The dealer returned the signal.
A lad, really. Argyll hadn’t been one. When university lads were first sowing their oats, Argyll had, by that point, been fully corrupted.
DuMond tracked his stare to the young man. “A fellow future duke,” he said, tipping his chin the youth’s way. “The future Duke of Bainbridge.
When DuMond went to monitor one of the new acts about to get underway at the theatre portion of the club, Argyll took in the latest dissolute duke in the making.
“…Your father was a monster
He stared at the tops of heads.
A vise squeezed him with a pressure that wouldn’t quit.
“…Those. Are. Not. Things. Fathers. Do, Gregory…”
It’s whathishad done.
The muscle of his throat moved.
“…Your father was a monster…”
All fathers were. Hell, Argyll’s, DuMond’s, Craven’s. There hadn’t been an honorable fellow in the bunch. Forbidden Pleasures bore testament to that.
All men. The more powerful they were, the uglier their souls.
No.
“…I did not leave my home for a more than a year… Mama and Clayton insisted I must and…at first, I didn’t want to go, but then, I… I didn’t know how to. But I also didn’t want to be with my family…”
Not all men.
With the debt the previous Duke of Argyll wasted on whores, drink, and whatever whim struck in a moment, and the state he’d left the Argyll landholdings—and tenants—in, the rotter couldn’t have died fast enough for Argyll’s liking.
Daria spent much of her girlhood years and all her adult life thus far, mourningherfather.
“…We were all so sad, and we absorbed one another’s misery.”
Argyll angled his head left and right, cracking his neck, releasing tension from the muscles.
“…You arenotlike him…”
Wasn’t he?
Of course he was.
“…W-Would you do those things with our son…?”
Just the thought of exposing a child near in age to Millie sent vomit climbing up his throat.
Argyll looked to the front as the porter admitted the married Lord Cavenleigh, on the arm of his lover, Lady Sarah. Wedded couples took lovers with the same frequency they did tea.
Not DuMond and not Kilburn.
They’d proven themselves honorable and faithful; men whom would one day be mourned by the ones they left behind.
He grimaced.
It appeared his wife’s talks of death had finally gotten to him.
