Julian shoved his shirt into his breeches. “Makeshift pillow. Give them here,” he snapped when Cam tried to shake the wrinkles out of them. “Devon doesn’t give a damn about my clothing, and I wouldn’t give a damn even if he did.”
Cam threw the waistcoat across the room to Julian. “Good thing, because it will take far more than ten minutes to make you presentable. No, forget the cravat—it’s as believable as silk gloves on a cutpurse. You look a ruffian either way.”
Julian had just struggled into his waistcoat when Phipps returned. “Lord Devon.” The butler stood back to let Devon pass, then hastily retreated and closed the door behind him.
Julian eyed Devon. Wise of Phipps to escape before the bloodshed began. Devon looked ready to take someone’s head clean off his shoulders.
No, not someone’s. His.
Devon didn’t spare Cam a glance. “What thedevildid you say to Lady Hadley last night, West?” He strode across the room until his livid face was mere inches from Julian’s. “Whatever it was, you’ve made one hell of a bloody mess.”
Julian’s heart stuttered in his chest, but there was no way he’d let Devon see his panic. “I told you last night, Devon. Lady Hadley is no longer your concern.”
“Is that so?” Devon’s voice was soft, menacing. “Well, I’ll damn well make her my concern until you manage something more than your current pathetic efforts.”
Cam shoved himself between Devon and Julian, his face dark with fury. “I don’t know what you think you’re doing here, Devon, but you have abloody nervecoming into my home and telling me how to take care of my family.”
Devon turned on Cam. “You’ve done a damn poor job of it, otherwise I wouldn’t need to be here at all.” Devon jerked his chin in Julian’s direction. “Good God, man. Ishethe best you can do?”
Julian clenched his jaw until it threatened to shatter. “You think yourself a better choice? You would have disgraced her, ruined her—”
“No, West.” Devon’s low voice cut through Julian’s fury. “I would have married her.”
Cam’s mouth fell open. “What?”
Julian stared at Devon, searching for a blink, a twitch—anything that would give him away as a liar, but the blue eyes held his without wavering. “What’s the matter, West? Have I shocked you?”
“I might be shocked if I believed a word of it.” But he did believe it. He could see by Devon’s face the man told the truth.
“I don’t give a damn what you believe, but ask yourself this. Did you ever bother to ask Lady Hadley? To talk to her at all? You’ve been harassing her to leave London for a week, and in that time you never tried to understand what kept her here, did you? I suppose you thought you knew it all already. Not just a hero, but a mind reader, as well.”
Julian shook his head. “No. It’s impossible. She would have said something, told me—”
“Why, because you’ve proved yourself so worthy of her confidence?” Devon gave a harsh laugh. “You wouldn’t have believed her even if she had told you.”
Julian wanted to deny it, but he knew damn well Devon was right. “She’d have told her family, then. Her sister.”
“No doubt she would have confided in her sister had there been a betrothal, but Charlotte didn’t give me an answer until last night.”
Julian’s stomach gave a nauseating lurch. Last night when he’d come upon them locked in an embrace, she’d been giving Devon her answer. It hadn’t looked like a refusal. Well, he bloody well wasn’t going to ask Devon if they were betrothed. He wouldn’t give the man the satisfaction.
But the fierce possessiveness thrumming through him refused to be denied, and in the next breath he heard himself say, “Charlotte?Unless you’re betrothed, she’s Lady Hadley to you, Devon.”
Devon stared at him for a moment, an incredulous look on his face; then he made a disgusted noise and wheeled away. “Yes, by all means, Captain, let’s quibble over my manner of address. Perhaps then we’ll have tea and adjourn to Tattersall’s for the afternoon while Lady Hadley continues her journey to Hampshire.Alone.”
“Hampshire?” Julian stared at him. “You’re mad. She leaves this morning for Kent, accompanied by her family.”
“My God. You don’t even know. What did you do, West? Dump her off in front of her house and congratulate yourself on being such a hero? You haven’t even bothered to find out where she is!”
A horrible suspicion began to form in Julian’s mind.No. She wouldn’t have gone there, not by herself.
But even as he shook his head he knew it was true, and in the next moment Devon confirmed it. “Last night, not an hour after you dropped her off at her house, Lady Hadley left for Hampshire. For Hadley House.”
Cam and Julian stared at him, mute with shock.
“That’s right. She leftin the middle of the nightwith no one to attend her aside from a maid and two footmen. Whatever you said to her last night to make her leave London certainly had the desired effect, West.”
The floor gave a sickening lurch under Julian’s feet. “But she told me—she promised she’d leave for Bellwood—”
