each use.”
“I have more than one sheath,” Lord Edon replied. “Besides, it’s been well over a month ago now, and she’s not expecting a child. If she was, she would have told me.”
Usually, Aaron would keep to himself, but on this particular day, he wasn’t in the mood. He marched over to them and asked Lord Edon, “Does it really give you pleasure to be with another gentleman’s wife? You could deprive her husband of a rightful heir.”
Everyone turned to him in surprise.
After a moment, Lord Edon said, “She wasn’t married. The only thing I had to worry about was her angry brother.”
She wasn’t married back then, but she might be now. Aaron didn’t know why the others should find this amusing, but they chuckled. “Who was this lady?” Aaron demanded.
“Pardon?” Lord Edon asked.
“This lady that you spent an entire night with.” Or more, for all Aaron knew. “Who was she?”
Lord Edon paused then asked, “Does it matter?”
“Yes. I recently married a lady who has an angry brother,” Aaron replied. “For all I know, you’re talking about her.”
“Oh, I wasn’t with your wife. It was another lady.”
“How can I be assured of that? You might not even know my title.”
“Sure, I do. You’re a member of White’s.”
And except for the few times he had talked to Roger, Lord Edon hadn’t once paid attention to him. “I bet you don’t know who I am.”
“This is nonsense. I wasn’t with the lady you married.”
“Since you don’t know who I am, the least you can do is tell me her name.”
Lord Edon paled for a second, and that told Aaron he’d caught Lord Edon off guard.
“Edon doesn’t tell the names of the ladies he’s been with,” one of the gentlemen told Aaron.
“Why not? This is White’s,” Aaron said. “Everything said in here is kept secret. No one outside these walls will find out.” He crossed his arms. “Who was this lady who was so enraptured by you that she had to have you in her bed until dawn?”
Lord Edon cleared his throat and straightened his cravat. “I never tell who the ladies were. What we did was too private for that.”
“Oh, that’s considered private, but you can go into detail about the things you two did in bed?” Aaron asked.
“That’s not fair,” a gentleman said. “He’s not always in bed with them.”
This earned some laughs from those listening to them.
Aaron could feel the heat rising up in his face as anger swelled up within him. “This might be fun for you and your friends, Lord Edon, but there are gentlemen who are married to the ladies you’re so casually engaged with. Some of us like to know our wives will bear our children instead of yours.”
“I can assure you that no lady has ever gotten with child from my activities with her,” Lord Edon said.
“How can you guarantee that?” Aaron demanded.
“I’m careful,” Lord Edon said. “I make sure to bring plenty of sheaths with me.”
“Do you even remember the ladies you’re with, or do you do this so much that they become meaningless to you?” Aaron asked.
“That’s not fair. Of course, I remember them,” Lord Edon replied.
“Then who was this lady with the angry brother?”
Aaron didn’t realize he had shouted the question until Lord Edon glanced around the room. The gentlemen who hadn’t been paying attention to them were now looking in their direction.
“I don’t have to deal with this,” Lord Edon said, looking as if he had every right to be upset when he most certainly did not.
Aaron grabbed Lord Edon’s arm as the snake tried to slither past him. “You either tell me who she is, or I’ll take you out for a duel.”
“Miss Covington,” Lord Edon blurted out.
A few gentlemen gasped, and one asked, “Lady Cadwalader’s niece?”
A wince flickered across Lord Edon’s face before he pulled away from Aaron. “There. It wasn’t your wife.”
Aaron felt the tension leave him as Lord Edon slithered out of the establishment. He didn’t expect Kitty to be a virgin, but he was relieved to know she had at least not been with such a notorious rake.
And she wasn’t with child. There was no illegitimate son or daughter on the way that he had to contend with. When she did have a child, it would be his.
“Who would have thought Lady Cadwalader’s niece was begging him to stay in her bed?” a gentleman asked from behind Aaron. “That’d be quite a scandal if it got out.”
“Especially since Lady Cadwalader prides herself on having a family