“Is that your answer to everything?” She stabbed a finger at the weapon in his hands. “I thought we had this settled last night?”
“That was before Montieth’s escapade became food for the gossipmongers. Or are you not aware that your name is on everyone’s lips this morning?”
Reggie flinched but said evenly, “I do know it. I just left a room full of women who couldn’t wait to offer their sympathies.”
“And what did you tell them?”
“Well, I couldn’t very well deny that it had happened, because Lady Eddington’s driver witnessed the whole thing. But I did lie and say that I was brought right back, that Lord Montieth had realized his mistake quickly.”
Anthony shook his head. “Which they didn’t believe. Did they?”
“Well, no,” she admitted reluctantly.
“Because that bloody driver waited a good hour for you to be returned, and everyone knows it. And it doesn’t take an hour to do what is being said was done. Your lying about it only suggests that you have something to hide.”
“But that’s not true!”
“Since when does the truth matter to passionate gossips?”
“Oh, what am I going to do, Tony?” she cried miserably.
“You will do nothing. You will weather it, with the support of your family.Hewill pay the price for besmirching your good name.”
“You will not challenge him.”
Anthony’s eyes narrowed. “If I don’t, Jason will, and Jason will get himself killed. He’s not the shot I am.”
“No one is going to be killed, Tony.” She said this as if the matter were entirely up to her. “There has to be another solution. That’s why I came. I thought I would be too late to catch you before you left town, though. How did you find out?”
“I was, in fact, leaving town, and my old friend George hailed me to give me warning that the cat was out of the bag. It’s bloody damned fortunate that I was late getting started this morning. Otherwise I’d be halfway to Gloucester by now, and old Eddie would have been left to deal with this. I can just imagine the mess he’d make of it.”
“At least his answer wouldn’t be to grab the nearest pistol,” she retorted.
Anthony made a face. “Does he know yet?”
“No. He was closeted in his office all morning. He still is. Aunt Charlotte said she would try and keep it from him as long as possible. I thought maybe you wouldn’t mind…”
“Coward. Eddie isn’t the one you need to worry about, though. It’s Jason who is going to fly through the roof.”
“Well, at least he won’t hear about it for some time.”
“Don’t count on that, puss. He’ll know by the end of the day, tomorrow at the latest. You think he doesn’t keep tabs on you when you’re in wicked old London?”
“He doesn’t!”
“Oh, but he does,” Anthony assured her. “He had regular reports on you when you were in Europe, too. Nothing escapes Jason. Even I am not shielded from his all-seeing eye. How do you think he finds out so quickly about all my bloody scrapes?”
Reggie groaned. This was going from bad to worse. Jason could be just as hot-tempered as Tony. Besides that, he was a man of rigid principles. When there was any question of honor, his could not be tampered with.
For him there would be only one solution, and if that didn’t work, he would be cleaning his pistols just as Tony was. But that first solution was intolerable. Nicholas Eden would never agree. He would rather face one of her uncles across the dueling field than be forced to marry, she was sure of it.
She worried at her lower lip. “There must be something we can do, Tony, some story we can invent.”
“Any one of a dozen, puss, but not one will be believed. The trouble is that Montieth has seduced innocents like you before. That he was alone with you—never mind that it wasn’t you he meant to be alone with—implies that he took advantage of the situation. He is such a handsome devil, you couldn’t have resisted him. That’s what people will think. And say.”
Reggie blushed and looked away uncomfortably.
“I don’t know why I’m even discussing this with you,” Anthony continued curtly. “There is only one thing to be done, and it’s up to me to see it done.”
