When there was no response, he flung the door open.
The room was empty. Strangely still and quiet. The sight unnerved Tony and filled him with a terrible foreboding. Where would she have gone so early in the morning?
He made his way to the breakfast room where there was still no sign of his wife. Fenwick greeted him with the morning papers but claimed to have no knowledge of the whereabouts of Lady Welles.
Tony suspected the butler was lying. Fenwick knew everything.
As he munched on a piece of bacon, he thought back to the mountain of scones and eggs Maggie had started consuming when they had breakfast together, which was nearly every morning. He should have guessed she was with child. He meant to beg her forgiveness for the way he’d spoken to her. And the utterly revolting thing he’d suggested in his horrible anger at her. At himself.
Filled with self-loathing, he pushed aside his bacon.
“You must be announced.” Fenwick was agitated and speaking to someone in the hall.
“I don’t need an announcement.” Leo’s amused voice filtered toward Tony as his brother’s dark head popped through the breakfast room door.
Leo rarely left his bed before noon. Maggie was nowhere to be found. Nor Daisy, her lady’s maid, for that matter. He threw down his napkin, glaring at his brother as Leo came in and sat down next to him.
“Where is she?”
“As a greeting, I thought for sure you could do better. You look like hell, by the way.” Leo’s pleasant manner held an undercurrent of hostility.
“I fell asleep in my study, which is actually the parlor. Maggie needed a conservatory.” Tony waved toward the sideboard, anxiety clawing at him. His wife had left him. Not that he blamed her after he’d—Tony winced again at the things he’d said. She couldn’t have gotten far. “Breakfast?”
“Thank you. I’m starving.” Leo sat down as a footman served him a portion of eggs and toast. “The jam as well.” He pointed.
After a few minutes of watching his brother devour nearly everything on his plate, Tony finally spat out, “Where’s my wife? I assume you know, or you wouldn’t be here.”
Leo sighed and took one more bite of his bacon before putting his knife and fork aside. Placing his fingers together in a point, he regarded Tony coldly.
His brother was furious with him. Leo and he rarely argued, though they did have their disagreements. This was different. “Leo—”
“I should beat you for the things you said to Maggie,” he said, all pretense at pleasantry gone. “I don’t care if you are going to be a bloody duke.”
“I see you’ve spoken to her.” Shame filled him.
“Yes, I have. I will only assume you were briefly out of your mind to have said what you did to Maggie. Who loves you despite every effort you’ve made to drive her away. You may have finally succeeded.”
Tony rubbed at the sharp sting over his heart as he glared back at his brother. “You don’t understand.”
Leo slammed his fist on the table. “I understand your hatred of the duke. He’s a selfish prick. A terrible human being. He’s done questionable things.”
Much like I have.
“You are punishing Maggie, not him. She is paying the price for your arrogance.”
Just as my mother did.
Tony took a deep, painful breath at the realization, seeing far too many comparisons between himself and his father. Or at least the arrogant man the Duke of Averell had been.
“That you would be so selfish as to suggest such a despicable thing simply because your scheme against the duke might be infringed upon? Especially given you rut after her like a dog in heat?” Leo sneered at Tony in contempt. “You are becoming the very thing you hate.”
Tony gripped his fork, resisting the urge to stab his brother with it. He didn’t care to have Leo come to the same conclusion as Tony had a moment ago. “Enough, Leo,” he snarled. “I take your point. I was angry and lost my temper. I didn’t mean it. I don’t mean it.”
Leo calmed somewhat. “Maggie will not come home to you and I don’t blame her. She is angry and hurt. If you decide to fetch her—”
“I have every intention of doing so.”
“You should wait a week or two and then beg her forgiveness. She’s very upset and doesn’t want to see you at present. I hope you won’t be foolish, Tony. I’ve no desire to see you become one of those jaded rakes who skirts around the edges of ballrooms ogling