Thankfully they had entered the guest suite just at the moment, and Eliza drew a deep breath. “I stumbled upon Ashbourne in the front drawing room. He was kissing Bethany Danvers, the Marchioness of Isley.”
Johanna was the first to whirl about, her jaw slack, her eyes wide. Louisa—dear, sweet Louisa—let out nothing more than a soft, “Oh.”
“Harlot,” Johanna seethed.
Eliza tilted her head. “Actually, I’m not entirely sure it’s her fault. Ashbourne seemed to be the instigator in the affair.”
She recalled all too clearly the way his strong hands had gripped the marchioness’s shoulders, the way he’d pulled her so close.
Eliza swallowed and went to the windows to draw back the drapes.
“Isn’t the view magnificent? Even through the rain you can tell just how spectacular it is.”
She felt her sisters’ gazes on her, and she turned.
“It’s not as if I expected a love match. What an entirely unnecessary notion.” She gestured around her. “Look at all that I’ve gained in the union. You should see the watercolors I’ve done since we arrived. And Henry is getting more exercise than ever, and—”
She’d been about to say she’d learned how to swim, but the words stuck in her throat as her memory burned with the echo of Dax’s touch as he laid her back in the water, the feeling of his arms around her, so safe, so sure that nothing could ever hurt her.
She raised her chin and plastered on a smile. “There’s a ball to be arranged as well. Apparently it’s a family tradition.” She stepped forward and took a hand from each of her sisters even though neither had spoken since her pronouncement. “And both of you are here to help me plan it.” She frowned. “Although I had wished Viv would come along too. Is it really true she went to Margate for the summer?”
Louisa blinked several times but finally answered, “Yes. She wanted to spend the summer alone apparently, recuperating by the sea.”
“But isn’t she concerned she’ll see…well, Margate?”
Louisa shook her head. “He’s racing curricles in the Lake District this summer. Apparently he stands to win a great sum if he carries off the races he’s committed to.”
Eliza could only nod at this, imagining what it must be like for her sister to be alone in her husband’s country seat. As she turned her gaze to the windows though, she began to understand what it might mean.
Eliza knew she would never spend another summer away from the ocean. No matter what was to come. She’d always make sure to return to the manor on the cliffs. Her hand drifted to her stomach at the thought. Perhaps with her children in tow.
She blinked as if to clear her thoughts and forced another smile before turning back to her sisters.
“Now then, let’s get you unpacked and settled, and we’ll catch up.”
Louisa and Johanna both simply stared at her, ready for her to sprout an extra limb at any moment.
She smiled harder. “I’m fine. Really.”
But she knew she was only trying to convince herself.
“I wished to inform you that you were right regarding the matter of beauty over charm.”
Dax eyed his friend over his glass of whiskey, but Sebastian did not so much as smile in response. They’d fled to the hunting cottage his father had kept at the outskirts of the Ashbourne estate. There wasn’t much hunting to be done along the seashore, mostly grouse and pheasant, and Dax suspected the cottage was more a means of escape for his father than actual sport.
Regardless, it suited Dax’s needs at the moment, and he relished the sound of the fire crackling before him and the rain striking the roof. The only thing that would make it better was if Eliza were with him, curled up on his lap while Henry snoozed by the fire.
He took a bigger swallow of whiskey.
“I can’t say that I derive any pleasure from being correct.” Sebastian toyed with the rim of his glass as it sat perched on the arm of his chair. “I can hardly see how this would warrant my immediate departure from London where I was quite enjoying the absence of, well, everyone as the city has emptied for the summer.”
“Eliza caught me kissing Bethany.”
Sebastian’s fingers stilled on the glass.
“Bethany of the great betrayal?”
“That would be the one.” Admitting it felt like chewing glass.
Sebastian made a noise of acknowledgment, but it was tinged with sarcastic disappointment.
“She said she needed to tell me the truth of what happened.” He didn’t know why he felt so compelled to defend himself.
Likely it was the fact he’d doubted the truth of Bethany’s revelation from the moment he’d realized Eliza had seen the kiss. It had felt all too…contrived. He wouldn’t put it past Bethany to plan such an occurrence, but how was she to know Eliza was even in residence or where she would be?
He gave himself a mental shake. No, it wasn’t possible for Bethany to have so much information to orchestrate such a plan.
“And what, pray tell, did she say was the truth?” Sebastian’s disbelief was obvious in his tone, and it rankled.
“That her father had accepted Isley’s offer for her hand without her knowledge.”
Sebastian’s finger stilled on the rim of the glass. “And you believed her?”
Dax thought back to that afternoon. Bethany had seemed so earnest. Her eyes told him nothing but truth, and the way she had clung to him…well, it had felt all too real.
But he had been fooled by her once before.
“If it weren’t the truth, then what cause would she have to seek me out?”
Sebastian set his glass on the table between them.
“I struggle with the moniker Beastly Duke when I am clearly more astute at affairs of the heart than most others.” He broke his gaze away from the fire to stare at Dax. “Bethany hurt you once to great public humiliation. Would she not be so inclined to humiliate you privately and ruin any chance you had at a happy union with your bride?”
“That would seem rather petty, and Bethany has never bothered with something she views as beneath her.”
“But that was seven years ago when she had you in her clutches. Now something that was once beneath her may be her last hope.”
Even considering that he may have been the pawn in Bethany’s malicious game had his teeth grinding, but he couldn’t help but see the sense in Sebastian’s words. After all, the man had been right about Eliza’s charm.
Oh, God, Eliza.
“Be that as it may, it still leaves me in a terrible situation with Eliza.”
“And which situation would that be?” Sebastian asked. “The one in which you were caught in the act or the one in which you realize you have true feelings for your wife and have now put yourself in an irreparable state?”
“Irreparable?” He tasted bile just speaking the word. “Surely the situation doesn’t call for such a hopeless word.”
Sebastian’s gaze was direct. “Some situations are unfortunately hopeless, my friend. I pray you have not gotten yourself into one.”
Dax swallowed and looked away, unable to hold his friend’s gaze.
It was several seconds before he spoke.