, the brother who wrote the British Consul in Strasbourg claiming that you were an impostor.”
“Yes. That.” Edward scowled.
James raised his hands placatingly. “I’ll grant you, that last was a misstep.”
“No, James, I know how a brother acts. The man who is truly my brother risked his life to save me when I needed him. He told me I could be someone good, instead of telling me I was an embarrassment for engaging in trade. He would never sneer at my wife, let alone threaten to put her away. I know what it’s like to have a brother, and you’re not mine.”
James drew himself up. “Very well, then. Make your own way into society. Court scandal, if you wish. I only came here to help you.” He sniffed. “Much good that has done me. You can talk to my solicitor about an acceptable allowance.”
He turned to leave.
Free spoke again. “Do you really think, after everything you’ve done, that you’ll be getting an allowance?”
James stopped once more. His shoulders tensed. He turned to her, his lip curling.
“I’m a gentleman,” he said stiffly. “Of course I will.”
“You think that we should provide you with enough money so that you can continue to hurt others.” She snorted. “That seems unwise. You were a horrible plague before. Why on earth should we give you the opportunity to go on like that?”
“I…because…” James trailed off. He looked as bewildered as if he’d walked up to a house and had the doors remain stubbornly closed. “Because,” he repeated, “I’m a gentleman. Because it would be scandalous to do otherwise.” His teeth ground. “Because my own funds will run out in a few years’ time. Think what having a destitute brother-in-law would mean for our family reputation. I don’t think I need to discuss anything else in mixed company. Even if the company in question is hardly ladylike.”
Free simply shrugged off that insult. “I told you once that everything you tried to do to me, I’d bring back to you a thousandfold. Now, maybe you’ll believe me.”
James stared at her, his teeth grinding, his face turning red. Then he turned away, jerking his head toward Edward. “You need to control your wife.”
“Haven’t you figured it out?” Edward said quietly. “I married her to unleash her on the world, not to keep her under wraps.”
