“That’s a flimsy sham, and you know it,” Fairclough insisted.
“British law is hardly a flimsy sham!” Adam wished he could keep utterly calm, but the notion of that dead reprobate still making Alice’s life difficult infuriated him. He wanted her to find contentment and be happy.
“Lady Alice needs to payherdebts,” the man insisted, “and I see no reason why she shouldn’t pay my brother’s. They were a partnership, as you are. Don’t you agree?”
“You shall refer to her as Lady Diamond, or I will knock your teeth out. Moreover, I would never saddle her with debt, certainly not the expenses of outrageous gambling and keeping a mistress.”
Fairclough narrowed his eyes. Perhaps he was considering seeing reason.
“Very well. We’ll say those were covered by the meager sticks of furniture and ratty tapestries we found at Stoney Hall.”
“Stonely Grange,” Alice whispered.
Fairclough ignored her. “That leaves her exorbitant spending all over Mayfair, up and down Bond Street and Oxford Street.”
“You sold the London townhouse and reaped the profit,” Alice reminded the man. Adam had forgotten that. If Fairclough needed more money, it was probably his own debts he was now trying to cover.
“You are not welcome to speak with us again,” Adam reminded him. “The next time we see you, we shall give you the cut direct. If you see us first, I invite you to do the same.”
“I want that money,” Fairclough said firmly, “for I have no intention of paying it myself.”
“Perhaps I could—” Alice began.
“Silence,” Adam said to her, more sharply than he intended. “The law is clear, Fairclough.”
The man sneered before giving an insolent bow. “I shall see you again,” he said, looking only at Alice.
Adam made a fist, never more ready to send out a facer. Lucky for Fairclough, he hurried away.
“What an odious individual,” he declared.
Alice also turned away, striding back toward the Strawberry Hill House rear entrance where the party was still going strong. Adam caught up with her in a few strides.
“All my fault,” she muttered. “I wanted a new wardrobe as a newly married woman. No longer wishing to wear pastels and demure, high-necked gowns.”
“So, you spent quite a bit, I take it.”
“An alarming amount,” she confessed mirthlessly. “At first, I did it to please Richard, hoping he would look at me the way he had before we were married, and then I did it to make him notice me when the monthly accounts were due. But it wasn’t the kind of endearing attention I’d hoped for. His anger was impressive.”
“Did he hit you?” Adam asked, wondering how to take vengeance on a dead man.
She hesitated, and he feared the worst.
“Only once. And I shocked him by slapping him back. I said if he ever struck me again, I would retaliate one way or the other. Unfortunately, he told his brother I said that, and the man has always thought me too bold. And then, after Richard’s death, Gerald blamed me for that, too.”
At last, Alice stopped and faced him, with the lights of the party behind her and the sounds of the musicians and people dancing.
“In any case, it wasn’t fun anymore to buy new clothes since my husband stopped escorting me anywhere. I could hardly go alone. I would have felt humiliated, especially when I found out he was taking his mistress to the most exclusive balls and parties.”
“What I cannot understand is why,” Adam said. “He had a wife who was fair of face and figure. What point was there to having a mistress, especially one who cost him money?”
“I never asked him, but I don’t think he liked me very much.”
Adam laughed at her quiet admission.
“Whyever not? You are always exceedingly good company, and in all other respects, the most desirable of women. I consider myself fortunate every day I wake up beside you.”
Her cheeks turned pink. “Thank you, and I, you. But with him, it was different. He didn’t want a woman with opinions. He would have adored the amiable Lady Susanne, although I wouldn’t wish him upon my enemy, never mind a sweet girl like her. I was not sweet. When he behaved badly, I had the disagreeable habit of pointing it out, particularly when he drank too much or gambled away an entire month’s income from his estate. He most definitely didn’t want his faults noted. He said I was a shrew and a scold.”
