He needed to clothe himself. He felt dirty. Dastardly. At the exact moment he located his breeches, a knock sounded at the door. He and Minette locked eyes. Another knock followed, and men’s muted voices, and then the door swung wide as Warren, Townsend, and Arlington strode into the room.
“Wake up, Augustine. You’ve got to help us look. Minette’s gone walking in her sleep again and we haven’t been able to find—” His voice cut off mid-sentence. August saw the scene, for one sickening moment, as Warren must have seen it. August drawing on his breeches, the blood on the ivory bedsheets, his sister’s stricken, tearful look.
“Oh God,” Warren breathed. “I don’t... I can’t understand what I’m looking at.”
“Get out, will you?” August pulled the curtain closed to hide Minette. Warren whipped it open again, staring between the two of them. A scarlet flush crept into his face.
“Get out,” August said again. “For God’s sake, Warren, leave.” He pulled up his breeches as fast as he could, and stuffed his cock into the front with shaking hands. “Get out and let us make ourselves presentable. Send the others away.”
Warren emerged from his stupor then. Fury replaced shock. He lunged for August’s throat and gripped his windpipe, and shoved him against the bedpost. “My sister. August. You filthy whoreson. I’ll kill you for this.”
“Listen to me,” August rasped with what little breath he could draw into his lungs. “Let me explain.”
“You were my friend. A brother to me. I’ve trusted you all these years.” He let loose a string of blistering oaths as Townsend pulled his hand away from August’s throat.
“Look to Minette,” Townsend barked to Arlington over his shoulder. “She’s going to faint.”
While August sucked in air, Arlington wrapped a blanket around Minette and sat her on the bed, and flicked up the sheets to cover the bloodied spots. Townsend forced Warren to meet his gaze. “Be quiet, would you? Shall we make the whole house aware? It’s just the four of us here. No one else needs to know.”
“He ravished my sister,” Warren said, jabbing a finger at August’s face.
“You must let him give his account,” insisted Townsend. “I’m certain there’s some reasonable explanation. August’s an honorable fellow.”
That Townsend would say so while Minette sat trembling on a bloodied bed spoke volumes about the depth of their friendship.
“I didn’t know Minette was Minette,” August said. “Obviously, I had no idea, or I’d never have...” He turned to Warren with a pleading look. “It was dark, I was half-drunk, and I thought you’d all sent a present for my birthday. I thought she was that damned maid with the curly hair.”
“I was the one who came to his room,” Minette broke in. “It’s not his fault. I ought to have told you the sleepwalking had started up again. I came here and climbed into his bed while I was asleep.”
“But you didn’t sleep through the whole thing,” said Warren. “Surely you didn’t sleep through...everything.”
Minette squeezed her hands in her lap as a heavy silence settled in the room.
August wished there was a way to protect her from this shame. “Don’t blame her,” he said to Warren. “She didn’t realize what she was doing.”
“And you didn’t either?” he asked in a bitter voice. “Excuse me if I find that difficult to believe.”
“It was dark behind the curtains,” said Minette. “I know he didn’t know. I know from...from the way he behaved. He thought I was a maid named Mary.”
Warren spun on her and held up a hand. “I’ve heard enough from you, Minette Bernard. Just sit there and be quiet.”
Arlington frowned at Warren. “Let your sister speak. This involves her also.”
“No,” August said. “She shouldn’t have to speak. The dishonor is mine. The blame is mine.”
“It’s not,” cried Minette. “It’s mine. Even when I came awake, I didn’t stop you. I didn’t leave as I should have.”
“Because I wouldn’t let you.”
“Don’t tell them you restrained me, or did this against my will. I won’t let you, August. I won’t let you take the blame for this when it was clearly my fault.”
“It’s not your fault,” he said through gritted teeth. How could she have known the consequences of staying, innocent and sheltered as she was? He remembered the way she’d tensed and cried out when he entered her. He had thought it shock at his size. “You wouldn’t have stayed if you understood what I intended. You’re a good girl, Minette.”
“No, I’m not.” She burst into hysterical sobs, shaking so pitifully that Arlington steadied her and handed over his handkerchief. “I’m not a good girl. I stayed because you made me feel so warm and happy. I meant to leave, I just never did. I knew it was wrong, but it felt so lovely when you held me and kissed me. ”
Warren clapped his hands over his ears. “No more. Don’t say any more.” He glared at his sister so harshly that August felt glad Arlington had taken up a position of defense on her behalf. “You ought to be beaten to within an inch of your life for this,” he said. “After all my care for your reputation! After all Aunt Overbrook’s efforts to bring you up and make a lady of you.”
“Minette is a lady.” The men all turned at the heat in August’s voice. Minette stared at him with big eyes. “I have said the blame is mine and I’ll not allow anyone to say otherwise, nor will I allow you to punish your sister for something that was entirely my fault. I’ll marry Minette as soon as can be done. I shall make things right.”
Minette sobbed into Arlington’s handkerchief. Warren passed a hand across his mouth, as if he’d eaten something that made him ill. “But then you’ll be her husband,” he said.
August wanted to protest the words, and the condemning look on Warren’s face. He wanted to say he was not so bad a fellow, but to do so would lay the blame back on Minette. And even if everyone knew it was Minette’s fault, even if August also ached to beat her to within an inch of her life, it wasn’t gentlemanly to come out and say it. It wasn’t gentlemanly to shame ladies, ever, especially when the lady in question was sister to your friend.
Or former friend.
There was a tap at the door, and the buxom, blonde morning maid flounced in with a bowl and pitcher. “Your hot water, milord.” She stopped as she noted the four men, and the tone of gravity in the room. Warren and August both moved to block her view of Minette. “Can I get you anything else, milord?”
August couldn’t speak. Townsend piped up after a moment. “Go tell the housekeeper to bring Lady Townsend at once. Someone has fallen ill.”
She bobbed a curtsy. “Yes, milord.”
The maid’s eyes sought August’s before she left. He gave her a hard look and her gaze slid away. Perhaps it was all the maid’s fault, for giving him those glances that made him expect her to visit. Perhaps it was no one’s fault. There was certainly no way to fix things back to the way they’d been, and now that the initial shock had cleared he was forced to face all the uncomfortable particulars of his situation. He would have to jilt Lady Priscilla, who was both headstrong and prideful. She’d do her best to drag his reputation—and Minette’s—through the mud. He’d enrage her powerful father and break his mother’s heart. The woman was already overwhelmed dealing with his father’s failing health. Speaking of failing health, news of this unexpected engagement might just finish the old man off.
But the worst, most awful thing of all was that he would have to marry a woman he considered a sister, a woman he couldn’t bear to take to bed.
You’ve already bedded her, you beast.
But he could never, ever do it again. He could barely look at her now, after the way he’d used her last night. And he wouldn’t be able to go elsewhere to sate his needs; Warren would cry foul if he tried to take a mistress. Since Warren and Towns had fallen in love with their wives, they’d become insufferable about marriage and fidelity.
In short, August could look forward to never having
sex again.
Damn Minette. She had always been trouble, had always been an irritatingly persistent burr beneath his blanket. Even so, he never could have imagined her destroying his life, his prospects, his friendships, his entire world so completely, and in just one night.
*** *** ***
Thanks to Lord Townsend’s meticulously run household, a great tub of steaming water was waiting for Minette by the time Aurelia secreted her back to her bedroom. Minette begged to be left alone, so Aurelia wouldn’t see the garish blood stains on the insides of her thighs. Minette was so ashamed, and so numb she could barely feel the warmth of the water as she sank into the tub.