The Rake's Defiant Mistress by Mary Brendan

Author:Mary Brendan [Mary Brendan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance
ISBN: 978-1-4603-4951-9
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2009-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

‘You are off where?’

‘To town, sweetheart,’ Gavin told his stunned wife. ‘I shouldn’t be gone more than a week.’ He pivoted with one boot still planted on the first stair. ‘Would you like to come too?’

‘No, I would not,’ Sarah said crossly. ‘This is too bad of you, Gavin. I thought we were to make plans for James’s christening. You have not long arrived from London and now you say you want to go back?’

Gavin strode across the hall to cradle his wife’s vexed countenance between his palms. ‘I must go…I didn’t want to worry you with the ins and outs, but…’ he sighed in resignation ‘…Clayton has a bit of a problem to sort out.’

Sarah’s jaw dropped and, unmollified, she flicked free of his touch. ‘You are not about to tell me that you think Sir Clayton Powell unable to sort out his own problems?’ she scoffed.

‘He said much the same thing to me when I insisted on going with him.’ Gavin’s expression sobered. ‘He’s left for town already and you know I would not go after him unless it were a serious matter.’

‘Now you are worrying me, Gavin.’ Sarah’s brows knitted together. She quickly came close to him and her small fingers gripped his forearm to hurry his answer. ‘Has something happened to one of his houses or servants in his absence?’

Gavin drew his wife towards the library; once they were within the room he turned to gaze at her. He didn’t relish telling Sarah that Clayton’s mistress had stirred up such trouble behind his back that, if not skilfully defused, it might end in blood and crime.

If Pomfrey refused to listen to reason from Clayton or himself, then his friend would be obliged by honour to keep the dawn appointment. And Gavin would stand second for him. In truth, Gavin felt rather guilty for having dismissed Loretta’s scheming as unimportant, and for having encouraged Clayton to view it in a similar vein. She’d obviously known exactly how to incite Pomfrey to suicidal recklessness. The note that Clayton had received challenging him to return to town and turn up at the appointed hour had been venomously concise.

If, despite efforts at conciliation, Loretta had done her work too well and the duel went ahead, the protagonists could end in a courtroom. And that was assuming one or other of them survived. The outcome looked cut and dried—if pistols were used, Pomfrey should miss his target, allowing Clayton to delope. If swords were chosen, Clayton should be able to disarm Pomfrey within minutes. But fate was impossible to predict and accidents happened. A nick from a rapier or a graze from a bullet could be deadlier than it at first seemed if infection set in. There were instances to cite of nice fellows who had allowed a petty grievance to put a premature end to their otherwise healthy and blameless lives.

An impatient sigh from Sarah cut into Gavin’s troubled brooding. An anxious, entreating look from her settled the matter. Clayton was a close friend, but Sarah was his wife and no secrets were allowed between them.

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