Page 15 of Foolish Bride
He stood and took the decanter out of Michael’s reach. “I had a very odd note from your butler and thought it best if I stopped by before going home tonight.” Tom poured himself a brandy and sipped.
“Meddling servants.”
Thomas raised an eyebrow. “Servants who worry about their master’s wellbeing are to be cherished. Your domestic affairs aside, why are you drunk?”
“Who says I am drunk? I am entitled to a bit of my own brandy when I am in pain.” The brandy was too far away, and his leg throbbed.
Tom poured Michael a glass. “Perhaps you might sip that, Mike. I am sure your father had the same thought at some point. He would just have one to dull some pain of injustice. I am sure at the start he thought he deserved to drink his own brandy and act like an ass. He then justified his behavior with his level of drunkenness.”
Michael put down the glass. His father’s legacy had ruined his family. The best thing he’d ever done for them was die. It wouldn’t do to leave that same horror for his brothers to deal with when he turned up toes.
Tom put his down as well. “Why are you drunk?”
Michael sat up. The room spun. “Elinor was here.”
“Here. When?”
“Tonight. She put herself in a hack and showed up at my door.”
“Courageous girl. I didn’t realize she had that kind of meddle.” Thomas leaned back.
Michael closed his eyes, but the spinning didn’t stop. His Elinor had been a delicate flower, but tonight she’d shone like a warrior queen. “Nor I. She was nothing like the girl I fell in love with.”
“So you no longer love her. Is that why you’ve put yourself in this condition?”
His heart hurt worse than his wound. “I think I love her more.”
“Did you tell her that? Did you renew your engagement?” Thomas stretched his legs out and crossed his feet.
“She was so beautiful and I tossed her from the house.”
Tom jerked to the edge of the chair and spread his arms wide. “Why?”
“I have nothing to offer.”
“Then why are you drunk?”
Michael leaned back and stared at the ceiling. “Tom, can we just sit here and not talk of Elinor Burkenstock? I will speak of anything else, but when I think of her, I just want to lose myself in that decanter.”
“I am happy to sit and speak of the trouncing I gave Daniel during our fencing match on Monday.”
Michael took a deep breath, ready to lose himself in one of Thomas’s amusing stories. “Start at the beginning and leave nothing out.”
Chapter 3
“Lord and Lady Marlton, accompanied by Mr. Thomas Wheel,” the housekeeper announced.
Elinor put aside the list she’d been jotting into her journal and stood as they entered. As the men bowed, she and Sophia made their curtsies.
Sophia called on her from time to time, but never with his lordship, and she’d certainly never had a call from Mr. Wheel before. “Good afternoon. I was not expecting guests. I will call for tea.”
Sophia sat, and the gentlemen waited for Elinor to finish ordering tea. Once she sat next to Sophia, they also sat.
“How are you, Elinor?” Sophia asked.
“Fine.” There was a hollow tone to her voice she didn’t like, but couldn’t seem to alter.
“Will your dear mother be back soon?” Thomas’s voice sounded too sweet.
