Charles eyed his sister thoughtfully, wondering why he had brought up the matter now, after so many years. Of course he knew why. After their good friend Rohan Carrington, Baron Mountvale, had married, Phillip had fallen into a funk. He’d said once to Charles last fall, “Rohan is ha
ppy. Happy. Can you believe it? And Susannah is happy as well. Just maybe sometimes there is something that is honest and good between a man and a woman.”
Charles said now, “Very well, Margaret, but you must promise to keep this knowledge tucked under your chestnut hair. Most people know a little of what occurred, but not everything. Rohan Carrington is the only other one to know the whole of it.”
“I promise, Charlie.”
Miss Elliott hit a high F. A champagne goblet trembled on a nearby table.
“Phillip asked Elaine to marry him and she agreed. The date was set for the following April, for no marriage could take place during Phillip’s year of mourning for his father. It is too long ago for you to recall it, but during the fall of 1809 there were many violent skirmishes on the Peninsula. Phillip felt it his duty to rejoin his regiment, over Elaine’s objections. I sometimes wonder,” Charles added, “how we all could have been so wrong. A bloody pack of fools we were. Phillip returned to London on leave in early February to resign his commission and set Dinwitty Manor in order for its new mistress. He had changed somewhat, I can remember thinking that, as if he had been catapulted too quickly into manhood. Remember, he was now only twenty-one years old.”
“Yes, a veritable young lad for a gentleman and a spinster for a lady. Grossly unfair.”
“That’s as may be but not to the point.”
“Do you know, Charles, I have sometimes thought that Phillip’s eyes mirror his deepest thoughts. I’ve seen laughter in his eyes when there was none about his mouth, and sadness too. I’ve never known what to make of it.”
Charles had no idea what she was talking about. Better yet, he didn’t want to know. He said, “I’ll never forget the night he came to my lodgings on Half Moon Street, vilely drunk, his face so white and set that I thought he’d been in a battle with the devil himself. I was scared to death.” Charles spoke more slowly now as he remembered Phillip’s young face, his mouth flattened in bitter humiliation, his eyes cold and dead, mirroring his disillusion. He could still hear his voice, cold as ice. “Elaine wants to wed now, Charlie, not in April as we had planned.”
Charles had stared at his friend. What to say to that? Phillip was so young. None of his friends wanted him to wed. He said carefully, “Is it that she missed you more than you had believed? Surely this is a good sign.”
Phillip’s laugh was low and mean. “Miss me? God, that’s a rare jest. Give me a glass of brandy, Charles, and be quick about it.”
Silently, Charles moved to the sideboard, poured brandy from the crystal decanter, and handed it to his friend. Phillip tipped the brandy down his throat and, with a growl of fury, hurled the empty glass toward the grate, where it shattered.
Charles was now seriously frightened. “Dear God, Phillip, what happened? What’s wrong with you?”
The viscount raised his eyes and said in a voice so flat and soft that Charles had to lean close to make out his words, “Elaine—my Ice Maiden—is pregnant, my friend. It took me quite a while to pry it out of her. Rest assured that I’m not the father.”
Charles reeled back on his heels. “But who?”
“Exactly my question to dear Elaine, which, of course, she tearfully refused to answer. It wasn’t very noble of me, but I waited patiently, then followed her. There is no doubt in my mind that the father of her child is her wastrel cousin, Roger.” Phillip paused a moment, his eyes turning hard. “Of course he will never know the sex of his child, for I am going to kill him.”
Charles sucked in his breath. Of a certainty he had seen Elaine much in her cousin’s company, but he was, after all, part of her family. To the eyes of the polite world, there had been nothing questionable about her behavior.
“What do you intend to do about Elaine?”
“That panting little bitch?” He began to laugh, furiously wild laughter. “If she is an ice maiden, Charles, I ask you, what is every other lady? Well, my friend, I’ll tell you what they are—sluts who have no honor, who will part their thighs to the closest male of their acquaintance. I thank God that I have seen the truth in time to escape. Never will I fall into such a trap again.”
Charles shook the viscount’s shoulders. “You’re drunk as a loon, Phillip, and you don’t know what you’re saying. Come to bed. We’ll decide what is to be done on the morrow, when you’ve a clear head and your wits about you.”
“No, Charles. What must be done will be done now, tonight. I am off to kill that bastard, Roger. You will act as my second?”
“But the scandal, Phillip. Have you thought of what this would do to your mother? To Elaine’s family? My God, man, you’re the Viscount Derencourt.”
Phillip regarded Charles for a brief moment, then said softly, “If I do not have my honor, Charles, I have nothing. Most likely, all of society will damn me to hell.” He rose and shrugged into his greatcoat. “I’m not too drunk to get it done. Are you coming, Charles?”
Margaret was shaking. That such a thing could happen appalled her.
“There’s more, isn’t there, Charlie? You’ve trusted me thus far, please, you must tell me the rest of it.”
“Needless to say, I accompanied Phillip to Roger Travers’s lodging. Both he and his valet were gone. I remember that his housekeeper, a nervous little scarecrow of a woman, showed Phillip a note written by Roger saying that he’d left on an extended visit to the Continent. As you know, Margaret, there was no scandal. As for Elaine, obviously, she rid herself of the child. It is my opinion that she must have harmed herself irrevocably, for she has never borne Bufford an heir. Phillip left immediately for the Peninsula. It was Elaine who inserted a retraction of their engagement in the Gazette. The following June, she married Bufford. The rest, my dear Margaret, you know.”
“That horrible bitch. Goodness, I should like to challenge her to a duel.”
Charles took his sister’s small hand into his. “What’s really strange is that Elaine hates Phillip. She knows he has never said a word about what happened, but it seems that she can’t remain civil around him. I know she tells tales about things he’s supposedly done. Now, I know that you will guard this secret. Phillip would wring my neck if he knew I’d told you.”
“It’s because of Elaine that he’s never married?”