Death of a Scoundrel (Riley Rochester Investigates Book 4) by Wendy Soliman

Author:Wendy Soliman [Soliman, Wendy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2018-06-19T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

Riley sent his brother on his way, too astounded by what he had just learned to offer him the definitive reassurances he sought. Instead he had prevaricated, assuring Henry that he would do his level best to maintain their family’s reputation in the light of Celia’s stupidity. Whether he would be able to make good on that resolve remained to be seen.

Alone, he refreshed his drink and let out a mirthless sigh. Celia was so self-aware that he would never have imagined her, of all people, falling for Woodrow’s charm. He hadn’t supposed that she took any interest in the opposite sex, other than to criticise men in general and disapprove of their wilder ways. It was a testament to Woodrow’s questionable talents that he had succeeded in breaking through her reserves.

Henry had hinted on several occasions that Celia found her marital duties repulsive, and invented excuses to avoid them once she had given Henry a son. Riley had thought that was Henry’s way of justifying the string of mistresses he’d kept over the years. But Celia’s willingness to bare her soul, and anything else she had chosen to reveal to Woodrow, threw Henry’s bedroom prowess into question and accounted for his determination to believe Celia’s version of events. Henry had insisted that Celia had not overstepped the bounds, but Riley wondered about that. If she was so infatuated that she risked writing to the man—an act of the most extreme folly that any woman with half a brain must have realised could come back to haunt her—then it wasn’t hard to imagine matters having gone beyond that point. Riley knew, but did not tell Henry, that enticing dissatisfied wives into his bed for his own financial advantage was Rod Woodrow’s modus operandi.

Riley leaned back in his chair, seriously worried about this unexpected turn of events. He had told Salter only that day not to treat Lord Durand differently to any other suspect simply because he was a man of consequence. The same rules should be applied to Celia, who would be spitting tacks since Henry had done the right thing and insisted upon telling Riley about her recklessness. She had feet of clay, just like everyone else, and would no longer be able to occupy the moral high ground in their unavoidable encounters.

If Riley had possessed a vindictive nature he would have revelled in Celia’s embarrassment, having lost count of the number of times she had turned disapproving eyes upon everything he did. Instead, he felt rather sorry for her. Henry would not have made an easy husband, Riley knew. He would always have put his own interests first. It was not beyond the bounds of possibility that Celia had felt lonely and isolated in that barn of a mansion in Chichester, with her ailing son withering before her eyes. It was partly her own fault, of course. She had never learned to behave graciously in her elevated position and insisted upon a distance being kept between herself and those she viewed as beneath her.

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