Alexius had not realized he had spoken the question aloud until Lady Cordelia replied, “We were forbidden to speak of the bargain to anyone. It was one of the conditions. Everyone had to believe that Juliana cast you aside for Lord Gomfrey. According to Maman, the earl was most insistent on that particular point. If we failed, he threatened to reveal Maman’s gambling habits to the ton. He knew our family would have been ruined by the scandal. Any hope of marrying—”
Lady Cordelia looked away.
Alexius sneered. He had never slapped a lady, but his fingers itched to strike the haughty blonde for putting her marriage prospects above her sister’s welfare. “So it was best for the family to sacrifice one daughter, rather than all three, eh?”
“Either way, it was a devil’s bargain,” Lady Lucilla said in a reasonable tone. “That is why Maman left to see Lord Gomfrey.”
Alexius muttered an oath. The Ivers women needed a keeper if they truly believed they were capable of handling a blackmailing scoundrel such as Gomfrey. Alexius growled his farewell and strode briskly toward the closed doors.
“What are you going to do?”
He scowled at Lady Cordelia. “What should have been done last evening. I am going to Gomfrey’s town house to collect your mother and your sister.”
Alexius seized the latches and pushed open the double doors.
Once he had dealt with Gomfrey and Juliana was safely home, Alexius planned to drag the furious lady upstairs to paddle her sweet backside for not trusting him enough to keep her secrets.
Then he would apologize for his own dastardly misdeeds.
Chapter Twenty
ALEXIUS WAS NOT in the mood to be polite or reasonable by the time he reached Lord Gomfrey’s town house. When the earl’s manservant opened the door, Alexius surprised him by kicking the door with his booted foot. As the door swung open wide, the startled servant instinctively stepped aside to grasp the door.
“My lord!”
Alexius did not bother with explanations or apologies. He stepped inside and swiftly studied the layout of the town house.
“Leave at once. You cannot just enter Lord Gomfrey’s residence without a direct invitation.” The butler seemed at a loss on the proper way to eject the noble intruder without getting sacked by his master.
“Where is the blackguard?” Alexius glanced upstairs. “Still in bed?”
His face hardened with murderous intent at the thought of Juliana curled around Gomfrey as they slept together in the bed. The servant also noticed the dangerous stance and stepped back.
“Lord Gomfrey is not at home.” The man wrung his hands and fluttered to the staircase when Alexius took a threatening step in that direction. “If you refuse to leave, I will be forced to summon a constable.”
“Your loyalty is admirable, but misplaced.” Alexius noticed the closed door to his far left and deduced it was the earl’s library. “Summon a constable. Let Gomfrey explain to the magistrate why he kept Lady Juliana Ivers against her will.”
“Are you drunk or simply mad? Lord Gomfrey is a gentleman,” the servant said, convincingly affronted by the charge.
Alexius backed the butler up against the balustrade. His grin was hardly reassuring as he placed his hands on the servant’s shoulders. “I have sobered up, so you may assume that you are dealing with the unpredictability of a madman. Where is Gomfrey? I vow, if he has violated her, and it can be proved that you were aware of your lord’s nefarious deeds, I will see to it that the magistrate charges you as well.”
The butler’s throat audibly clicked as he swallowed. Without speaking, he used his bulging eyes to direct Alexius to the closed door across the hall.
He patted the butler on the shoulder. “Good man.” Alexius released the servant and pivoted. He marched toward the door with deliberate purpose.
“The door is unlocked.”
Without turning back, Alexius raised his hand to let the man know that he heard him. Only the butler would be worried about the bloody door. Alexius twisted the doorknob and pushed open the door. The servant had not been lying. Gomfrey stood in the middle of the library with his back to the door. At his side he clutched an empty glass. If he had heard the commotion in the outer hall, the earl did not seem particularly concerned about Alexius’s arrival.
There was no sign of Juliana or her mother. Perhaps Juliana’s sisters had been wrong.
“Where is she?”
Alexius’s first inclination was to rush into the room and tackle Gomfrey to the floor. With the man’s teeth firmly buried in his fine rug, Alexius could take his pick which body part of the earl’s he wanted to pummel first.
