“A walk, not a ride?” he asked, raising a tawny eyebrow.
“No riding for the next four weeks. The doctor is growing tired of calling on our family. He was positively livid,” she said.
“A walk it is then. I’ll call in the morning,” he said.
Cordelia nodded her head and curtsied. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see that Justin was eyeing the two of them, his arms tensed at his sides.
“Good meeting you, Rothesay,” Billings said, and to Cordelia’s surprise, he stretched out his hand to Justin’s.
Justin shook it, but his face was unreadable. Cordelia swallowed as the others said their goodbyes.
“I think I will retire,” Cordelia said to no one in particular. “It’s been a long day.”
“Let me come with you,” Portia said.
“No,” Cordelia replied, perhaps a little too forcefully, because her sister raised her eyebrows. “I’d… I’d prefer to be alone.”
“Of course,” Portia said, “I’ll look in on you tomorrow morning.” She leaned in closer and added in a quiet voice, “Everything will seem clearer then.”
Cordelia was grateful for the sentiment, but she knew it wouldn’t.
*
“Couldn’t find anexpensive Italian cigar to light?”
Justin waited for the smoke from his pipe to clear to make out who it was. Portia’s slight figure had barely darkened the doorway to the library.
“Didn’t the doctor give you a load of laudanum to help you sleep?” Justin quipped.
“I can’t read your lips with that thing in your mouth. Take it out,” she said.
Justin removed the stem of the pipe from between his teeth and blew the remainder of smoke out of his nostrils. He was sure he resembled some kind of a cartoonish bull; he’d been on edge and quietly raging all evening over the imposition of the Billings family at Hollyhead. He had no idea if Rhys had ever received his letter. The entire thing came as a shock to him.
But that was one thing in a long list of people and circumstances he was angry with. He was furious with his late father and fuming over the dead Rothesay duke, who had effectively ruined his life. Then he was positively irate with his business partners, upset with Peverill for encouraging the leave of absence from his job, and livid with his secretary for catching dysentery and having to convalesce somewhere in South Mimms, wherever that was.
And then there was Cordelia, who simultaneously made him want to tear out his hair and bend her over his desk. Sleeping with her had been an utter mistake. He’d known it at the time, but could not find the strength to say no. Then he’d gone and proposed to her like a fool and of course, she had rejected him, but not before asking after repairs to Hollyhead, implying that funds for the crumbling manor might tempt her to accept him.
“Shall I pour you a glass of brandy?” Portia asked. She seemed relatively meek tonight, which made him wary of her.
“Yes,” he muttered, taking another drag on his pipe.
“I told you I can’t read lips when you have that thing in your mouth,” she repeated, raising her voice as though she expected he couldn’t hear her the first time.
“I said, yes,” Justin repeated, more loudly.
She smiled. “Very well then.”
Justin stared out the window as she went to the sideboard, procuring two crystal glasses. The sun had set completely, and night was beginning to fall over the estate. Justin was trying to make a list in his head of things that needed doing, but it was no use. Correspondence, bank loans, and bank notes were swirling around his thoughts alongside letters and dowries and Charles Nichols… and Cordelia, and the way she had whimpered when he slid inside of her.
Closing his eyes, he willed the image out of his mind, but it was no use. It was as though she’d seeped under his skin, invading his bloodstream.
Portia came to stand beside him, cradling two glasses in her good hand. “Here,” she said.
He took it from her and brought the amber liquid to his lips. But the smell brought back a memory of his father, leaning over him, his hand clenching the back of Justin’s neck as they inclined over the forge, and he set it down on the windowsill.
“Not to your taste?” Portia asked, sipping her own.
“I drink it for appearance’s sake, but I’ve never agreed with the stuff,” he confessed.
