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“What the hell is eating you? It’s too early in the day to be soused, surely?”
“I have not been drinking. You have missed a great deal in the past week,” Richard complained. “I needed you, but I had to make do. Fortunately, Halmesbury was available.”
“The duke? Whatever plagues you must be serious if you braved his front door with your Annabel in residence. He did not throw you out?”
Richard ignored Perry’s attempts at humor. “She is not my Annabel—she is all his. I am making changes. I made a list of women I have wronged, and I am setting matters to right.”
Peregrine turned to stare at him, his mouth agape. “You can’t be serious, old chap?”
“Deadly serious. Halmesbury assisted me in your absence with ideas of how to make reparations.”
His brother looked him over with mild disgust. “What brought this on? Have you fallen in love or something just as daft?”
“I don’t know about love, but I did find a young lady I wish to wed. That Iwillwed. On Monday morning. She gave me cause to rethink my life, but mostly she forced me to confront that I was becoming … our father.”
Perry’s eyes flared in shock before he walked over to slump into an ivory armchair. His face was haunted as he stared into the distance. His sibling could have been his twin, they looked so much alike. Unfortunately for his younger brother, Richard knew his father had been particularly cruel toward Perry, although he was hazy about the details because he had been attending Oxford while Perry remained at home with tutors. His brother never discussed what it had been like to live in proximity to the mad earl in his final years. Their father had refused to send him to Eton, as was tradition, preferring to keep his spare within his household to torture in some manner that Richard could only guess at. Even a mere mention of the old man made Perry morose and bitter.
“I … see.” Perry shook his head as if to clear his thoughts before he looked over at Richard. “If making amends to the women of your past is proving so painful, why are you doing it?”
“It is not painful. It has been a wonderful experience, very uplifting. I am reclaiming my life … stitching my soul back together one apology at a time. Until today … I just received dreadful news. It must be faced, but I do not know how it will affect my wedding. I want to marry Sophia, but I do not know if she will reject me when she learns that … that … that I have … a son.”
Perry shot up to sit on the edge of his chair. “What? I thought you took precautions?”
“Apparently precautions do not always work out the way one might hope. I will be fortunate if this turns out to be my only child.”
“What are you doing about it?”
“He is being collected and brought to London. What the blazes do I do about Sophia?”
“Does she know? About your past and the possibility of a child?”
“She does … but she knows nothing of … Ethan.” Richard felt a flutter in his chest as he spoke the name of his son for the first time.I am a father!
It could not be comprehended. How could he be a father? What if he was as terrible a parent as his own father? Richard dismissed that concern. No one could be as terrible a parent as the earl. The correct question was, could he do better at it than the aunt’s family who had taken in Kitty and Ethan?
“Well, I for one do not know why you would want to get leg-shackled, but if she is aware of the potential consequences of marrying your sorry arse … I say tell her about the boy after the wedding.”
“Perry! This is not how I wish to begin my new life.”
His brother shrugged. “Then tell her and take your consequences.”
Richard groaned and dropped his head back into his hands. “Please do not talk of consequences. I am dealing with consequences from every direction. What the hell was I thinking when I ran amok with these women? Why could I have not emulated Halmesbury and practiced some restraint?”
Perry pulled a face. “Halmesbury did not have our father to act as an example to lead him astray. It is a wonder you have any of the restraint that you do possess. I seem to recollect … never mind. I cannot dredge up memories of father’s hedonism. It is making me nauseous to think on it.”
“Truly? You think I have shown restraint?”
“Oh, brother, Iknowyou have shown restraint. Now, are you going to show me this list and tell me what you have done thus far? It sounds like quite the lark.”
* * *
Sophia brushedout Lily’s hair in front of her cousin’s dressing-table mirror. She had convinced her cousin the day of Richard’s visit that, because she would depart the Abbott household soon, she should sleep with Lily in her gigantic bed so they might spend as much time together as possible.
She hated lying to her best friend. Perhaps she would tell Lily the truth once the wedding was done and the entire matter was afait accompli. Until then, she did not wish to burden her cousin with the knowledge that Sophia was terrified of her desperate brother assisting Leech to steal her from her bed on the eve of her wedding. She was sure she was being excessively cautious, but it was so refreshing to sleep without fear the past few nights and she enjoyed the extra time with Lily.
The Abbotts were good people, and they deserved to be free of the worry that her situation with her depraved brother would cause them. She had taken care of the problem, and she could not deny a thrill of excitement that she would marry the earl in the morning. Once she had decided on her new course, she had become quite taken with her future, married to the handsome lord and, perhaps, assisting him in his project to restore his honor. It sounded far more entertaining than being society’s oldest debutante or a ward in another family’s home.
Lily giggled. “You are tickling me!”
