Page 74 of To Tempt a Scandalous Lord
The viscount’s gaze would have melted steel. “That is wholly unfair. I argued the Reform Act should have donemore. No one has been more committed to this party than me.”
Niall just barely managed to smother his snort. Matthews had done no such thing.
Darington merely lifted a brow, the corners of his mouth tipping up ever so slightly. It was a dangerous look, and the viscount would be wise to mind it. Instead, Matthews grumbled to the men gathered around them, as if the dukes’ criticisms were a great and confusing surprise, and Niall was reminded that nothing could touch the man’s hubris.
“My, Matthews,” Ashwood said then, “whatever has you so defensive? It’s not like you to be quite so…animated. Has someone grown wise of your many lies?”
“How dare you,” Matthews growled.
“I have no interest in playing parlor games with you, Matthews, but if I did, I would ask for truth.” Ashwood set his teacup on a side table and winged a brow up. “Is it not true you donated to Tory candidates?”
A gasp strangled him. How had he not known the viscount was financially supporting opposition candidates? Niall had fundraised and canvassed for many party contenders, and the thought that the viscount had simultaneously been supporting their opponents made him clench his jaw so tightly it throbbed.
Apparently Matthews was also caught by surprise, for his mouth dropped open, his blue eyes darting to the shocked and irate faces staring back at him from around the room.
“Oh, I do so enjoy this game.” Darington clapped his hands on his thighs. “Here’s my question for Lord Matthews: is it true you paid MPs to vote against the Reform Act?”
Gasps and shouts of outrage exploded around them, Niall contributing to the chorus. The viscount had encouraged others to vote against the Reform Act?
With his nostrils flaring, Niall set down his teacup with aclink, mindful that his host would not appreciate if he shattered his fine china in the grip of his hand.
With admirable aplomb, Matthews rallied. “It does not become two dukes of the kingdom to cast aspersions with no evidence.”
Ashwood dipped his blond head. “But is it casting aspersions when everyone in this room can easily believe you capable of such things?”
Niall scanned the men gathered about the spectacle, finding many nodding their heads in agreement.
“I have never understood why Inverray held you in such esteem,” Ashwood continued. “It’s long been clear to me you have a talent for spotting men with the drive and ambition to succeed in this cutthroat world of politics, and manipulating them to do your bidding.”
That was exactly what Matthews had done.
Niall clenched his eyes closed as the years melded together to form a clear picture of a man who had noticed Niall’s desire for acceptance, for approval, and used it to steer his path.
And it wasn’t until Alicia had entered his life like a blazing comet, whiting out all he thought he knew and wanted, that Niall had finally come to see his association with Matthews as the insidious relationship it was.
Matthews made a raspy sound that Niall assumed was a chuckle. “I admit I offered Inverray advice, and answered any number of his questions over the years, but you overestimate my influence over him. He was simply a young man who wanted to make a name for himself about town and I was willing to make his political path easier.”
Niall stepped forward, outrage unhinging his jaw, when Ashwood snapped his gaze to him. With an imperceptible jerk of his head, he returned his attention to Matthews, and Niall yanked his chin back, unsure of what he was trying to tell him.
“And yet it would seem to me that it is you who have made a name for yourself thanks to Inverray’s successes.” Ashwood unbuttoned his coat and relaxed back into his chair, taking a leisurely sip of tea. “If I recall correctly, you refused to sign on to any of his proposed bills in committee, but when it appeared they might pass, you insisted your name be added as a co-sponsor to the official record.”
Several men nodded in eager agreement.
“They’re clever bastards,” Firthwell whispered, and when Niall turned to him, the man was hiding a smile behind his hand.
Niall frowned, looking back to where the men continued to exchange barbs. “What?”
“Don’t you see what they’re doing?”
Baffled, Niall returned his gaze to the group, studying the way the younger men appeared confident and almost bored in their responses, while a visible vein ticked in Matthews’s temple.
Suddenly he knew.
Ashwood and Darington were baiting the viscount. Antagonizing and provoking him to reveal thoughts and opinions he was always so careful to hide. The dukes were discrediting Matthews, revealing his deceitful tactics, blunting his claws so that his criticisms of Niall…and later Alicia, would draw no blood. And they risked nothing to do it, but spared Niall the gossip that would have followed had he so publicly responded to Matthews’s sneers. They’d quite possibly saved Alicia’s reputation.
Unclenching his fists, Niall willed himself not to respond to the petty insults and vitriol that fell from the viscount’s lips. For so many years he had heeded the man’s every word of advice, tied himself up in knots to earn his approval, and in the course of one afternoon, his friends had torn down the edifice he had erected, foolishly, in Matthews’s honor.
Embarrassment heated his skin. Niall had been so desperate for a father figure, so determined to prove his own father’s assessment wrong, he’d latched on to the first man who’d shown him a smidge of respect.
