Chapter Twenty-Six
Sophie took in the stubborn set of Daniel’s and Devlin’s jaws and sighed; how on earth was she to salvage the situation between them, when they both looked eager to tear the other apart? Both men were too iron-willed by far.
She was now very glad of the vast expanse of the drawing room and the monumental amount of furniture that was lying between them. Particularly with the look of rage currently lurking in her brother’s eyes.
“Have you compromised her, you bastard?” Daniel demanded as he held a slab of raw meat up to his jaw and winced.
Devlin smirked and lifted a shoulder. “That is none of your business.”
“Like hell it is not,” Daniel roared. “She is my sister!”
“Who is standing right here and can speak for herself,” Sophie replied.
“You should leave,” Devlin said. “This is between your brother and me.”
“The first smart thing I have ever heard you say, Huntington,” Daniel said.
“Are you both idiots?” she argued. They had to be, as both of them sounded entirely too eager to be rid of her. “You will kill each other if I leave.”
Devlin sneered. “Now that is crediting your brother with far too great a skill.”
Daniel stood and threw the meat onto a side table. “Get out now, Sophie,” he said darkly.
Her brother appeared to want to murder Devlin, and Devlin, the damned fool, looked as if he hoped Daniel would try. She stamped her foot in frustration. Men! She could well do without them. “Fine,” she declared, stalking to the door. “If you wish to behave like thugs, then far be it from me to stop you. But do not expect any sympathy from me after you pummel each other.”
Opening the door, she glanced back over her shoulder at her brother and her fiancé, neither of whom were paying her any attention, glowering at each other as they were. “And do not expect me to tender to any injuries, particularly as you both insist on being stubborn idiots.”
She walked out the door and slammed it behind her, then sagged her back against it.
Good Lord, had she actually left them in there on their own?
“Everything all right?” Mabel asked from the foot of the grand staircase as she walked down the last step. “What on earth was that thumping noise?” she remarked upon hearing a loud bang.
Sophie winced as another crashing noise came from behind the door. “Oh goodness, I was the idiot,” she moaned as more bangs could be heard from behind her. “They are going to kill each other. What was I thinking?”
Mabel rushed toward her. “What do you mean? Who is going to kill whom?” She gasped as the sound of wood smashing came from behind the closed door and reverberated through the hall. “Sophie, what is going on? Who is in that room?”
Sophie had to will herself not to turn around and open the door. “My brother and my fiancé.”
Her aunt’s mouth flopped open. “Daniel is alone in a room with the Duke of Huntington? Are you mad, Sophie? Do you wish for your fiancé to be murdered before you are even wed? Daniel will be carted off to Newgate prison!”
“Calm yourself, Aunt Mabel,” she replied. “Daniel is not going to kill Devlin.”
“They will not care that he is an Earl,” Mabel continued on, ignoring her. “No, if he has killed a Duke, he will be hanged! What will we do? We will be tossed out into the streets. What will become of us? Oh my…my nerves…I think…I think I am actually going to faint.”
The color began to leach out of her aunt’s face a moment before she began to sway on the spot. Sophie rushed forward toward her and caught her about the waist just as she started to collapse to the floor. “Aunt Mabel!”
“Oh dear,” Stokes said as he raced into the entrance parlor and took a hold of Mabel. “Hurry,” he called to the two footmen, who had been lurking somewhere in the hallway, too.
The three men picked Mabel up and carried her over to the settee at the base of the staircase and settled her upon the cushions.
Sophie grimaced as she heard more thumping through the oak door. She hurried over to Mabel. There was time enough later to worry over those two foolish males. For once, her aunt had actually fainted and was in need of assistance.
“Thank you,” she said to the three men.
“Quite all right, my lady,” Stokes replied. “Might I enquire, though, if we should be concerned with all of the noise coming from the drawing room?”
“I think the only time to be concerned is when there is no noise.” She never would have thought she would utter such words. “My thick-headed brother and even more stubborn fiancé are in there together alone, settling their disagreements.”
Stokes rubbed his chin. “Shall I summon Doctor McGuiness then?”
“I think that a very wise idea, Stokes,” she concurred. “And please make haste. I have a feeling we shall soon need his services.”
“Of course, I shall send a messenger forthwith,” Stokes replied as he bowed and left the entrance area, motioning for the two footmen to follow.
The sound of breaking glass made her cringe. Yes, Alec’s medical services were definitely going to be required.
But first, her aunt’s situation demanded her attention. She gently patted at the pockets of her aunt’s dress and smiled when she felt the distinct outline of the bottle of smelling salts. At last, they would come in handy.
