“Rubbish.Remember when Nobbie decided to let all the chickens out and one ran into the kitchen.”
Sebastian laughed, the sound caressing Maurice’s skin.“I had nothing to do with that.”
“But you laughed when the Cook grabbed one of them and it slapped her in the face with its wing.”
Sebastian was still smiling.“We got in so much trouble for that and it wasn’t even me.”
Sir Pashley nudged Sebastian, and damn if Maurice wasn’t jealous over their easy friendship.“Well, we weren’t going to let Nobbie take all the punishment by himself.”
“No.”Sebastian paused, and then stopped smiling.“Your Grace, let me introduce my good friend and complete rascal, Sir Earnest Pashley.Earnest, this is his Grace, the Duke of Edenwick.”
“Is he the one?”Sir Pashley sent Sebastian a coy look—one that communicated plenty about how much he knew about him and Sebastian—and Sebastian flinched before darting glances at Hardwicke and the footmen.
“We can speak freely in front of my servants.They know to hold their tongues outside the estate.”Maurice desperately wanted to know Sebastian’s answer to Sir Pashley’s question.
Sir Pashley bounced on his toes.“Please say yes.He’s deliciously ducal and uptight.Don’t you just want to see him undone?”
Goodness!Who was this person who dared say such things?Not just out loud but also in front of a Duke.Maurice hadn’t recovered from the shock when he noticed that Sebastian had flushed with his brown skin darkening across his cheeks.
“I have and it was everything.”The whispered admission from Sebastian made Maurice’s knees crumble.“But it’s impossible.”Sebastian said the hard part much louder.
“Oh, it’s not.I have the perfect solution for you.Well, Adam has the perfect solution.He sent me here to tell you.”Sir Pashley waved his hands in the air.
“Shall we be seated?”Maurice needed to sit down before his legs collapsed under him.This was too much to hope for, and he wasn’t sure if he should be worried about the idea that Sebastian’s chaotic friend had a solution, or if he should be worried?He was definitely worried.There was no way that this person could do anything that would be quiet or sensible or ...helpful?Dread pooled in his stomach like a lump of stale bread, and he sat stiffly in his chair, trying to breath slowly to calm the erratic way his heart thumped.Sweat slid down his spine and made his palms moist, so he rubbed them on a napkin.
“The Duke of Baverstock is going to marry his daughter off to the recently widowed Earl of Ervington," Sir Pashley said.
“No.Ervington is ancient, and he’s been through four wives already.”Maurice had never liked the old man.There were rumours that Ervington did unspeakable things to his wives, but it had never been confirmed and besides he was a peer; protected by the same system that benefited Maurice.If anything demonstrated that the peerage should be held accountable it was men like Ervington.
“I agree, it’s gross, and also—” Sir Pashley waved his hand in the air, “Lady Victoria is in love with her maid, a Miss Ginny McPeachy, and so the idea of marriage to any man is unconscionable to her.”
Maurice’s chest hurt with empathy for the young lady.“I don’t understand what this has to do with me.”
“Obviously—” Sir Pashley waved his hands around.“You will marry her.She’ll be safe from Ervington, and she can live here with Ginny.”
“But she doesn’t want to marry a man, and I don’t want to...”Maurice wanted Sebastian.
Sebastian sighed.“Maurice.It would be a marriage on paper only.If the world sees you are both married...”
He frowned, staring at the two of them.What was he missing?Oh.Ohhh.“I would be free to love who I want without the world noticing because all they’d see was that I was married?”Fucking hell, the solution was incredibly simple.His chest swelled and his heart galloped at the possibility.His mouth was dry.He could have Sebastian in his bed and in his life as his lover forever and the world wouldn’t hurt Sebastian.
“Yes.”Sir Pashley rolled his eyes.“It’s been done before.”
“Will she agree?”
Sir Pashley sent him an insolent stare.“Why do you think I’m here?It’s already arranged.We just need your agreement.”
“She approached Adam?”Sebastian asked.
“Yes.She’s nearing thirty and had hoped to live out her days as a spinster, but her father still controls her money, so he’s threatened to cut her off if she doesn’t marry.”
“But Ervington is nasty.”Maurice knew it wasn’t the right thing to say.
Sebastian cleared his throat.“Our friend Adam runs a business that helps women like Lady Victoria.”
“It’s very hush hush.”Sir Pashley waved his hands again, apparently unaware that all the staff in the room were listening intently.The absurdity of it felt appropriate somehow.
“Is that what you meant when it had been done before?”Maurice wasn’t sure this was technically legal, although if it saved women from men like Ervington ...perhaps it was more ethical than anything else.
