Duke Looks Like a Groomsman - Valerie Bowman Page 0,1

with the parson’s noose around his neck.”

Rhys laughed at that. Clayton had recently got himself leg-shackled. On purpose. The viscount loved science and creating things. He was extremely wealthy, had yet to meet a stranger, and was an active member of Parliament. He was the last one they’d all thought would be first to marry. But even Rhys had to admit that marriage seemed to agree with the chap. Clayton had just returned from his honeymoon and he still appeared to be deeply in love with his wife, Theodora. Who knew? Perhaps love was a thing after all. At least for some gentlemen.

Rhys took a draught from his mug and glanced around at his three friends. The four of them had met at Eton as lads and stuck together come what may. Each of them played a unique role in their group.

These days Kendall was distracted by the bill he was trying to get passed in Parliament. The Employment Bill was a piece of legislation that his older brother had sponsored before dying of consumption and leaving the earldom to Kendall.

Bell was obsessed with chasing after a traitor who had betrayed the English army at Bidassoa in Spain, and Clayton was busy as usual, hosting parties and playing politics, the two things he did best.

Rhys was well aware that he was the devil-may-care ne’er-do-well of the lot. He kept up his steady stream of drinking, gambling, and chasing women. That was what the ton expected of the Duke of Worthington, after all, and that’s what they got from him. He was one in a long line of dukes who spent more time seeing to their own pleasures than the details of their estates. That was what solicitors were for, after all, and Rhys had a fine solicitor. He even met with the man nearly daily to hear the boring details as to how his properties were running. What more could he be asked to do? Life was for living, after all, not keeping one’s head inside a tedious book of figures. Or any book for that matter. No matter how much Bell teased him for not reading, Rhys remained convinced just about anything was more fun.

Rhys had a head for figures, but instead of using it to run his estates, he used it at the gambling table. Only far too often he was too deep in his cups at the gambling table and he lost. But no matter. What was lost today might easily be won again tomorrow. That was the beauty of gaming. There was always a second chance. Quite unlike marriage.

If one made a bad marriage, one was stuck for life. And, as he’d learned, some women were nothing more than scheming liars looking to rope in the biggest fish. And in their world, the glittering beau monde, the biggest fish meant the man with the best title. Outside of royalty, there was no better title than duke, of course. That had been drilled into Rhys’s head by his father from the time he was barely able to walk. Rhys had to be especially careful when it came to the fairer sex.

And he had been. Or so he thought.

Unlike Kendall, at least Rhys hadn’t actually offered for the woman he’d nearly fallen for. Rhys had always been suspicious of Lady Emily Foswell for Kendall’s sake, however. The woman had never seemed particularly pleased to see Kendall. And when she tossed him over on the eve of their wedding for a baron, Rhys had been incensed. Angrier, even, than Kendall himself.

Kendall, who, at the time, had been a second son in the Navy, had taken the news with a sort of resigned unhappiness, but Rhys, Rhys had been prepared to go find the woman and give her a speech on the importance of loyalty and the treachery of greed. Not that he should be lecturing anyone on anything, but Kendall had every right.

The one thing that consoled Rhys was the fact that now Lady Emily had to live the rest of her life knowing she’d inadvertently tossed over a future earl for a baron. Ha.

“I’m entirely serious,” Kendall continued. “I must look to secure the earldom. I fear I’ve been too preoccupied with the Employment Bill. I’ve been remiss waiting this long to find a bride.”

“I certainly won’t disagree with you that you’ve been too preoccupied with the Employment Bill,” Rhys replied with a snort. “‘Obsessed’ is more like it.”

Kendall shrugged. “Well, now that the Lords have tabled the