Duke Looks Like a Groomsman - Valerie Bowman Page 0,69
of guilt tugged at her conscience.
“Furthermore,” Miss Wharton continued, “this particular duke has been drinking constantly since he received the invitation to your wedding, and he cannot stop talking about you.”
Julianna swallowed and glanced away. Frances was correct. She did not want to hear that. Drinking and talking didn’t change anything.
“Miss Wharton,” she replied. “I suppose we shall have to agree to disagree when it comes to what is important for a gentleman to do to demonstrate his love. For I envy you a man who would stand up on a sideboard for you. You said you admired me, but I’d trade anything I have for a man who loved me that much.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
It turned out that brandy didn’t make anything better. It didn’t give him clarity. It didn’t help him to decide anything. It didn’t even make him feel better, save for the few hours he managed to remain drunk as a wheelbarrow each evening. Which is why late one night, nearly a month after Rhys had received the invitation to Julianna’s wedding in the post, he decided to take his bottle of brandy and go over to Kendall’s house.
Not an hour later, his coach pulled up in front of the four-story town house in Belgravia and Kendall’s butler soon showed Rhys into his friend’s study.
Rhys stumbled over to one of the large leather chairs that sat in front of his friend’s desk and laid his head on his hands, which he’d placed atop the imposing piece of furniture. He was attempting to stop his head from spinning. With little luck.
Minutes later, Kendall came stomping into the room.
“Must you be so loud?” Rhys grumbled, grabbing his head with both hands.
“My apologies,” Kendall replied with a grin. “I thought I was in my own house and you’d come to visit. Why are you here so late, by the by?”
Rhys forced himself to sit up and glared at his friend. “I seem to recall that after Lady Emily tossed you over, you spent five sodden days in a row at my house, drinking away your sorrows and ruing the day you met her.”
“True, but am I missing something? Have you been tossed over?” Kendall asked, blinking at Rhys innocently.
“No,” a thunderous scowl sat on Rhys’s face, “but your involvement with Lady Emily is why I am so bloody well against ladies tossing over one man for another with a better title.”
“You’re making no sense, Worth, perhaps you should start over,” Kendall said with a patient smile.
“Being noble and selfless is a lot of shite.” Rhys pointed a finger in the air.
“You’ve been noble and selfless?” Skepticism dripped from Kendall’s tone.
“I most certainly have,” Rhys declared, pounding the desktop with his closed fist. “I let her go. I did the honorable thing.”
Kendall took a deep breath. “I can only assume this is about Lady Julianna, correct?”
“Correct,” Rhys replied, looking around the room as if searching for something. “Do you have any more brandy? I seem to have finished mine.” He held his empty bottle upside down and stared at it as if he didn’t understand what it was.
“Yes, I do, but no, you may not have any. You smell as if you’ve had far too much of it already.”
Rhys narrowed his eyes on the earl. “Don’t make me call you out, Kendall.”
“Oh, dear, not drunken threats. This is bad.” Kendall sighed again. “Very well, Bell was there to help me when I was a drunken fool in love who needed to hear a few choice words. I suppose the least I can do now is pass on the favor.”
Rhys wrinkled his brow. “What are you talking about?” He righted the empty brandy bottle and thumped it atop the desk.
“Sit back,” Kendall ordered. “Let me explain a few things to you.”
“I don’t want to hear anything Bell has to say,” Rhys insisted. “He doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”
“He always knows what he is talking about unfortunately, but don’t worry. Bell told me he’s already tried to explain the situation to you. Now, I fear it’s my turn.”
Letting go of the empty bottle, Rhys sat up straight and readjusted himself in the chair so that he was no longer slouching. “Explain what?”
Kendall tapped a finger along his cheek. “First of all, you’re thinking of this entire thing all wrong.”
Rhys blinked at him through blurry eyes. “Wrong?” he echoed. “What do you mean?”
“Was I upset when Lady Emily left me? Yes, but in retrospect, she did me the biggest act of kindness of my