Light to Valhalla (6 page)

Not that he
put any stock in
Gypsy hokum and blather
.
H
e’d been stinking drunk
when that old woman had
said,
Quieres
que
yo
te
leo
tu
fortuna
?
  G
rasped his palm and run a gnarled finger over the broken line running down his palm
.
His
life line
she’d called it
.
Drunk as he’d been he remembered thinking nothing could bode well of a broken life line
.
A chill swept over him as
his near death experience on the battlefield swept through his mind
again
.

Alex shuddered and shoved the bizarre encoun
ter from his mind along with memories of the
Gypsy woman
.
No
thing could
be foretold
from looking at a man’s palm
.
Nothing.

Using several pieces of pa
per he managed to contain the puddle o
f ink in the center of the desk, wiped his hand on
a handkerchief
located
in the top
left drawer
, and
considered
his next move
.
“
Bloody mess,” he muttered, admitting defeat
and
striding toward the door to enlist the services of a maid
.
He reached the clean hand down to
massage
the ache in his thigh
.
“My whole damn life is
a
bloody mess.
”
Literally
.
M
eta
phorically
.
E
verything he’d work
ed toward… out the window.

He stepped into the hall, surprised to find it empty, and at the same time relieved not to be met with a flurry of
my lord, this
and
my lord, that.

“
Alex
Rawlings, you son of a bitch!
  You might have written a time or two.
”

Alex
pivoted
,
a
nd a
genuine smile
split
his face
.
“
Sidney
?
”
He stro
de forward, hand outstretched.

“
You might
have mentioned
you were coming home
.
”
Sidney
Harris
,
Alex
’s first cousin and oldest friend,
grinned jovially
.
Up until two years ago
they’d done everything together, right down to joining the Army
.
“You won’t mind if I don’t shake your hand,
Alex
.”

“Oh, of course.
”
He
lifted the ink-
coated extremity and shrugged
.
“Had a bit of a run in with the inkwell.
”

“By the looks of this I’d say you attacked it
.
Or did you
mistake it for a French soldier?
”

Alex
shook h
is head
.
Sid
possessed a wretched sense of humor
.
“
How did you know to find me?  I’ve only been home an
hour.”

“I didn’t.
”
Sidney
shrugged
.
“
A cou
ple days ago I promised
Charley
I’d drop these by.
”
He gestured toward a leather satchel loaded with books
.
“She’s rather fond of gothic novels
.
Reads one a day by my count.
”

“Does she
?
”
Alex
stared down at the blue bound book peaking from the top of the
s
atchel, a poignant
reminder that he knew nothing of significance about
h
is wife
.
At least not any
longer
.
That would hav
e to change;
ironically
he
’d reached a point where he
needed
C
harlotte
by h
is
side
, wanted her with him in every way
.

“Where is your comely little wife?
”
Sidney
glanced around the tomblike hall, and
winked suggestively
.
“Surprised you didn’t rush her
straight up the stairs to your bedchamber
.
I
tell you,
Alex
, i
f
she was my wife, I would—”

Alex
raised
a
silencing, inky, hand
.
“I’m quite sure I know
exactly
what you’d do with her.
”
The fact
Sidney
may have done
just that flashed through
Alex
’s mind
.
Quickly he shoved the thought
aside
.
Even
Sidney
—who proudly
wore his reputation as a no
tori
ous womanizer—
wouldn’t stoop so low as to seduce the wife of a friend
.
“It’s a wonder you haven’t been shot by some jealous husband.”

Sidney
shrugged
, a twinkle lighting his blue
eyes
.
“Bound to happen sooner or later.”

“I’d wager sooner
.
But
you
’ve
just missed my wife
.
She’s attending an event of some sort hosted by the Countess of Carmichael.
”
For whatever reason Alex couldn’t quite bring himself to admit he’d sent her away
.
“
Excuse me a moment while I find a maid to clean up the mess in my study, and
a wash basin for myself, then we’ll
have a drink
.
”

“
By all means
.
Where is everyone?”

“I’ve no doubt my mother scared them away
.
She’s been chewing my ear off about the need for an h
eir and my responsibilities as m
arquis for the last hour.”

