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Reginald glared at his cousin, who only smiled with frosty amusement. “She would never,” Reginald said. “Marcella is a lady of impeccable breeding and good sense, and we get along well with one another.”
“Really, now?” Simon asked.
“Really. Why are you here anyway? I have a difficult time believing that you just thought it would be adelightfulsurprise.”
“I didn’t,” Simon replied. “My mother wanted to come and see you and your wife, and I thought it might provide an opportunity to speak with Adeline.”
Reginald crossed his arms. “Don’t be surprised if Adeline doesn’t wish to speak to you.”
Simon tilted his head. His lips pulled down into a stern frown, and his eyes seemed to grow suddenly colder. “What did you do?” he asked.
“Marcella expressed an unflattering opinion of you,” Reginald replied. “I’ve also no intention of correcting such an opinion.”
Simon shook his head. “I never thought that becoming a Marquess would make you cruel, but it looks as though it has.”
“It has not,” Reginald replied. “If anything, being a Marquess has made me a better man. No, the anger you’re now receiving is entirelyyourdoing. When were you going to tell me about the disgraceful state in which you left the estate and the Hurrow fortune?”
“Disgraceful?” Simon asked, looking mortified. “Are you truly so cruel? I managed the estate fine!”
“You bankrupted us and frightened away the staff with your excessive demands!” Reginald retorted.
Color rose to Simon’s pale face, and Reginald felt his own skin warm. His anger over the mismanagement of the estate and those who had suffered for it burned inside him, and it threatened to boil over. He found himself filled with a dark longing for his days in Southwark, where it was proper enough to settle disputes with one’s fists.
“Was that not my right as the lord and master of this estate?” Simon asked. “You act as though I’ve committed some great atrocity, rather than indulging in what should be mine by right! Give me the name of a single gentleman in thetonwho has not likewise indulged!”
“Me!” Reginald snapped. “Because unlike you, I actually give a damn about the people who I’m supposed to serve!”
Simon stood and slammed his hands on the desk, and Reginald dug his nails into the wooden armrests of his chair, steadying himself, so he wouldn’t do something he might regret.
“I might have spent the estate’s money,” Simon said slowly, “but I’d already found a solution. I was going to marry Marcella, and her fortune would’ve been enough to make things work. But you interfered. You reappeared after being gone for a decade!”
“It’s a good thing, too.”
Simon scoffed and shook his head. “A good thing.Youfound the exact same solution that I did. You married Lady Marcella for her fortune and because my uncle forced your hand. You didn’t wed her out of love.”
Reginald stared at his cousin for a long moment. Were his own intentions in marrying Marcella so obvious? Had everyone already guessed what it was that really drove Reginald to marriage? Surely not. Otherwise, Marcella would’ve surely heard and confronted him about it. Since being married, Marcella hadn’t kept anything from him. She would never learn something so dreadful and not confront him over it.
“I’ve grown to love her, and that’s what matters,” Reginald said evenly. “If you doubt that I’ve affection for her, you’re quite welcome to ask the staff or the lady herself. I do love her, which is more than you’d have ever been able to offer her.”
Simon tipped his chin up and gazed imperiously at Reginald, who met his cold eyes evenly. His cousin was too much of a coward to wound with anything but words, and Reginald was quite sure that he was too strong to be injured by any of Simon’s verbal barbs.
“Here’s what I want,” Reginald said. “I want for you to leave my estate. Marcella’s dear friend deserves more than you, more than a husband who cares only for her money.”
“You’re a hypocrite,” Simon said.
Reginald feigned boredom, but he wondered if he’d been wrong. Thatdidhurt a little because Simon was right. Reginaldhadmarried Marcella for her money, and even if he’d grown to love her, that didn’t make his initial intentions any nobler, did it? Maybe a little. After all, he’d never wanted the lady’s fortune for his own sake. He’d always been thinking about the people of Southwark, but justmaybe—
Maybe he’d forgotten that he should’ve been thinking about Marcella, too. Maybe he’d built her up in his mind as a woman who didn’t need any of the tender feelings he was capable of expressing.
“Just because I’ve done something terrible doesn’t mean that I should excuse it in others,” Reginald said. “I know I wronged Marcella, and you can scarcely imagine how deeply it hurts knowing what I did.”
“So you’ll deny me the same choice you made,” Simon replied. “How like you.”
Reginald felt their old feud coming dangerously close to the surface, and although he’d still never told anyone about what happened the night he left, he found himself welcoming the confrontation now. He’d had ten years to foster resentment over Simon for the part he played in it all.
“You made me this,” Reginald said.
Simon’s angry expression dropped in an instant, replaced with something sad and horrified. “I did nothing! You made your choice. I hardlyforcedyou to leave. I said some unkind words, some terrible words, spoken in anger. And I’d warrant that you cannot show me a single man who lives upon this earth who hasnotin the throes of passionate anger said something which he ought not to. Besides, I—”
