Page 42 of One Night of Surrender
All he’d done was reopen the wound of loss, of knowing he’d never find happiness and that he wasn’t meant to.
The noise was loudest in the billiard room where Viola was in the thick of things.She’d just made a shot that had garnered a cacophony of shouts and tankards clanking together.Though her grin was cloaked with a fake beard, he would know it anywhere.Her gaze found his, and her smile dimmed.
He waited for her near the door.It took several minutes for her to extricate herself from the celebration and make her way to his side.
“Excellent timing,” she said quietly.“I just won my game.”
“Timing or not, you’re leaving.Come on.”He spun on his heel without waiting to see if she followed him.
Partway through the private salon, she snagged his sleeve and caught up to him.“What’s wrong?”
“Mr.Beaufort is ill.”
Viola’s eyes widened.“Oh no.I had no idea she—he—couldn’t hold his liquor.”
They moved into the kitchen, and Val pulled her into the storage room.“She isn’t bloody ill.Her disguise is…compromised, and you need to leave.”
Viola’s brow arched beneath the brim of her hat.“Compromised?”
Val scowled at her.“She was compromised the moment you brought her here.She doesn't know how to look or act like a man.She isn’t like you.”His gaze dipped over his sister, who’d spent the last two years perfecting her ability to pass as a gentleman.
“I thought it would be fun,” she said.“Plus, I thought the two of you should spend some time together, and it looks as though I was right.You were gone for a while.”Her look held a bit of a scold, as if this was somehow his fault.
“You brought her here hoping we would spend time together?What the hell are you doing meddling in my life?”
“Shhh!”She looked past him toward the kitchen.“Do you want someone to hear you?”
“Don’t ignore the question.”
“I wasn’t meddling.I was facilitating.”She huffed out a breath.“Never mind.Clearly, I made a mistake.Let’s go.”She pushed past him and stalked into the kitchen, then stopped short and spun back around.“Where is she?”
“Brewery.”
Viola walked through the kitchen and opened the door to the brewery.Isabelle stood just inside, her disguise back in place with the exception of the beard, which she held in her hand.She looked at Viola with a weak smile.“I’m afraid I can’t stick this back on.”
“It isn’t necessary,” Val said.“You’re leaving anyhow.Just keep your head down as we leave and once we get outside.”He led them from the brewery into the kitchen and then out through the back entrance to the alley.
Circling around the building, they made their way out to the Haymarket, where Val promptly hailed a hack.He looked at Viola.“I’m instructing him to drive you directly home and to inform me if you request otherwise.”
She rolled her eyes.“There’s no need to be an autocrat.”
Val opened the door but stopped himself from helping either of them inside since that would look incredibly…wrong.As the hack rumbled away, he considered going home himself.
But Barkley was at home.For one more night.
Val went back to the Wicked Duke, but didn’t feel like rejoining anyone.As he made his way through the kitchen, one of the employees approached him.“Your Grace?”
He turned to her with a weary exhalation.“Yes, Mary?”
“I found this in the brewery.”She handed him the length of muslin that had bound Isabelle’s breasts.
“Thank you.”He took the fabric, and she dipped a curtsey before returning to her work.
Val left the kitchen and started toward the office.Just before he reached the doorway, he instead opened the door to the narrow staircase that led to the rooms above.Doyle lodged there, and they kept a chamber where Val and Cole used to sleep on occasion.Back in the early days of the pub when they’d practically lived here.
He rubbed the muslin between his thumb and forefinger, imagining he could still feel the warmth of her skin.He lifted the fabric to his nose and, closing his eyes, inhaled deeply.Lilies and Isabelle, the most intoxicating scent in the world.
He discarded his coat and boots, then went to lie on one of the two cots.He glanced over at the empty one and thought of Cole, who would be married soon.Who was so deeply in love, he couldn’t see straight.Whose future was so bright with promise that it was positively blinding.
