Three Nights with a Scoundrel (Stud Club #3)

Faraday nodded in confirmation. “He hated lying to you, but it seemed the only prudent course. We went to—”

“Cornwall,” Julian finished, finally piecing it together. “That house. You said you’d spent a pleasant holiday there once. With a … with a blond.” And he’d never said that blond was a woman. Faraday had just let them assume.

“Very sharp, Mr. Bellamy. High marks to you. After Leo’s death, I returned there to convalesce. And to grieve. My bones healed faster than my heart, as it happened.” His eyes slid to the window. “That particular organ is still not all of a piece.”

“But the letters,” Lily said. “They made it sound as though you’d ended it.”

“Leo ended it. Last spring.”

“Did you have a falling-out?”

“No. Not exactly.” He tossed his hat aside and pushed a hand through his hair. “He’d learned the truth of my … profession, as it were. Leo was always scrupulous about discretion. He wanted to protect you from scandal, Lily, and he was doubly concerned about exposing you to danger. Too ironic, in the end.”

“So the attack in Whitechapel was related to your profession?” Julian asked. “Enemies of yours?”

Faraday shook his head. “No. Nothing so logical as that. Stone and Macleod were just a pair of bloodthirsty brutes, riled up on liquor and violence after the boxing match. They weren’t out to get me specifically, nor Leo, nor you. They were just bullies looking for amusement, and they found it. It’s a time-honored pastime, roughing up the mollies.”

“Oh, God,” Lily said. “That’s so horrible.”

Horrible, Julian silently agreed. Also despicable, cowardly, and nauseating. But all too believable. He’d grown up on the streets. He’d seen such beatings before.

Faraday tapped the flat side of his fist against the carriage wall. “Such a stupid reason for a good man to die. That’s the hardest part to move past, the senselessness of it all.”

He’d taken the words from Julian’s mouth. Others had insisted all along that Leo’s death was the result of random violence. Julian just hadn’t been able to accept it. Not only because of his own secrets and fears, but because he hadn’t wanted to believe Leo was taken from this earth for no earthly justification, save some brigands’ drunken sport. He wanted a reason.

But there wasn’t one. There never would be. Damn it all to hell.

Faraday sighed. “I can only imagine you must blame me. I blame myself. When Leo ended it, I didn’t take it well. First I lost my token to Morland, out of spite. I heard the two of you making plans for the boxing match. I don’t even know why I came that night. I just couldn’t stay away. When I found Leo with a woman … I went a little mad. We argued in the alley. I stupidly accused him of lying and cheating and a slew of other unfair things. When I finally gave him a chance to explain, he told me he’d decided to finally marry. Do his duty to the title and produce an heir. He’d picked up the whore with hopes of warming to the idea, but so far he wasn’t warming in the least.”

Faraday looked away for a moment. “He couldn’t stop thinking of me, he said. Didn’t think he could marry anyone while he was still in love with another. So we ceased arguing and began … reconciling. And then those two brutes came out of nowhere.” He punched the cushion in earnest. “Damn it all, if only I hadn’t been caught so off-guard. Ordinarily, I can hold my own in a brawl.”

Julian didn’t doubt it. He’d watched Faraday dispatch those two convicts with cold, ruthless ease. And now that the man had stopped feigning injury, he moved with unquestionable strength.

“Leo was knocked senseless almost instantly. That left me outnumbered. You saw them. They were big. By the time Miss Dunn rounded the corner and screamed, I’d given up fighting back. My only goal was protecting Leo’s body with my own. We were down and defeated, and still the bastards kept kicking.” Faraday wiped his eyes. “I hated leaving Leo there, but there was nothing I could do to save him. Vengeance was my only thought. I needed to follow his killers. Learn anything I could, even if only which direction they’d run. You can both understand, I hope, why there could never be a trial.”

They nodded in response. If Stone and Macleod had been brought to answer their charges in court, they would have exposed the truth of Leo and Faraday’s relationship. All England would have learned of their affaire.

“Leo valued his privacy. I couldn’t do that to him. No, I needed to mete out justice myself. And I did. Though not in quite the way I’d hoped.” Faraday sighed heavily. “It will have to be enough.”

Lily began to cry. Julian pulled her into his arms. He drew her to his chest and held her as she wept, stroking her back and pressing a kiss to her crown. Her hair smelled like home.