Chapter 17: The Bargain

"Not a walk," said Gervase. "It's gone one in the morning, and I'm told it's bad for the liver.

"You may come into my study, Brayne, and say it sitting down."

My uncle glanced at me.

"I had rather speak to you alone, Tarrant. Man to man."

"I had rather you had stayed in Leeds," said Gervase pleasantly. "We are both disappointed.

"Mina, go up."

I looked at my husband's face in the lamplight.

It was perfectly calm, and it was asking me for something.

I went up the first flight of stairs, and when I heard the study door close I came down again in my stockinged feet.

The study opens on the library through a pair of folding doors.

He had left them open a hand's width, as he did the night of the wedding.

I stood in the dark behind them with my back against a bookcase.

"Port?" said Gervase.

"Thank you. I shan't be long."

My uncle's chair creaked, and I knew exactly how he sat.

He would be settled back with one hand on his waistcoat.

"I shall be frank," said the Earl of Brayne. "You are an intelligent man, and you've been put to inconvenience.

"You were a rake, and you wished for a quiet life.

"My niece wished for a husband who would leave her alone, and I'm told she has lived to regret it."

"Is that the opening?"

"It is the situation.

"I've a servant's word that the marriage was never consummated, and by Friday I shall have more.

"The Lord Chancellor annuls such a marriage on one petition, and with no fuss.

"I will make you a gift of it."

"A gift."

"You will petition on grounds of non-consummation.

"Mina will sign, because she will be told that Kitty goes to my sister at Bath, unharmed, unmarried until twenty-one.

"Not to Leeds.

"My word on it.

"The trust accounts remain as they stand, closed, and nobody troubles anybody."

I closed my eyes.

"And the other side of the ledger?" said Gervase.

"If you decline, I shall prove it in open court.

"A virgin duke is a ridiculous thing, Tarrant.

"But a duke who built his name on a lie is a great deal more than ridiculous.

"Especially with a divorced woman sworn false to the Lords."

My husband said nothing.

"Mrs. Fane swore it, you see," said my uncle softly. "Before a committee.

"I have her drafts.

"I'd be sorry to see a respectable woman in the pillory for the sake of an obstinate man."

There was a long silence.

I heard the click of a glass set down.

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