One Night Scandal

“I wanted to find out how your wedding plans are progressing,” he replied and then sipped his brandy. “Damn fine stuff.”

“The wedding will take place after Christmas.”

His father looked as if he wanted to stand up and rail at him. But with his age and condition, rising quickly wasn’t an option. “After Christmas! What is that about? I want you married before I pass on. There is every likelihood that I will not make it until Christmas.”

Nicholas smirked. “I am terribly sorry about that, Your Grace. But I will not be made a fool of by a woman. She compromised herself, and I will not take a chance that she is carrying another man’s child.”

“Of course she isn’t. That gel is innocent.”

“And how can you be so certain?” he asked. After reading the note about her leaving balls, he wasn’t sure she was still innocent.

“Her father informed me,” the duke answered.

“Then it must be true,” Nicholas said in a sarcastic tone. “I really don’t care if the king declared her innocent. Until I know for sure that she is not carrying, I will not marry her.”

His father narrowed his blue eyes on his son. “This is about that medium woman, isn’t it?”

“This has nothing to do with Miss Reynard.”

“Of course it does.” His father took a long sip of brandy before continuing, “Not that it matters. She is just like every other whore.”

Nicholas shot to his feet and clenched his fists. “She is not a whore.”

The old duke laughed scathingly and he stood to leave. “Of course she is. In fact, she never said a word when I gave her ten thousand pounds to leave London.”

Nicholas said nothing as his father ambled toward the door. She never would have taken the duke’s money. She had her father to pay her expenses. Besides, her friends would have known if she left the country. They would have informed him.

Unless they did not know either.

He refused to believe his lying father. Although, Nicholas knew his father would do anything to keep him from marrying Sophie. Including giving her a fortune to leave.

His world spun around him. There was only one way to straighten this mess out—see Sophie himself. He yelled out to his butler to ready his carriage. Then he paced the room while he waited.

“Excuse me, my lord,” Lane said from the doorway. “A letter was just delivered to you.”

Nicholas grabbed the letter from Lane’s outstretched hand. “Thank you.” Seeing Sophie’s familiar handwriting, he relaxed his tense muscles. She never would have left without saying good-bye to him and her friends.

He broke open the seal, scanned the letter and then crunched it into a tight ball and threw it across the room. She’d left him. Not only did she leave, but she took his father’s money. Pain exploded behind his head and shattered his heart.

She had left him. Without a word of good-bye. How could she have done this to him? He would have done anything for her. He reached for the brandy, decanted it and poured himself another glass of brandy.

He would get drunk until he couldn’t feel the pain any longer. Until all thoughts of Sophie were gone from his head. Maybe if he drank enough he would forget how much he loved her, or how beautiful she was, or how she satisfied his every need.

He laughed as he drank a third glass. He didn’t have enough brandy in the house for that. He wasn’t sure London had enough brandy to help him forget her.

“I am sorry, Lady Blackburn,” Nicholas’s butler said, “his lordship is indisposed.”

“Drunk?” Jennette asked softly. After receiving the letter from Sophie this afternoon, Jennette knew how Nicholas would react. She had arrived as quickly as she could manage.

He leaned in closer. “He’s locked himself in his study. He hasn’t left his study in three hours except to call for another bottle of brandy. I fear it may have something to do with a letter

that Lane left for him earlier.”

Jennette was afraid of that. Once she’d received her letter, she knew she must speak with him. “I will talk with him.”

“Yes, my lady.”

She inhaled deeply and walked toward his study. She pounded on the door, waiting for a reply. When he didn’t answer, she knocked even harder. “Nicholas, please let me in.”