Page 84 of Marriage Most Scandalous
“Let’s leave my brother out of this for the moment,” Sebastian said. “So the duel and the reason for it—my having slept with your ‘wife’—all of it was planned ahead of time?”
“Yes. And you fell right into that. If you hadn’t touched her— you know, I actually had hoped you wouldn’t. I was so sick at heart. You were my best friend! I was to make you think you killed me and then disappear for the rest of my life. I didn’t mind disappearing so much. My father was going to send me money after he got his accounts settled. And I wasn’t really ready to marry Eleanor yet, so although I knew I would lose her because of it, I wasn’t heartbroken over that.”
“She was.”
“Yes, I know, and so was I later, but I’m getting ahead of myself. The morning of the duel, I had a leather pouch of blood I was supposed to break, to make my death look real. That was Juliette’s idea. She supplied it. I wasn’t going to fire at you at all. But you!” Giles burst out. “Standing there obviously not going to shoot at me, either. That was ruining the plan.”
“You fired at me,” Sebastian reminded him.
“I had to, but you know I’m an excellent shot. I only nicked your arm to lower it so you’d at least be pointing your damned pistol at me. But bloody hell, you actually did shoot me!”
Giles tore open his shirt to show Sebastian the scar.
Sebastian wasn’t impressed. “Not severe enough,” he said.
Giles stared at him incredulously for a moment, then said calmly, “Actually, it did nearly kill me. She didn’t get me a doctor. And my father wasn’t there, because he was hiding in France until it was all over. Juliette couldn’t have cared less if I died at that point. She’d played her part as the grieving widow. She merely had Anton get me to the coast and put me on a ship back to France.”
“Bloody hell, that’s where I remember him from. He was your second at the duel, wasn’t he?”
“Yes, he was one of her lackeys.”
“So my being disowned was a minor consequence to you?” Sebastian said, and there was nothing calm about his tone now.
Giles cringed and replied quickly, “Nothing that occurred back then was minor to me, but you haven’t heard the last of it yet. I don’t remember much of that trip back to France. I was dumped on the docks, since the captain didn’t want me dying on his ship. An old woman found me, promised to fix me up if I married her and worked her farm. I’ll be deuced if I know how she pulled it off, but I did end up married to her, and she did patch me up.”
Sebastian had heard enough. He stood up and started to approach Giles. Giles read him correctly and started backing away.
“One,” Sebastian said in a cold, hard voice, “you had ample opportunity to tell me what was going on before anyone could harm your father.”
“So you could do what? You didn’t have the blunt to pay off my father’s debts, I certainly didn’t, and those men really were going to kill him if they found him before he had their money.”
“So instead of letting my father know that his foolishness had progressed to that point—and don’t for a minute think that my father wouldn’t have gotten him out of that mess if he’d known—he had to perpetrate this cruel deception instead? You should have told me, Giles!”
“You don’t know how much I agonized over that, how many times I convinced myself that something could have been done. But he was convinced that your father wouldn’t bail him out again.”
“But it was all right if my life was ruined?”
“I didn’t know about your being disowned, not until several years later. My father never mentioned it. I did keep in touch with him, you know. When I confronted him about it, he swore he hadn’t expected that either. And you weren’t ruined. I saw you a few years later, here in France. I was tempted to hail you, but since you appeared well and quite prosperous, I slithered off. That did end my worst agony for a while. You were always the question mark that weighed on my conscience until that day.”
“Appearances are deceiving, Giles.”
“Nonsense. I had no doubt that you would fare well, I just needed confirmation. You were always resourceful. There was nothing you couldn’t do if you set your mind to it. I idolized you. I wanted so much to be like you, but I just couldn’t cut it.”
“Two,” Sebastian said, “you not only ruined my life, you ruined my father’s.”
“The hell you say!” Giles gasped. “I have checked on our families. My father did stop gambling. With the money your father gave him to assuage his guilt, he managed to invest a little, has learned from his mistakes. But everyone at home is hale and hardy—”
“Good God, are you really that much of a fool? Did you find out in your ‘checking’ that my father has been estranged from his own mother since the duel? Did you find out he’s also been estranged from your father? They haven’t spoken in all these years! And although Juliette did end up married to my brother, she’s made his life miserable.”
Giles had paled. “God, no, I didn’t know any of that.”
“Then you’re as much a failure as an investigator as you are as a friend!” Even John blanched over that slur, but Sebastian wasn’t finished. “What have you done all these years other than hide?”
“I’ve been raising my son,” Giles said quietly.
That gave Sebastian pause. “You had a son with that old woman you married?” he asked incredulously.
“No. I married Eleanor.”
