“Actually, he found me. I searched every wicked den I could find. I finally circled back to his house to let them know that I had failed. That is when I caught him returning home on the arm of a watchman. He insisted on coming with me but, well, he’s worn thin.” He nodded to the sitting room. “He is in there. He’s too wrapped around the axle to rest and more than a bit touchy to learn there is no port or brandy.”
“Wait until he discovers why.” Ned handed Royce his hat and coat and then inwardly braced himself before greeting his friend. Mars could be tricky even when he was feeling his best. Ned had nursed him the last time he’d needed to recover from his overindulgence. It had not been a pleasant experience. He entered the sitting room.
Mars was ensconced in Ned’s favorite upholstered chair before the fire. His stockinged feet rested on a footstool. He was coatless and without his neck cloth. What had once been a fine vest was unbuttoned and appeared as if it had been slept in then ridden in for several hours.
He’d rolled the sleeves of his lawn shirt up and his arms rested over the sides of the chair as he complained, “You have kept me waiting.” He was a tall, broad-shouldered man with hair the dusty color of winter wheat and eyes that could turn to ice when he was crossed. Right now they were red rimmed and a pale blue. “Who drank all the port?”
“Winderton.” Ned came around to sit in the identical chair next to Mars’s. “He’s back in Maidenshop. He is staying at the Dower House and he is an idiot.”
“He’s an idiot wherever he stays,” Mars answered. “Of course, he is young. Not ancient like you and I.”
Marsdidlook ancient and Ned forgot his argument over The Garland. It was suddenly unimportant in the face of his friend’s disheveled appearance. He angled his chair to face the earl and leaned forward. “Why, Mars? Why do you do this to yourself?”
“Why does a wild March hare run out in the open across a road?” The earl shrugged.
“You have everything any man could ever want. There is no need to lose yourself in opium.”
Mars looked away. For a few seconds there was silence and then he said, “What do you know of what I need?”
“Then tell me.”
“I do it because I wish to.”
“No, there is always a reason. Something deeper.”
Mars frowned as if he didn’t quite believe him, then said, “A reason. Such as watching my father shot and having no right or ability to make the man responsible pay?” He referred to Lord Dervil, a neighbor who spent most of his time in London. He’d dueled with Mars’s father over a property line and killed him dead. If Dervil had his way, he’d own the village. Only Mars stood in his way, and even though the earl had ascended to the title when he was fifteen, he’d stood up to the powerful lord then and he stood up to him now. He just couldn’t make him pay for his father’s death.
But Ned was not going to let his friend drift off in self-pity. “Many people see their father die and don’t turn to the pipe.”
The earl sat up and shook his head and shoulders as if stretching before pinning Ned with an aloof gaze, a nobleman’s stare. “I don’t do it often. At least, not anymore.”
Ned refused to have his concern dismissed. “And never on a whim, I imagine.”
His friend snorted his answer and settled back into the chair, any good humor gone. Here was the true man. Mars may smile and be genial inpublic but there was a dark side to him. “You don’t understand.”
Ned sat back. “Possibly. Then again, you never had to play witness to your mother’s entertaining. Or have your father shove you out of his life to please his lady wife. Your sire was an honorable man. Mine was a fool, his wife a disgrace to the word, and my natural mother a whore. You should also thank the Almighty that you are an only child instead of having half brothers and sisters who would adore to see you six feet under.”
His statement didn’t faze Mars. He knew Ned’s story. “Your mum is a whore who is still celebrated to this day. And everyone knows Sarah Middleton can take care of herself. It is said that Nottoway is now keeping her. He is twenty years her junior.”
“If ever there was a woman who could teach a man something, it is the ewe that birthed me.”
“At least she gave you life.”
“Aye, and she never made that mistake again or gavemea sideways glance.”
There was a beat of silence. Then Mars leaned forward abruptly. “But don’t you ever want to take them all on?” he challenged. “Give them a good hard shake? You are a brilliant man, an excellent doctor. Why hide yourself away here in this farcical little society?”
“Because this is my home.”
The earl fell back. “We are both doomed.” He said the words with such dry, comic effect that Ned had to smile, and Mars answered it with awan one of his own before admitting, “You are right.” He paused. “Do you know I tried to hire Royce away from you? He is too devoted to your service to leave. In fact, you are ten times the man your lordly half brothers are.Youare the one who would have made a father proud.”
“I ceased caring about what any of them thought decades ago. When I was seven, in fact. That was when I finally realized no one was going to return for me. Ever. My sire paid for my studies and that was enough. You and Balfour are my brothers. I have little need of any others. And that is why I must beg you to stop indulging in pipe dreams, even if it is on a rare occasion now. Do you know what Maidenshop would be like if Dervil was allowed to reign unchecked? As it is, he stays away from us because he stays away from you.”
“You believe Dervil is afraid of me?” Mars returned with a half laugh. “I doubt it.”
“He knows you want to kill him.”
“Someday, I will find a way.”