She pulled out the bottle and uncapped the lid, placing the pungent salts beneath her aunt’s nose. Slowly, Mabel started to come to.
“Sophie?” her aunt moaned dazedly. “Oh, I had the most terrible dream.” Sophie slowly helped her to sit upright. “It was horrid. I dreamed your brother was murdering the Duke of Huntington.” Mabel slowly blinked as she looked around the entrance hall. “Why am I sitting here, dear?”
“Well,” Sophie began as she sat next to Mabel and started to rub her back, “you actually fainted.”
“I did? Really?”
“Yes, you did.”
“How extraordinary!” Mabel regarded Sophie as the sound of some china smashing penetrated through the doors. “It was not a dream I was having then, was it?”
“Now do not get overly upset again, Aunt,” she warned. “Daniel is not murdering the Duke.”
They both jumped slightly as the very walls seemed to reverberate with another bang.
Her aunt gulped. “We will be ruined.”
“Devlin can fend for himself, Aunt Mabel. In fact, he knocked Daniel senseless out in the street but a short time ago.”
“He did what?” There was a tinge of hysteria creeping into her aunt’s voice. “For all the neighbors to see?”
Perhaps she shouldn’t have revealed that tidbit. She really had not been paying any attention as to who was watching on the street. “Yes, I do suppose some neighbors might have seen,” she conceded.
Mabel raised a hand to her forehead. “They are going to think that you have been compromised. They will think your brother and fiancé were fighting over your virtue. We will be ruined if you do not marry him at once.”
“You cannot be serious,” Sophie replied. “Earlier this morning, you were lamenting over having only one month to plan the wedding, and yet now you say the Duke and I should marry immediately?”
Her aunt bobbed her head up and down vigorously. “Yes, provided your brother does not kill him first. You must marry within the fortnight; otherwise, rumors will abound.”
“But what of the rumors if we do have such a speedy wedding? Surely they would be worse?”
“Of course not,” Mabel said. “Once you are married, you are married. It does not really matter then if you were or were not compromised; thus, any rumors would matter little.”
Sophie felt like shaking her aunt, gently of course. “That makes no sense whatsoever.”
“It makes perfect sense.” Mabel briefly looked up at the door. “It has gone a tad silent, has it not?”
Yes, it had gone silent, a little too silent for comfort.
…
The two men sat on the floor, both of them winded and nursing injuries, while regarding each other with a combination of wariness and dawning respect.
“Where the devil did you learn to fight like that, Huntington?” Daniel puffed as he gingerly moved his jaw from side to side. “I have never seen a man of your size move so fast.”
Devlin winced as the movement inflamed his bruised ribs. “When I was bested in the Orient in under thirty seconds by an Asian man who was even smaller in stature than your sister, I decided to do whatever it took to have him teach me his skills.”
Daniel frowned. “Eastern fighting techniques?”
He rested his head back against the sideboard. “Yes.”
“I thought those Orientals guarded the secrets of their fighting skills with their lives. Admittedly, every time I have traveled through the Orient, I have tried in vain to have one of them teach me. They simply cannot be bribed with money.”
“No, they cannot, at least not when it comes to parting with their fighting skills,” Devlin agreed. “But it just so happened that I ended up saving this man’s life, so he felt he owed me a favor. Spent the next ten years traveling with me whilst training me in the technique.”
“Well, that explains it,” Daniel grunted. “For you would not have had a chance against me otherwise.”
Rubbing at the other side of his jaw, Devlin grimaced. “I shall concede that. Your right fist is like a bloody sledgehammer. At least I shall have matching bruises on both sides of my face.”
“And I shall be sporting a black eye and a cracked rib or two, I daresay,” Daniel said, sounding oddly happy about it.
Devlin noted the previously pristine room’s broken side tables and the smashed vases and glass cabinet. It looked like a hurricane had been through the place. “Your sister will kill the both of us after she sees this mess.”
“If you break her heart, Huntington, I will come at you with all that I have.” Daniel’s face hardened. “Even if it means spending the rest of my life in Newgate. I will not see my sister hurt under any circumstances. If you cause her distress in any way, I will destroy you.”
Devlin heard the unwavering truth in his statement. Rather than take affront, Devlin’s respect for him grew a great deal.
