He was going to show his vulnerability. To vultures. And he would do it for Katherine.
He pushed the door open and the men in the room turned with wide grins. They were his…friendswas one word for it. Men he had rabble roused and tom-catted around with. Men who fed his worst impulses.
Berronburg was chief amongst them, standing in the middle of a circle of four men. As Robert stepped inside, he began to clap and the others joined in. Robert’s stomach turned as he shut the door behind him.
“Good show, old man,” one of the others, the Earl of Middlemarch, called out.
It was Mr. Peter Ward who spoke next. “Yes, yes. Berronburg told us you have sealed the wager by bedding Lady Gainsworth. We all cannot wait to hear the details of your conquest.”
“When you called us all here for the moment of your return, we knew there could be no other reason,” said Sir Curtis Denton as he lifted a glass of Robert’s finest scotch in salute. “Welcome home, conqueror.”
Robert shook his head. He hated himself for what he’d been in the company of these men. He’d always told himself that he was careful, that he was harmless. That was so far from the truth.
“I did not call you here so I could crow,” he said, keeping his voice soft somehow when he wanted to shout.
“You will have us tease the details out of you,” Berronburg chortled. “You are a bastard. I saw the man at Abernathe’s ball just a few days ago. You should have seen him with the countess. Stop being so coy. How delicious was she?”
Robert moved forward and caught Berronburg’s collar, dragging him flush against him as he glared down into his friend…former friend’s…face. “If you speak of the lady so cavalierly again, I will see you at dawn.”
The jovial tone of the room dissipated in a moment and Berronburg swallowed hard. “I-I didn’t mean to offend, Roseford.”
Robert released him, pushing him away as he paced from the circle of scavengers waiting for tidbits. “Youdooffend. I did not call you here for some disgusting display. You are here because I want to make something very clear to each and every one of you.”
Berronburg was still straightening his twisted clothing, and so it was Middlemarch who spoke next. “And what is that? Did you not win the wager? Is there still an open season on the countess?”
Robert speared the man with a look that drew all the blood from his cheeks and made the earl take a long step away. “The Countess of Gainsworth is off limits,” he said. “She is not to be approached by any man in this room or any acquaintance outside our circle. She is not to be whispered about or sneered at in any way. Do I make myself clear?”
“He couldn’t land her,” Sir Curtis chuckled, clearly in his cups since he could not read the tone of the room. Berronburg reached out to grip his arm with a swift shake of his head.
Robert barely kept himself from marching across the room and breaking Denton’s nose. “The lady,” he said slowly, “will be my wife if I can ever convince her to forgive me for what a bastard I have been.”
The collective mouths of his friends dropped open all at once and the stunned silence might have once made Robert laugh. Today he felt no joy in it, not when he relived what Katherine had said to him. What her crumpled face had looked like when she poured out her heartbreak, the devastationhehad caused.
“You are going to…to marry her?” Berronburg stammered with a shake of his head.
“I am in love with the lady. And if you do not wish to risk my wrath, I would expect you will honor that,” Robert growled.
It was funny. He had spent the ride back from Abernathe anticipating this moment. Worrying about what he would say, how his former friends would react. Declaring himself had been a point of great anxiety.
But now it felt easy. He didn’t give a damn what these men thought of him. Only that Katherine would be protected from their sneers and whispers, whether she married him or not. If he could not have her, by God he would protect her.
“Raise a glass to the loss of the greatest libertine in London,” Berronburg said solemnly as he swept up a tumbler from the sideboard and lifted it in Robert’s direction. “And to the lady who finally tamed him. Wager or no.”
Robert wrinkled his brow in surprise as each man lifted his glass in turn.
“Your lady has nothing to fear from us,” Sir Curtis said with a sigh. “There will be no whispers from our set. Good Society is out of our control.”
Robert pursed his lips. That was true. The duchesses were a help with that, of course. And if he could convince Katherine to hear him out, to listen to his pleas and be his wife, perhaps one day she would be accepted. Or at least have enough clout thanks to his name, his fortune, that she wouldn’t have to care.
“So she knows of your wager, then?” Berronburg continued.
Robert nodded once. His friends had the good sense to look chagrined at that as they shifted and exchanged looks.
Berronburg shrugged. “Probably a bit piggish for us to make that wager in the first place.”
“Very,” Robert said. “And it is my last decree as the biggest…formerly biggest libertine in London…that it never happen again.”
The men looked annoyed, but all of them nodded.
