“Put it away, please,” said Allen in discomfort. “For God’s sake, Campion!”
“So, youdothink it was worth it,” said Halesworth softly. He didn’t look alarmed, but almost triumphant. “We should form a club, of all the men who’ve had her. She is a remarkably enthusiastic whore, isn’t she?”
Richard swept out his arm. The blade flashed and the candles wobbled, causing Dunstan to give a shout of alarm, but nothing happened. Allen put his fist to his mouth, eyes on the knife.
“Those words do not become a gentleman,” Richard said calmly, holding up the blade to examine it closely. “I will overlook it, as you are clearly gone stupid with drink this evening. In the morning, surely, you will regret ever uttering them.”
Halesworth climbed to his feet. “I don’t regret it,” he snarled. “I meant it as a favor to you. Know what you’re getting! Forewarned, and all that.”
Inhale, exhale. Richard felt his breath like the force of the wind against a mainsail, straining under the pressure, driving him toward the man across from him. “Perhaps I should persuade you to regret them,” he said. “Tomorrow, at dawn.”
Dunstan goggled at him, and Allen gave an awkward laugh. “Now, no reason for that!”
“I’d like to see you try,” growled Halesworth.
With a loud sigh, Gerhard shoved back his chair and got to his feet. “Not again, Richard! Too many times have I done this. Duels are such an inconvenience, so early in the day. If you mean to kill him, do it now, please, and leave me to my sleep.”
“What, what?Again?”asked Parker-Philips, startled.
Gerhard turned toward him as a tutor might turn to a student who had asked a question. “Three times... or is it four? I cannot recall them all now. I know he does not need my assistance with the actual shooting of someone, but I have found other seconds rarely manage well, with all the blood. One man wet himself and began weeping, he was no use at all. I could almost call myself a surgeon, after all the wounds I have tended.” He turned to Halesworth. “Can you not apologize? Are you a complete idiot?”
Halesworth was furious. “I apologize for nothing!”
Gerhard threw up his hands. “Another idiot! Who is your solicitor? He will have a copy of your will, correct?”
Halesworth flushed, but his eyes flickered toward the knife in Richard’s hand. “You’ll see, Campion, you’ll see?—”
Richard reached out and poked the top of the candles in the candelabra in front of him, one by one, with the tip of the khukuri. The top two inches of candle, wick still burning, toppled to the table. The second candle top rolled toward Dunstan, who instinctively seized it in his napkin to extinguish it. The third candle top fell into the tray of cigars, causing Allen to yelp. The fourth candle top landed upright and continued burning, a trickle of wax running down the side.
“Beeswax will do, for tonight,” said Richard quietly. He slid the long blade back into its sheath. “Shall we try again tomorrow, Halesworth?”
The viscount’s furious gaze jumped from the blade, to Gerhard, to the candle fragment still burning on the table. In the reduced light, the whites of his eyes stood out. “No.”
Richard kept a steady gaze on him, like a hawk watching prey. Gerhard cleared his throat. “A retraction, if you please.”
Halesworth clamped his lips together and looked mutinous.
“My pistols are in my carriage,” said Richard in an even softer tone. “We could settle it tonight. This very hour.”
Halesworth, with several glasses of wine and brandy inside him, hesitated. He glanced at Allen in appeal, but that man only shook his head emphatically. Halesworth inhaled, then closed his eyes. “I regret my earlier implication of any impropriety committed by Lady Courtenay,” he muttered.
Richard bowed his head. “Of course. Drink makes one rash and foolish, prone to misstatements. I accept your apology.” He turned toward Allen, who sat rigidly upright, his back pressed hard into his chair. “Good evening, Lord Allen. Thank you for dinner.”
He turned on his heel and walked out, Gerhard behind him, and just caught Brentwood’s gust of drunken laughter as a servant closed the door of the private room behind them. “Good Lord, Halesworth! I say,fourduels! And not even a limp to be seen!”
Gerhard did not speak until their carriage had been summoned and they were safely alone in it. Then he asked, in his deceptively mild tone, “That may prove unwise.”
Richard glared out the window at the gaslit streets around them. “And yet I feel no regret.”
His friend heaved a sigh. “The man did deserve it. He is a cretin. But I suspect none of them are as discreet as they should be. What will you do if the lady hears of it?”
He closed his eyes. She would be mortified. If she heard of it, of him threatening Halesworth with a dagger—in White’s, of allplaces—then other people would hear of it. Clemency would hear about it. He didn’t care what people thought of him for doing it, but he quailed at the thought of his sister being scorned for it. But he positively dreaded what Evangeline might do, now that he had exposed her to gossip and scorn yet again.
“I don’t know,” he told his friend, and didn’t speak again, his mind in torment.
Chapter 20
Mrs. Hutchins brought the dress herself.
