what if he’d reneged. The earl could never prosecute him for its return. The scandal would kill the old fellow outright and turn society against his shivering countess.
Reyn would pay the earl back somehow. He’d had a run of good luck in the hells lately as if he was being rewarded for his bad behavior. His parents would have been envious if they still lived.
Something had happened to him since he’d sold out, something he didn’t care to examine too closely in the light of day. Whatever it was—boredom? despair?—had made him reckless. He’d always been a restless soul, unable to stick to anything but soldiering for very long. But the war was over, had been for ages. The dull routine of peace had brought him no comfort. In fact, it had driven him slightly mad. All he’d done the past year since he’d been posted to London was parade in uniform like a wind-up doll for the king’s pleasure. The army was no place for him, anymore.
Civilian life had not been much better. He’d even bought a quarter-year subscription to the Reining Monarchs Society to see what all the fuss was about. But he still didn’t know. When granted absolute power over another human being, he still felt powerless. He told himself that denying the earl’s dying request was actually a good thing. He was not the wastrel decent people thought he was. He’d once had character. Perhaps he’d regain it again.
“Get off me!”
Lady Kelby didn’t shout. No one would come to her aid, anyway. Shouting was de rigueur at the Reining Monarchs. That was part of the fun.
“I am not precisely on you, Lady Kelby. You’d know it if I was, and I wager you’d not object. Isn’t that why you are here?”
She was tall for a woman, but somehow ducked under the arm that pinned her to the wall. Her hat was tipped at a crazed angle which made her look much less starchy, but no less angry. Damn but he wished he had succeeded in kissing her. There didn’t seem to be much hope of that now.
“You are d-disgusting! I cannot for the life of me imagine why my husband thought you might be s-satisfactory.”
Reyn wasn’t quite sure either. He was nobody in particular, not titled, not educated, not accomplished. His father had been a cousin to a bankrupt marquess, and his mother was the youngest daughter of a disgraced viscountess who’d run off with her dresser. It was amazing to think his old granny had been a follower of Sappho, but he remembered her and her companion Grace as being very kind the few times he’d met them.
Scandal and sloth had been bred into Reyn from the earliest age, and he’d been thrown out of more schools than he could count. Both his parents had been good-looking, and he had no complaints when he caught his reflection in the mirror. Perhaps the earl had chosen him as he might choose a thoroughbred to cover a mare. Reyn was showy and spirited, and came from good bloodlines even if no one had won prize money in a race lately.
He picked up his neckcloth from the carpet and began to strangle himself with it. “I have no idea, Lady Kelby. Did you not discuss this whole affair with him?”
“I told you he hasn’t been well,” she snapped. “He’s so worried I cannot believe he is clear-headed, else he never would have selected you.”
“Consider me deselected. I shall return the advance at the earliest opportunity.”
“Why did you take the money if you did not plan to honor your word? Do you find me so unattractive?”
Reyn felt a stab of annoyance. He was not going to do the pretty when the woman had kneed him in the groin. “Don’t fish for compliments, Lady Kelby. You can hardly expect me to tell you I desire you when it’s clear you loathe me. I had need of the money. Still do. My sister is—well, she’s dying, just like your husband is—only she doesn’t live inside a thousand acre park with a thousand servants to tend her and a devoted spouse who will do anything, no matter how repulsive, to make her happy. You must love your husband very much to come here to find me.”
Lady Kelby flushed. “I-I do. He . . . he’s a wonderful man. Henry is very dear to me.”
“I’m sorry for you then. My sister is dear to me also, and I neglected her for years. I