presumably put Adrian's career in the shade. Adrian could thank his godfather for his parents' unwanted appearance. No sooner had Adrian taken off with his special license in hand, when the bishop had sent a message out to Dorset, informing his parents of their son and heir's upcoming nuptials. He should never have told his godfather where he was going, but he'd just escaped from Etienne's paid assassins, and he wasn't thinking too clearly.
"If I'm supposed to apologize for blowing Etienne's head off then you'll have to excuse me," he said stiffly. Never in his life had he wanted a drink more, but no one seemed to be offering.
"You didn't blow his head off with that tiny peashooter," his father said with a genteel snort.
-Well, I'm sorry that I didn't have a bigger gun," Adrian retorted.
-I'm sorry you didn't as well. I regret even more that you didn't listen when I warned you about him," the marquess said in icy tones. "If you had kept your distance in the first place this might never have
"If you've brought me in here to say 'I told you so' then I have more important things to do," Adrian said, starting to rise.
His father didn't need to say a word, he simply looked at him, and Adrian sat back, restless. He hadn't seen Charlotte since the doctor had patched up her shoulder and pronounced her fit and pregnant. His mother had taken over from Lady Whitmore, and he'd been shut out, away from her, with no chance to hold her as he so desperately needed to do, to assure himself she was safe.
He needed to tell her the truth, that he was a worthless idiot, blind and stupid and shallow, but that despite all that he loved her.
They wouldn't let him.
It was a conspiracy, he thought grimly. He was going to have to take his punishment before they'd let him go to her.
"I want to know what you intend to do about the situation."
He deliberately chose to misunderstand. "About your cousin, sir?" He let the deliberate emphasis be his one form of fighting back. "I'll have to deal with the local magistrate, I expect."
"I'm the local magistrate," Montague said with a trace of his old energy. The doctor hadn't wanted to leave him, but Montague had sent him away with a querulous wave of his bony hand. "I declare you innocent of any wrongdoing. As for de Giverney, I imagine there's space in the village graveyard to dump him.”
"Presumably he's Catholic," the vicar said. "If he's buried in Protestant ground he'll go to hell."
"Oh, let's, then," said Lady Whitmore. "I'll be happy to help dig."
"I mean, what's to be done with the young woman you ruined?"
With anyone else Adrian might have taken issue with the term ruined. Ruined her for any other man, perhaps, which was jusl what he wanted. "In case the others haven't told you, I've been trying to get her to agree to marry me. You know that I have the special license^ and Pagett there could perform the ceremony. But she won’t agree.”
"And who could blame her?" Lady Whitmore said. "With the idiotic way you asked her. Would you believe. Lord Haverstoke, that he told Charlotte that he was willing to marry her, and that he had no intention of keeping his marriage vows?"
"I said no such thing," Adrian protested. "I simply told her that once the...er...passion faded from our union she would be free to find other amusement, as would I. It's what everyone in society does."
"Your mother would take exception to that. In fact, I believe you just slandered her." His father rose to his still-impressive height.
But Adrian stood his ground. "You could hardly convince me that your marriage is in any way indicative of what usually goes on. Your devotion to each other is so extreme that it's almost bad ton."
There was a dangerous glint in the marquess's hard blue eyes, so like his son's. "Tread carefully, boy."
"You could hardly expect me to duplicate your good fortune in marriage.”
"And why not? While it's true that no woman could ever equal your mother, I trust you have the good taste to come close. And as appalling a reprobate as you are, you're merely a child when compared
“Then I would think you'd appreciate how I got in this situation." Adrian fired back, unwisely.
"No, I do not. I never seduced an innocent of good family."
"Except for my mother."
The marquess's eyes narrowed, but Pagett hastily interceded. "I think we need to