Page 68 of The Theory of Earls (The Beautiful Barringtons 1)

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How dare he?

Margaret deserved, at the very least, to be treated with some respect. Not discarded like an old coat on the doorstep of her husband’s home in front of his staffandher new brother-in-law…barely an hour after marrying.

“A scotch?” Leo walked into the drawing room and shut the doors.

She nodded.

“I knew there was something about you I adored, Lady Welles.”

“My drinking habits?” She gave him a weak smile. Leo was as flirtatious and charming as his brother, with the same graceful way of moving. “I’ve only ever had scotch two other times, but it seems the right sort of thing to drink under the…circumstances.” She made her way to the comfortable-looking settee covered in damask nearly the same color as her gown and looked up at her brother-in-law.

The inflection in Leo’s voice was different than her husband’s. Welles had a much more cultured accent while Leo’s voice didn’t have such snobbery tinting his words. The arrogance in their manner was the same, though, the air of entitlement marking them both as sons of a duke, bastard or not. Leo Murphy, much like his brother, was also intimately aware of the effect of his looks on the fairer sex.

“May I call you Maggie?”

Margaret looked up into the face so like her husband’s. “Your likeness to Welles is rather uncanny.” It was on the tip of her tongue to tell Leo she’d seen him at Elysium and thought him Welles, but she didn’t wish to announce her visit there, though he likely already knew.

“Is that a yes?” Leo handed her a scotch and waved for her to sit down. “We do look very much alike, but we aren’t twins, I assure you. Welles is actually a year older than I am.” He sipped his drink. “The same father, different mothers.” He gave her an assessing glance. “Would you like to hear the story? We’ve some time, I suspect, before Tony returns.”

Margaret nodded, palming her glass.

“Tony’s mother was the daughter of an earl. My mother, her lady’s maid at Cherry Hill. There’s not one cherry tree there, by the way. Have no idea where the name came from.” He shrugged. “I grew up at Cherry Hill. Thought my father was a groom my mother had dallied with. Tony and I were childhood playmates, neither of us knowing we were brothers.”

“But you look so much alike.” Margaret’s brow wrinkled. “Surely the resemblance was remarked upon.”

“Tony was tall and lanky as a child, while I was pudgy and small for my age. We didn’t look much alike then, except for our eyes. I was only the son of a maid, so no one looked too closely at me, not even Katherine, Tony’s mother. At least, not then.”

Her grasp on the fine cut crystal tightened. The two women would have had a close-knit relationship. How horrified Welles’s mother must have been to realize her maid was also sleeping with her husband. And had borne him a son as well.

“My mother had been brought to Cherry Hill as a child. She’d known Averell, Marcus she called him, her entire life and was in love with him for most of it. Molly, that’s my mother, broke off her relationship with the duke when he married, but their estrangement didn’t last.” He gave a small laugh. “I’m living proof of that. At any rate, some years later, Katherine found out about my mother and the duke. They’d grown careless, and she saw them together. She was heavy with child when she tripped going down the steps on her way to confront him. I’m sure you can see where this story ends,” Leo said quietly. “Welles found her, bleeding to death at the base of the stairs. I think he was fourteen at the time and home from school on holiday. He held her as she bled all over the rug at the base of the stairs. Tony was covered in her blood, screaming for help.”

Margaret was physically ill as she imagined the scene in her mind. A young Welles, finding his beloved mother bleeding to death on the floor. “She taught him to play the piano.”

Leo’s eyes widened in surprise. “She did. And to appreciate and love music. Tony rarely speaks of her. They were very close. He blames our father for her death, as you may have surmised.”

She had, only Margaret hadn’t thought the truth to be so awful.

“My mother was horrified at what happened and the part she played. She collected me and fled to London. The duke found Molly eventually, of course, and begged her to come home. I think he bore her a great deal of affection. He may have even loved her in his way. My mother refused and never spoke to him again. She allowed him to see me when he came to London, though I always thought of him as the prick who made my mother weep. My stepfather put a stop to the duke’s visits but continued to take the money he sent for my care. I grew up quite comfortably as a bastard. Much more well off than most.”

“You don’t seem to hate him nearly as much as Welles,” Margaret said quietly.

“Tony has enough hatred for both of us, and I was glad to have a brother. But I don’t care for the man, if that’s what you’re asking. I suspect the young, overindulged duke who kept two women under the same roof is not the man whom Amanda and my sisters speak of with such love. He is a different father to them than he was to Welles. And hedidclaim me, bastard or not.”

Margaret nodded, lifting her eyes to his. It was a horrible tragedy, altering the course of Welles’s and Leo’s lives forever. And the life of the Duke of Averell. “He sounds as if he had an epiphany, your father. Perhaps the death of Katherine and losing you and your mother changed him for the better.”

She took in Leo’s stance, the same careless one Welles often adopted, which gave away none of his true feelings. There was no mercy in his eyes as he spoke of the Duke of Averell. “Our relationship cannot be repaired no matter any change wrought in him. Tony has been punishing the duke for years by not marrying. You see that, don’t you? By depriving the duke of an heir and allowing his line to die?”

Margaret did see, with startling clarity. “How Welles must detest me for forcing him to break such a vow.” She drained her glass as desolation swept over her.

“Averell has threatened Tony with everything over the years in order to get him to marry. Cut him off without a cent. Vowed to never allow him near the girls. Swore he’d dismantle Elysium brick by brick.”

“Gifted him a Broadwood,” Margaret said softly.

A genuine smile crossed his lips. “Tony doesn’t hate you. He’s pissed. Angry. And he does blame you.” Leo drained his own glass. “But he’s never played the damned Broadwood in Amanda’s conservatory, not once. Not even when Phaedra begged him to accompany her. Not until he played it for you.”

He bowed to her and walked toward the door, pausing to squeeze her shoulder.

“Rest assured, Lady Welles, while I don’t expect the path to be smooth, nothing on earth would have forced Tony to marry you if he didn’ttrulywant to.”

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