Page 5 of The Devil's Accidental Duchess
CHAPTER 2
Philip watched as his sister frowned at the insults being hurled from right outside the window.
“Why does that sound like the Duke of Barlow?” she muttered. She gathered her skirts to peer out the window and jumped back in alarm. “Why, it trulyisthe Duke of Barlow! What is he doing here, of all places?”
Philip’s frown deepened. Why did his sister know what the Duke of Barlow sounded like? As far as he was aware, Lizzy had never met the man. Their father had made sure that the two families never encountered one another.
“Oh, Lizzy, do get away from the windows! What if he gets violent and… and smashes one, and you are cut to ribbons by the glass!” the Dowager Duchess fretted, as melodramatic as ever.
“I am not sure about smashing windows,” Lizzy replied in a harsh whisper, “but hedoesappear to have a pistol with him. His son, too.”
His son?
Philip knew of Reuben Sinclair, but he would not have recognized the man by sight. How was it, then, that Lizzy did?
“They have pistols with them?!” the Dowager Duchess gasped, leaping up from the settee. “Oh, Lizzy, get away from there, right this minute! Surely they will shoot you!”
Lizzy pouted a little but mercifully stepped away to safer territory behind a curtain, though she didkeep peeking.
“I hardly think he will start shooting at the windows, Grandmama,” she said. “Although hedoesseem rather irate. Positively apoplectic, I would say.”
“Well, what could he be furious about here? Indeed,whatis he doing here, on our grounds?” the Dowager Duchess asked frantically, looking at both siblings. “That man would rather walk barefoot over live coals than approach a St. Maur.”
“And I am not such a lackwit as to tempt his ire,” Lizzy declared, as she peeked again, rather contradicting herself.
“Well, I believe we are about to find out,” Philip muttered. “Perkins?”
He turned toward the faithful butler of Ashbrook Manor, who seemed to have magically materialized in the drawing room doorway.
“Your Grace, the Duke of Barlow demands an audience with you,” the man spoke in a somber tone.
“Yes, yes, Perkins, we can see that very well.” Lizzy rolled her eyes, making no secret of who she thought the real lackwit was. “We alsoheardthat clearly as well.”
Philip smiled sardonically. “I believe his precise words were, ‘Come out and face me, you vile blackguard.’”
“This is hardly a laughing matter, Philip!” his grandmother admonished him. “Why, the man looks just about ready to murder someone.”
“Probably. Which is why I believe I must go and meet him posthaste,” he replied, standing up and heading to the nearby side table to fetch his pistol from the drawer. “We cannot keep the man waiting for whatever retribution he is here to claim, can we? Might make him more likely to shoot me without preamble, and we cannot have that.”
“I would very much prefer that there be no shooting at all!” the Dowager Duchess exclaimed, looking rather aghast that he was actually contemplating meeting with the man in his state. “Philip, be reasonable?—”
But Philip had already walked out of the drawing room, with Perkins fretfully trailing after him.
When he had been alive, his father had made a great many enemies, but it could be considered that the present Duke of Barlow was the greatest of them all. Even in his youth, he could sense the great animosity the man held for his sire—a sentiment Philip shared all too well.
His father had not been a pleasant man, and that was putting it mildly.
Dying was the only thing worthy of note that he had ever done, Philip thought to himself grimly.A pity he had not seen fit to do it sooner and spare us all the torment of his existence.
He smiled bleakly as he readied the pistol in his hand, surprised that fate had decided to put a weapon in his grip again so soon after his return from war. Part of him had hoped he might never have to wield one again, but it seemed that was not to be.
Who was I kidding, thinking that being in thishouse again would mean an end to the violence in my life?
When Perkins opened the door for him, he strode out to meet perhaps the only man who had ever despised his father more than him.
Why must men resort to pistols to settle their disputes?
Selina was almost in tears when her father all but pulled her out of the carriage right after hollering at the windows of Ashbrook Manor and barking at the unfortunate footmen who had come out to see what the ruckus was all about.
