Minutes later, Kendall came stomping into the room.
“Must you be so loud?” Rhys grumbled, grabbing his head with both hands.
“My apologies,” Kendall replied with a grin. “I thought I was in my own house andyou’dcome to visit. Why are you here so late, by the by?”
Rhys forced himself to sit up and glared at his friend. “I seem to recall that after Lady Emily tossed you over, you spent five sodden days in a row at my house, drinking away your sorrows and ruing the day you met her.”
“True, but am I missing something? Have you been tossed over?” Kendall asked, blinking at Rhys innocently.
“No,” a thunderous scowl sat on Rhys’s face, “but your involvement with Lady Emily is why I am so bloody well against ladies tossing over one man for another with a better title.”
“You’re making no sense, Worth, perhaps you should start over,” Kendall said with a patient smile.
“Being noble and selfless is a lot of shite.” Rhys pointed a finger in the air.
“You’vebeen noble and selfless?” Skepticism dripped from Kendall’s tone.
“I most certainly have,” Rhys declared, pounding the desktop with his closed fist. “I let her go. I did the honorable thing.”
Kendall took a deep breath. “I can only assume this is about Lady Julianna, correct?”
“Correct,” Rhys replied, looking around the room as if searching for something. “Do you have any more brandy? I seem to have finished mine.” He held his empty bottle upside down and stared at it as if he didn’t understand what it was.
“Yes, I do, but no, you may not have any. You smell as if you’ve had far too much of it already.”
Rhys narrowed his eyes on the earl. “Don’t make me call you out, Kendall.”
“Oh, dear, not drunken threats. This is bad.” Kendall sighed again. “Very well, Bell was there to help me when I was a drunken fool in love who needed to hear a few choice words. I suppose the least I can do now is pass on the favor.”
Rhys wrinkled his brow. “What are you talking about?” He righted the empty brandy bottle and thumped it atop the desk.
“Sit back,” Kendall ordered. “Let me explain a few things to you.”
“I don’t want to hear anything Bell has to say,” Rhys insisted. “He doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”
“Healwaysknows what he is talking about unfortunately, but don’t worry. Bell told me he’s already tried to explain the situation to you. Now, I fear it’s my turn.”
Letting go of the empty bottle, Rhys sat up straight and readjusted himself in the chair so that he was no longer slouching. “Explain what?”
Kendall tapped a finger along his cheek. “First of all, you’re thinking of this entire thing all wrong.”
Rhys blinked at him through blurry eyes. “Wrong?” he echoed. “What do you mean?”
“Was I upset when Lady Emily left me? Yes, but in retrospect, she did me the biggest act of kindness of my life.”
Rhys shook his head and narrowed his eyes on his friend. Kendall wasn’t making any sense tonight. “What the devil are you talking about, man? She humiliated you. You were devastated.”
“You’re right, but it doesn’t change the fact that if Lady Emily hadn’t done what she did, I wouldn’t have Frances now. I’m much happier with Frances than I ever could have been with Emily.”
Rhys leaned back and rubbed both of his temples. The room was spinning, and nothing made sense any longer. “She did you an act of kindness?”
“A considerable act of kindness. If I run across her one day, I intend to thank her, actually. Don’t you see, Worth? If she had married me without loving me, she would have done me the greatest disservice of all. I’d have been stuck with her for life. Frances loves me for who I am. That’s the greatest gift and well worth the temporary humility I felt about Emily tossing me over.”
Rhys shook his head, trying to ensure he interpreted his friend’s words correctly. “So, if Julianna tossed over Murdock, she might be doing him an act of kindness.”
Kendall lifted both shoulders. “If she doesn’t love him, she would be.”
Rhys’s heart thumped in his chest. Why had he never seen it this way before?