“Sinclair,” Gomfrey drawled as he brought the glass up to his lips. He frowned when he realized it was empty. “Somehow I am not surprised to see you. I hope you did not have to throttle my butler to gain entry into my house. He is not the bravest soul, but he is loyal.”
The earl walked over to his desk to retrieve the small bottle. “I am being rude. Would you like some port?”
Alexius’s stomach protested at the offer. “I have not come for a drink, Gomfrey.”
“No?” The earl offered his back while he filled his own glass. “This particular bottle comes from the Douro region and the quality is exceptional.”
“Where is Juliana?”
Gomfrey held up his glass and admired the port’s deep red color in the sunlight filtering in through the windows. He sighed and leaned against the edge of his desk. “Lady Juliana. ‘Quality’ and ‘exceptional’ are words that apply to her as well.”
Alexius stalked toward him. “She is not a bottle of fine port, Gomfrey. Nor is she just another possession to collect.”
“Such righteous passion! One might believe that you are in love with the lady.” He took a sip of the port and stared at Alexius over the rim of the glass. The earl wagged his little finger chidingly at him. “However, we both know that your ambitions for Lady Juliana were less honorable than mine. A remarkable feat considering I was blackmailing her.”
Alexius had heard enough. Juliana’s sister had told him that Gomfrey had claimed Juliana as payment for their mother’s debt of honor. He had not expected the man to confess his deeds so readily. It took three long strides to reach the earl. Alexius knocked the small glass of port out of his hand and drove his fist into Gomfrey’s stomach.
The earl doubled over and retched. The glass shattered against the window, splattering the bloodred port. It was easy enough for Alexius to imagine the liquid as his opponent’s blood. Alexius was far from finished. He brought up his knee and drove it into the man’s face. Gomfrey landed on his desk, sending everything on top scattering in all directions.
Alexius kicked away the bottle of wine as it collided with his boot. He seized Gomfrey by the edges of his coat. “My apologies for ruining your rug, but I am losing patience. Where is Juliana? Have you locked her in one of the bedchambers?”
“She isn’t here, Sinclair.”
“Liar!”
He pulled the earl up and slammed his fist into the man’s jaw. Alexius’s knuckles stung from the cuts and bruises he had collected from hitting Gomfrey the previous evening. He, on the other hand, looked worse. His broken nose was twice its normal size, and the mottled bruising was spreading. Alexius had managed to split the man’s lower lip, too. Blood was seeping from the corner of Gomfrey’s mouth and his right nostril.
Alexius crawled up on top of the desk and settled on the earl’s chest. “I went to her town house. I spoke with her sisters. You did not escort her home.”
Gomfrey bared his teeth. Blood morbidly outlined each tooth. “Get off me, you bastard,” the earl hissed. His breathing was shallow because of the burden of Alexius’s weight pressing on his chest. “I will tell you—everything!”
Alexius stared down at the earl dispassionately before he slowly climbed off the man.
Gomfrey shot up, gripping the edges of the desk for support. He was seething that the man he had always despised had slamm
ed him onto his back as effortlessly as his cook might have done to a green turtle trying to escape the cooking pot. “I had every intention of fucking her, you know.”
Instead of attacking him, Alexius bent down to retrieve his trampled hat. “To satisfy Lady Duncombe’s debt of honor.”
The earl gave him a quick reckless smile. Gomfrey winced and gingerly probed the bleeding wound on his lower lip. “In part. Then there was the additional enticement of stealing away your current mistress.”
Gomfrey chuckled at Alexius’s grim expression. “Your indignation that you had been publicly cast aside by your mistress was worth the broken nose. Oh, and then there was the delightful opportunity of satisfying every whim I had with Lady Juliana’s albeit reluctant body.” Gomfrey gave him an appraising glance. “Of course, you should know better than I.”
Alexius could not believe Juliana had endured an evening in Gomfrey’s custody and had escaped unscathed. “You did not bed her,” he said, not hiding his disbelief.
