“Thomas, don’t do anything reckless.”
He was already stalking out the door.
Less than an hour later, his hack driver stopped in front of the Earl of Adnin’s townhouse, the place he’d grown up in with Lisbeth. Fury roared within him. This was the man who’d made Lisbeth leave him in Tuscany. He paid the driver and knocked on the front door.
He didn’t let the butler speak, but walked in. “Please let Adnin know Thomas Easton is here to see him.”
The butler was not the man Thomas had grown up with, but someone younger. “Mr. Easton, I’m not sure he is in.”
He walked to the drawing room, which he was so familiar with. “I will wait.”
Standing in the room, a dozen memories flashed in his mind. The previous Earl and Countess of Adnin had allowed him to spend time with Lisbeth, he suspected, to keep her occupied. They’d formed an instant connection. It was not normal for the child of a housekeeper to have so much freedom, but no matter how rot the previous earl was with money, he had been kind.
Adnin stalked in, his eyes glittering with anger. “I wasn’t sure you would show your face here.”
Thomas glared back at him. “How could you allow your sister to make such a sacrifice?”
“How could you compromise her?”
He must know everything, Thomas realized. Adnin bit out, “I don’t know how you convinced her to marry you, but I will get it annulled.”
Dark laughter from him. “You don’t have that power. I could buy you ten times over.”
Adnin charged at him, throwing a punch and hitting him in the jaw. Thomas responded, striking him in the eye, causing his head to snap back. Adnin grabbed him, and they crashed into a cart before tumbling to the ground and tussling.
“You ass,” Thomas hissed.
“You disreputable—”
The rest of the sentence was silenced by water being thrown at them. Thomas looked up to see an angry Lisbeth and a shocked Benson. He and Adnin froze. She glowered at them. “What is wrong with the two of you? You are grown men.”
“Lisbeth—” Adnin started, still clutching the front of Thomas’s shirt.
She shook her head. “No. I don’t need this.”
Thomas smirked, and then she glared at him. “And you, if you planned to enjoy all the vices of London, you should not have married me.”
With that, she spun around, her skirts swirling around her. Her footsteps thundered down the foyer and out the front door. Benson shook his head and hurried after her. Thomas and Adnin released each other, both moving to sitting positions on the floor.
“End the marriage,” Adnin demanded.
Thomas sat there, the last bit of his apprehension of trying with Lisbeth disappearing. He’d been acting like a fool. What was he doing? “I love her.”
Adnin’s eyes widened. “You haven’t been behaving that way.”
“I was upset about Alice, but I want to make things right.”
The man, whom he didn’t want as his brother-in-law, said, “She didn’t have a choice.”
Thomas nodded. Adnin added, “If you hurt her, I will give you another thrashing.”
He scowled. “I gave you a thrashing.”
Adnin snorted.
Chapter Twenty-One
Lisbeth looked aroundher small study, trying to decide if there was anything else she needed to do before she left for the country. Thomas still hadn’t returned, but she couldn’t wait any longer. She needed space. Alice was upset with her that they were missing the event on the epic, but she didn’t want to face all of society when she didn’t even know where her husband was.
