He spoke stiffly, and Phoebe knew then that this was the reason he and the viscount had been fighting.
‘Good riddance!’ Aurelia snapped, hobbling over to the hotel steps with the heel of her riding boot in one hand. ‘Hasanyonenoticed the state of my habit?’
Phoebe looked up and was delighted to note that Aurelia’s lilac riding habit was indeed splattered from head to foot with thick mud.
‘You owe me fifty pounds,’ she added serenely.
Fred whistled.
‘You ladies don’t go in for low stakes, do you?’ he observed.
‘Phoebe is going nowhere!’ Thomas addressed the captain directly. ‘And you, sir, will meet me for this … insult!’
His tone was ugly, and his uncompromising expression one Phoebe knew well.
‘My brother will do no such thing,’ the viscount returned, snatching up his sword. ‘If anyone gets to murder him, it will be me!’
‘Thank you,’ the captain murmured, ‘I think.’
Phoebe exhaled in exasperation before pushing them all away, and clambering to her feet.
‘Cover yourself, sister!’ Thomas barked furiously. ‘You are in company!’
The park spun out like a maypole as, bemused, Phoebe looked down at what was left of her riding habit. Her short jacket barely reached the waist of her exposed pantalettes and briefly, she marvelled at their unblemished white, before drawing a breath.
‘Firstly, no one is murdering anyone onmybehalf,’ she began, grateful for the captain’s steadying hand. ‘Though if you all choose to murder one another for other reasons, I’m sure I wish you well in your endeavours.’
She drew another deep breath, relieved to find the world slowly steadying.
‘Secondly, the captain and Iareleaving together.’
A murmur of dissent went up immediately, to which Phoebe held up a hand.
‘Thirdly, none of you will stop us because the morning is advancing, and this race will be the scandal of the season,involving all of you, unless you let us go.’
‘Damn the scandal! Why Elliot?’ the viscount interrupted in a low, raw tone she’d not heard before.
It was the moment she’d been dreading most as she turned back to face him. Lying to her brothers about the captain was one thing, lying to the viscount about her true feelings quite another. She caught her breath as a strange weakness melted through her. He was all golden skin and tousled hair, while his dark eyes were unexpectedly vulnerable.
‘I … love Elliot … and he … he loves me,’ she forced, watching a shadow of pain flicker across his face, and somehow find its way into her chest, too.
She clenched her jaw, forcing herself to hold his gaze.
‘Phoebe, this is ridiculous!’ Thomas expostulated. ‘You are to marry the earl in a week! Or have you forgotten Papa’s dying wish?’
‘It wasn’t his dying wish!’ Phoebe rounded on her brother furiously. ‘And I’ll wager you’ve always known it. It was a gambling debt! Left over from when he was young and reckless! Tell me, what kind of gentleman would gamble the hand of his first-born daughter in marriage? And what kind of brother would not want to find a way to undo it?! Except it suited you, didn’t it? You only ever wanted Knightswood, not the family that went with it!’
There was silence, as a range of expressions from fury to smug satisfaction registered around the small group.
‘Is this true, Thomas?’ Fred asked, the first to find his tongue.
‘No! Of course?—’
‘Well, the gambling part is,’ Aurelia interjected, sliding up behind the viscount and pushing her arm through his.
‘Which is why you were fightingsoheroically to stop the captain, wasn’t it, Alexander? The Damerels have no desire to be associated with scandal. And a true gentlemanalwayshonours his debts.’
She paused to sigh in self-satisfaction at Thomas.