Gomfrey parted his hands in a gesture of surrender. “It was not out of nobility, I assure you. I brought Lady Juliana here because I wanted to savor my victory and I knew she would submit to my demands for the sake of her family.”
“What happened?”
“Do you want that drink now? I know I could use one.” Gomfrey was feeling better, because he staggered over to the small cart along the wall and selected a crystal decanter. “This is not as good as the port, but it will suffice.”
He poured himself a drink.
“I kissed her,” the earl said, smiling at the memory. “She tasted better than wine. Her sleek tongue as potent and seductive as opium.”
Alexius stood stiffly, his hands fisted at his sides. His pride and anger and Juliana’s devotion to her mother had driven her into this man’s arms. Alexius hated himself almost as much as he hated Gomfrey.
And the bastard knew it.
“I wanted her. Craved her, but I was a mess from our brawl at the theater, and Lady Juliana was skittish.” He walked by Alexius and sat down in a large overstuffed chair. “I sent her into a bedchamber to prepare for me. I went into my bedchamber to undress, and I drank a small dose of laudanum to ease the throbbing in my nose. I followed the laudanum with several glasses of wine. I wanted nothing to distract me from enjoying my prize.”
“Juliana ran away.” Alexius could just imagine the brazen lady tossing several knotted sheets out the window and climbing down to flee her blackmailer.
“Nothing so theatrical, Sinclair.” Gomfrey dug into his waistcoat pocket and pulled out a handkerchief. He blotted at the blood from his nose. “Regrettably, I misjudged the laudanum dose. I fell asleep in an uncomfortable chair, and did not awaken until my manservant knocked on the door this morning.”
Alexius laughed, shaking his head at Juliana’s good fortune.
“Yes, it was a rather amusing reprieve for Lady Juliana,” Gomfrey said humorlessly. “Nonetheless, she still belonged to me. Now that I was fully recovered from my ordeal, you might have found me sampling the carnal delights of your former mistress had it not been for her mother and cousin’s inopportune arrival.”
“They took Juliana away?” Alexius arched his brow. “It is not like you to surrender your prey so easily.”
“Well, I did try to keep her,” he said, audacious and unapologetic until the end. “Lord Duncombe had originally refused to honor his cousin’s gambling debts. He must have belatedly had a change of heart over the matter. They appeared at my door, insisting that I exchange Lady Juliana for the money, or else they would summon a constable.”
Duncombe had known about Gomfrey’s sordid bargain and had left the marchioness and her daughters to an uncertain fate? Before Alexius was finished with this business, he intended to pay a visit to the new Lord Duncombe and remind him about his duties to his family.
“So you see, Sinclair, your grand gesture to redeem yourself in Lady Juliana’s eyes was for naught.” Gomfrey dropped his soiled handkerchief and used his hand to push himself up from the chair. “Your lady has been returned to her family, and more importantly, she still despises you for your trickery. You have lost her.”
“Perhaps.” Alexius needed to see for himself that Juliana was safe. “However, you have enough troubles of your own to be concerned with my private affairs.”
“How so?”
Alexius punched the earl hard, sending him flailing backward into the chair. “I cannot be placated with money. Consider yourself challenged, Gomfrey. My seconds will pay you a visit to set the day and hour.”
He pulled out his handkerchief and tossed it at the earl. “I look forward to watching you bleed.”
Alexius walked out of the library, leaving the manservant to tend to his lord.
Chapter Twenty-one
JULIANA WAS NOT at home.
After he had left Gomfrey, Alexius had returned to the Ivers town house. He had expected the butler to turn him away; however, the servant startled Alexius by opening the door and told him to wait in the hall until he was announced.
Although he was not Lady Cordelia’s favorite person, she greeted him politely at the threshold of the drawing room and invited him to join her sister and mother. Without his help, they had rescued Juliana from Lord Gomfrey unscathed, and yet none of the women seemed pleased with their triumph.
Where was Juliana?
“I have come from Lord Gomfrey’s. The earl will not bother you again,” Alexius assured them, hoping to ease the tension in the room.