It was very rare these days for anyone, let alone someone of less consequence than he, to threaten him. The bold words and the clear intent behind them actually impressed him. Though one would have to be a fool not to take seriously such threats from the Earl of Thornton. “I know with my reputation you might have a somewhat difficult time believing me, but know this: I respect your sister more than any other woman I have ever met, and I will do all that is in my power to keep her safe and happy. I will ensure that she is protected, even if it is from myself.”
“I will hold you to that, Huntington,” Daniel replied.
“I expect you to.”
“You are going to have to marry her, sooner rather than later, you do realize,” Daniel said, gingerly rubbing his ribs. “The spectacle both at the opera and outside earlier today has ensured that.”
“I know.” Devlin sighed. “How long is the War Office sending you to Italy for?”
“How the devil do you know anything about that?” The man did not appear pleased.
“In my position, it pays to know what our government is up to. Besides which, do you not think that I wouldn’t have ensured I found out everything about my future wife, including the fact that her brother does some occasional spying for the Crown?”
Daniel’s mouth flattened into a thin line. “I must have landed a good punch to that hard head of yours for you to suggest such a ridiculous thing.”
“Do not flatter yourself. However, I can assure you that your secret is safe with me, and if it eases your mind any, Sir Walter was the one to confide in me, as I too, from time to time, have assisted him with information.”
“The Duke of Huntington assisting his country? How interesting.”
It was not a fact known by anyone else outside of the War Office. “As we are to be related, I trust that you shall keep that information private, as I will yours. It has taken a great deal of effort over the years to conceal my involvement in such endeavors.”
“You have done an exceptional job in doing do,” Daniel laughed, “as no one would believe me if I were to suggest such a thing. Regardless, though, your secret is safe with me.”
“Good,” Devlin said. “Does Sophie know of your involvement with the Crown?”
“No, she does not,” he admitted. “All she knows is that I assist the War Office from time to time; she is unaware of the risks I sometimes take to ensure our country is protected.”
Devlin imagined that if he had a sister, he wouldn’t want her to know, either. “It is not my place to enlighten her.”
There was a great silence for a moment before a hearty sigh bellowed out of Daniel’s lungs. “Very well, Huntington, we shall each of us bear the other’s secret. I am assuming that as you are now to marry my sister, you will, of course, be discontinuing your assistance to the Crown.”
“If it was not for your concern over your sister’s happiness, I think I should quite happily knock you out again for daring to presume to dictate my affairs to me.”
An expression of anticipation grew on Daniel’s face. “You could try to knock me out again, for that time on the street was but a lucky shot, as the attempts you just made in this room would attest to. But in all seriousness, if you were speaking with Sir Walter, then the assistance you have given to the War Office was not without a great deal of danger to yourself. Surely after you marry Sophie, you intend to relinquish such dangerous pastimes?”
“Actually, I already have,” Devlin divulged. “That was why I met with him the other day. I formally advised him that I would no longer be able to assist, at least not as I once did. That is when he informed me that he would be sending you to Italy.”
“Yes,” Daniel agreed. “I am to leave on the morrow for a few weeks. Sir Walter’s niece needs rescuing again.”
“Sophie and I shall marry on your return then.” Devlin was certain she would appreciate his consideration over the matter. The woman did seem to love her brother a great deal.
“Perhaps you had best run that edict past my sister first.”
“She agreed to marry me in one month. A couple of weeks earlier is neither here nor there. If both of us tell her it is to be so, she will have to concede.” It seemed a rather forgone conclusion to Devlin.
Daniel blinked, as if he hadn’t quite heard what Devlin had said. “In what fantastical utopia do you live in?”
“Excuse me?” Devlin said.
“There is still a good deal you need to learn about my sister, is there not?” Daniel bestowed a glance of pity toward him. “You do not truly expect that she will meekly do something simply because you and I tell her to, do you? The very notion. If only she were so malleable; it would have made my job over the years a great deal easier.”
“Your sister is somewhat independent… I will grant you that.” Perhaps he had not thought out the notion properly. But she would be able to see the logic in his plans. Surely?
Daniel’s laughter echoed through the broken furniture scattered about the room. “That has got to be the biggest understatement of the year.”
“Make jests about it all you will, but she shall agree.”
“At least promise me that you will tell her what she will agree to whilst I am present, for her reaction to that should provide jolly good amusement.” He laughed again.
“Just be sure to return to the country as soon as you are able to.” Devlin glowered at him. “Then I shall have the unfortunate pleasure of being related to you for the rest of my life.”
Daniel grew sober, though his eyes still sparked with merriment. “God help me, the Devil Duke is to be my brother-in-law. If I did not love my sister so, I think I might just have strangled her.”