Sidney
winced, tossing him an apologetic glance
.
“Your mother could make Bonaparte
quake.”

“Perhaps we should ship her to France.”

Four hours later
the men sat on opposite
sides
of the
plush
wooden table in the
late marquis’s study—
Alex
still couldn’t reconcile the room being his—
laughing abou
t old times
.
A candle flickered low on a stub of wax and less than a third of the
brandy
sat in a once full decanter
.

“Tell me,
Alex
.
”
Sidney
tipped another draught into his
sniffer
.
“Did you ever smooth things over with
General
Witherspoon?”

Alex
rapped his knuckles on the table and groaned
.
“Why did you have to go and bring that up?
  You and I both know he’d as soon see me dead as walking down the street.”

“Can you blame him?”

“Hell, yes, I can blame him.
”
He twirled
a glass
between thumb and forefinger, mesmerized by the swirl of the amber liquid
.
“I lament the death of his son, but
Tobias Witherspoon
was hard headed as t
hey come and refused to obey
orders.
”
Not tha
t the fact
made
Alex’s
guilt any more bearable
.

Red kissed dusk sunlight trickling through the baby green leaves of spring flashed through his mind…  the crunch of enemy horses’ hooves… the smooth wooden
handle
of his pistol cradled in his palm… the
volley of
gunshot
s
.

“You don’t have to remind me.”

Alex snapped out of his reverie.

“I was there.”
Sidney knocked back his drink
.

Heavily
Alex
sighed and raked
a hand through the thick mass of his hair
, willing his shaking hands to still
.
“
You know the official inquiry cleared me of any wrong doing?”

“Never a doubt in my mind,”
Sid
responded confidently
.

“That may be, but Witherspoon
’s
uproar cast enough doubt on the situation for Wellington to take note.”

All good humor fled
Sidney
’s face
.
“
Christ,
Alex
,
I’m sorry
.
What does General Covington say?
  Surely he holds some sway with Wellington and Witherspoon.
”

Alex shrugged, defeated
.
“He spoke on my behalf at the inquiry so I’m sure he’
d do so again, but once the gossip mongers catch wind it won’t matter if the Prince Regent backs me.
”

“
I take it
Witherspoon
is why you’re back in London?”

“In part
.
I was ordered home.
”
Alex
pinched the bridge of his nose, warding off the headache threatening to return
.
“Has word of this reached London?”

“Not a whisper.”

“Prepare yourself
.
Witherspoon is due back in country any day and he’ll
be shouting murder.”

“Dear God.
”
Sidney
shook his head
,
a glint of horror lighting his eyes
.
“The scandal…”

“Will be raucous,”
Alex
supplied
.

“You’ll be ruined.”

Irritation tightened Alex’s grip on the decorative crystal
sniffer
.
“I know.
”
He swallowed the brandy in one long gulp, relishing the burn, willing the pain to banish the miserable
events
from his mind
.
“
I
n any case it
’s good to be home
.
There is a
great
deal of turmoil in my life that needs to be put
to rest.”

“
Would your wife be a part of that turmoil
?
”
Sid cocked an ever knowing brow
.
“
I know all is
not well,
Alex
.”

All is not well…
i
f
that
wasn’t the understatement of the decade
.
How many men suddenly found themselves in possession of a lofty title and obligated to marry their childhood tagalong?  He couldn’t begin to hazard a guess, but he hadn’t handled the situation well at all
.
Though truthfully, Charlotte had ceased to fit in the classification of
tagalong
when he’d begun entertaining lurid fantasies of her
.
God, but he could still remember that first dream just after she’d turned seventeen; he’d just arrived in Spain…

A
lex faced his cousin
.
A
shadow of wistfulness, mayhap even regret, touched
Sidney
’s visage
bringing back the whisper of doubt that
Sid
and
Charlotte
may be involved intimately
.
A surge of jealousy, possessiveness
,
sliced
through
Alex
.
A vision of her standing wide eyed and innocent
beside her bed
seared
his mind
.
T
he thought of another man touching her
—