The Study of Seduction (Sinful Suitors, #2)(90)

“Yes! He should!”

“Even if she doesn’t want him to?” She planted her hands on her hips. “I’ve already lost my brother to exile because he was protecting my reputation. I don’t want to lose you because of it, too. I would rather spend the rest of my life dealing with scandal than watch the man I love die trying to protect me, simply because he doesn’t want ‘a bunch of friends and strangers’ to know his ‘private affairs’!”

The man I love.

The words stunned him. She loved him? Truly?

As if she didn’t even realize what she’d said, she added, “So I’m washing my hands of this whole thing.” She tipped up her chin at Warren. “Perhaps you can talk some sense into him. I give up.”

Then she stormed from the room.

Edwin could only stand there staring after her. The word love rang in his ears, shocking him with its power to beguile. If she loved him . . .

“All right,” Warren broke into his thoughts. “Now that she’s gone, you’d best tell me what the hell is going on. Why would you be accused of treason? What activity of your father’s is Durand threatening to reveal? And how in God’s name did you end up married to my cousin in only a few short weeks?”

“It’s a long story.”

“Then you’d better talk fast.” He examined his watch. “Because unless we think of something, you’ll be fighting a duel in four hours. And I’m not acting as your second for it unless I know what I’m getting into.”

Edwin gritted his teeth. “Fine. And in case you’re wondering, I never told you the spying and treason part because I didn’t know about it myself until two weeks ago.”

“Spying? God, this gets worse by the moment.”

“You have no idea,” he muttered.

Then he began to relate a highly truncated version of what had happened since Warren’s departure. To Warren’s credit, he didn’t pepper Edwin with inconsequential questions. He just listened.

He did look rather speculative when Edwin got to the part about proposing marriage to Clarissa, but wisely didn’t say anything.

When Edwin was finished, Warren headed for the door.

“Where are you going?” Edwin asked.

“You are in over your head, my friend. And no matter what you say, you need help. So we’re going to talk to Fulkham and see what he can do.”

“And what makes you think he won’t just leap on the chance to make an example out of a traitor like my father?”

Warren stared hard at him. “I’m the one who convinced him to join St. George’s. That means I vouch for his character. Do you question my judgment?”

Edwin gritted his teeth. “No.”

“Good.” Warren strode up to him. “Because if you did, I would have to remind you of the many ways I’ve championed you through the years. Of the times I helped you get Yvette and Clarissa out of youthful scrapes.”

That brought Edwin up short. “And . . . I appreciate that.”

“Do you? You’re behaving like an ungrateful bastard at the moment. You have friends, Edwin, whether you accept it or not. There’s me, there’s Keane, there’s the men at the club.”

When Edwin just stared at him, Warren added, “They look up to you because they think you’re sensible and rational. They know you’ll always be in their corner. Can’t you have the same faith in them? Accept that perhaps they will stand behind you because they’re your friends?”

“You don’t understand—”

“I understand that you have always operated as if you alone are responsible for your life, your fate. That you have no one to turn to. Well, that’s not true. Your father may have pretty well abandoned you, but your family will not. Your friends will not. Your wife clearly will not.”

“Leave my wife out of it,” Edwin growled.

“Why? You said you were doing this for her. But she’s right: You’re not doing this for her. You’re doing this to prove that you’re a better man than your father. That you can take care of your family. You’re doing this in an attempt to protect Clarissa and Yvette, which is a noble idea on the face of it.”

Warren leaned in. “But at the heart of it is pride. You don’t want to ask for help. You don’t trust anyone to give you help. You would rather risk your future with a woman who loves you than rely on the aid of your friends.”

Glancing away, Edwin swallowed past the thickness in his throat. What if Warren was right? That he didn’t trust anyone? That he would give up a future with Clarissa rather than take a chance on his friends and family?

The possibility made his stomach roil. Until now, he’d let his anger at Durand propel him forward. But Clarissa didn’t want the risk he was ready to embrace. She didn’t want a life without him.

The truth of that sang through his heart like a nightingale’s trill.

She loved him.

And surely that was worth taking a chance on the men who believed in him.

“All right. Let’s go find Fulkham. And I pray to God he has some idea for routing Durand. Because if he doesn’t, you, my friend, will be going with me to fight that blasted Frenchman at dawn.”

It took Edwin and Warren some time to rouse Fulkham’s servants, and even more time to persuade them that he should be disturbed in the wee hours of the morning. They only relented when Edwin told them that there would be dire consequences if they turned away a marquess and an earl who were there on a matter of great import to the English people.