Lady Lucilla gave him a weak smile. “It was kind of you to confront the gentleman on our behalf.”
“Our sister will be grateful when she learns of your kindness.”
Bemused, Alexius stared at Lady Cordelia. “I doubt it. Your sister will likely make me crawl before she forgives me. If she were a man, she would call me out just for the pleasure of putting a bullet into me.”
Lady Lucilla’s eyes widened at his outrageous statement. “Juliana possesses the soul of an angel. She would never be so cruel!”
“Your sister is stubborn, prideful, and can be rather spiteful when she feels she has been wronged.” Alexius held up his hand to silence her sisters’ loyal protests. “I deserve her anger, and if she gives me a second chance, I hope to earn her forgiveness.”
“Noble aspirations, Lord Sinclair,” Lady Duncombe said wearily. One of her daughters had placed a damp cloth over the marchioness’s eyes to ease the pain of a developing headache. “Nevertheless, you are too late.”
“I mean no disrespect, Lady Duncombe,” Alexius said carefully, still unhappy with her for her reckless play that had placed her youngest daughter in the hands of an unsavory gentleman. “However, I prefer to discuss this with Juliana privately.”
The marchioness lifted the cloth and peeked at him. He had seduced her daughter, turned her into his mistress, and humiliated her in front of half the ton. Alexius should have been intimidated by the older woman, for she likely knew all the wickedly delightful things he had done with her daughter. It was difficult to feign repentance about those wonderful nights seducing Juliana. He did not regret them, and by god, he hoped Juliana had enjoyed them as much as he had.
If she did, he was determined to remind her of what they had shared before his sister and Juliana’s mother’s troubles had placed them on opposing sides.
“That might prove difficult.” The marchioness covered her exposed eye with the cloth.
Alexius brazenly reached over and pulled the cloth away from the woman’s face. “How so?”
“How dare you! Give it back!”
With the cloth dangling between his fingers, his gaze shifted from one sister to the other. He might not be able to intimidate the marchioness, but the daughters were weaker prey.
“Juliana is not upstairs, recovering from her frightful night with Lord Gomfrey. No, do not even try to lie,” he said, silencing Lady Cordelia before she had a chance to utter a single word. “Gilbert would have told me when I inquired at
the door. What have you done? Did you sell her to someone else?”
All three women gasped, their faces displaying various degrees of surprise and anger.
Lady Duncombe was the first to recover. “This is wholly your fault, Lord Sinclair.”
Alexius slapped the cloth in his hand down on the table in front of them. He had spent most of the day chasing after Juliana, and his temper was honed to a deadly edge. “Mine?”
“Yes, it is yours,” Lady Duncombe said crossly.
“Maman.”
Lady Cordelia seemed equally perplexed by her mother’s accusation. “You cannot blame Lord Sinclair for our troubles.”
He assumed that Lady Cordelia was tiptoeing around the marchioness’s heavy play at the gambling tables and her staggering losses to spare her feelings.
Alexius had no such qualms.
“It was your deep play with Gomfrey that placed Juliana in danger. Not I.”
“I am aware of my part, Sinclair,” the marchioness shouted back at him. “You clearly were not aware of yours, you stupid man. You were supposed to save us!”
Lady Duncombe might as well have slapped him. Her reasoning certainly left him dumbfounded. What made him feel better was that her daughters were also surprised.
Alexius rubbed the back of his neck. He had not eaten all day, and the lack of food was making him light-headed. Or maybe he was trying too hard to make sense of Juliana’s lunatic family. “Perhaps you might want to elaborate how I was to save you when I had no inkling of your financial difficulties.”
The marchioness pointed at him, her eyes gleaming with triumph. “Exactly my point! If you had been a proper gentleman for my girl, Juliana would have run to you and told you of our problems. Instead, she went to our cousin.”
“He turned her away.” Alexius already despised the gentleman.
Lady Duncombe sadly nodded. “I could have told her that it was useless. Our cousin is not like us in temperament.”
“He loves to lecture us,” Lady Lucilla added. “The man could go on for hours.”
All Night with a Rogue: Lords of Vice Page 18