to wonder if he was talking about more than her near mishap.
As they neared the study, a footman rushed forward to open the door for them and Callie swept inside, Lord Montgomery on her heels. He pushed the door closed, and then apparently thought better of it. He opened it once more, halfway, and left it just so, propped there with a heavy cast iron statue of some sort of poorly rendered terrier.
“That’s an odd piece,” she commented, gesturing toward the rather homely-looking dog statue.
“We go together,” the earl said, as he moved past her toward a small table set before the fire. With a self-deprecating grin, he added, “Odd pieces.”
Callie stepped deeper into the room in his wake and took a seat in the chair before his desk that he’d indicated. Two plates heaped with cold meat, cheese and bread had been placed there, along with a bottle of wine and glasses. It was informal, strangely intimate, and might, under different circumstances, have been deemed romantic. Callie was so distracted by that train of thought that it startled her when he pushed the chair in for her. She only just managed to stifle a startled shriek. Even then, he leaned in close enough that she caught the scent of his shaving soap and the hint of something else that was wildly appealing to her. It made her think of the strength and the steadiness of him as he’d caught her on the stairs.
“What is it you wish to know about the children?” he asked, his voice barely more than a whisper. “I’d prefer to speak quietly. The servants know enough about my brother’s disgrace.”
“What is your brother’s disgrace precisely?” she asked.
“All of them. Gambling. Women. Opium. There was not a single vice that he did not indulge to impossible excess,” the earl admitted. “Venetia, the children’s mother, was young and foolish and allowed him to seduce her. I say allowed because he did not seek her out. She put herself in his very chambers at a house party intending to be seduced by him. She fancied herself in love with him. I believe she had some foolish notion that if she loved him enough, it would save him. Clearly she was mistaken. It was a terrible scandal. They married against my father’s wishes but at the pistol-accompanied urging of her own father. Indeed, I daresay if my brother had refused, he’d have been killed outright.”
“And afterward? Were they happy together at all?” Callie asked.
He raised his brows in a rather surprised fashion, as if it were something he’d never considered before. “I suppose they were at first. It wasn’t long after they married that they announced to the family that she was with child. But by the time Claudia was born, the bloom had certainly worn off the rose. Wills was drinking heavily, gambling incessantly and he’d begun visiting the opium dens. Forgive me, Miss St. James, I should not speak so bluntly of such things.”
“I’d prefer you did, my lord,” Callie insisted. “For better or for ill, your brother and your sister-in-law spoke very freely of such things in front of the children. I do not have the luxury of being missish about propriety in these very dire circumstances.”
He considered it for a moment, clearly weighing the need to be honest with his own sense of propriety. In the end, he continued, “After they married, and while Venetia was in her confinement, there was another scandal. Wills was accused of doing the unthinkable… that he had forced himself upon and compromised an innocent young woman.”
Callie let that sink in for a moment. When she did pose the question, her tone was neutral and without condemnation. “Did he? I understand that you may not be able to answer… but do you think he was capable?”
The earl’s brows knit together in a thoughtful frown. “I honestly don’t know. There are differing accounts of the nature of Wills’ relationship with Miss Serena Darlington. Wills always contended that she was a willing participant to seduction and that she was not nearly so chaste as others painted her to be. And Miss Darlington insisted that my brother had forced himself upon her despite the fact that she was in his chambers while clad only in her nightrail. That’s only damning because apparently her own guest room was in another wing of the house where they were all gathered for the party. Rather than fight a duel and face terrible social and potential legal