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narrowed. ‘Maybe. Did she also express doubts about the child’s paternity?’
    ‘What?’
    ‘No. I didn’t think she’d have said that to you. Obviously you don’t have to worry about it going any further, but she hinted at it in her letter to Serena.’
    Richard swore. ‘Is she still harping on that? She said something to that effect last year.’
    ‘To you?’
    ‘And Max,’ said Richard grimly.
    Braybrook’s jaw dropped. ‘That would explain why Max is at outs with her.’
    ‘Exactly,’ said Richard. ‘Which is why I agreed to stay with her,’ he went on. ‘To try to convince her that Max’s marriage has not consigned me to poverty, before she says something to create a permanent breach between herself and Max!’
    A sceptical brow lifted. ‘And questioning the child’s paternity to his face hasn’t done that already?’
    Richard grimaced. ‘Not quite. Max doesn’t want a breach any more than I do, but if it comes to a choice between Almeria or protecting Verity—’ He broke off. ‘You know what he will do.’
    Braybrook made a rude noise. ‘Slight understatement there, Ricky. If it came to a choice between the entire world and protecting Lady Blakehurst, Max would consign the lot of us to perdition!’
    Richard smiled. ‘True.’
    Braybrook looked curious. ‘You know, Ricky—I’ve never quite understood just why Lady Arnsworth was so fixated on Max remaining single?’
    Richard frowned. ‘Max never told you?’
    ‘I never asked.’
    He nodded. ‘It was my accident that started it. Mama and Almeria blamed Max for daring me to ride the cursed horse. Never mind that I was perfectly capable of saying no to him, he’d suggested it and therefore it was all his fault. Later, I was supposed to go into the army—Mama insisted that my leg made that unsuitable, and that Max should be bought a commission instead.’
    ‘What else did they have in mind for him?’ asked Julian.
    ‘The church, if you can believe it.’
    A most peculiar choking sound came from Lord Braybrook.
    ‘Quite,’ said Richard. ‘I think he preferred the army on the whole. He was a damn sight better suited to it than I was.’ He sighed. ‘And then Freddy died not long after our father. And suddenly Max was the earl. But instead of demanding that he settle down and secure the succession, both Mama and Almeria decided between them that he owed it to me to remain single!’
    ‘How very melodramatic of them,’ observed Julian.
    Richard snorted. ‘I didn’t take it seriously, but Max did. He always blamed himself for my accident anyway and Mama and Almeria had rubbed it in with a vengeance over the years.’
    Braybrook’s mouth twitched. ‘And, of course, it’s plain to the meanest intelligence that you yourself are bitterly disappointed in being cut out of an earldom,’ he said drily.
    ‘Bitterly,’ said Richard, yawning. ‘I’ve enough money for my wants.’
    ‘And if you don’t,’ said Braybrook, ‘you could always marry Miss Winslow.’ He grinned wickedly. ‘No point cutting off your nose to spite your face, you know. After all, she might be your perfect bride!’
    ‘As long as her brother doesn’t shoot me first,’ said Richard sarcastically.
    Unholy amusement gleamed in bright blue eyes. ‘A risk, of course. Mind you, it would certainly calm Lady Arnsworth down to see you safely legshackled to an heiress!’ He grinned. ‘Proof positive that your game leg and Max’s marriage have not combined to blight your life.’
    ‘Oh, go to the devil, Julian,’ recommended Richard.

    All the same, the flippant advice niggled at him as he blew out his bedside lamp later that night, after walking back to Arnsworth House, as it had done all through dinner and numerous hands of piquet afterwards. A circumstance that had led to Julian relieving him of a vast, if imaginary, fortune.
    In the best spare bedchamber, Thea Winslow was probably sound asleep…a thought that had made him very, very edgy as he’d