After the fifth smack, Hillary looked up with hellfire raging in his eyes. “I hope you enjoyed that, you bloody jackass, because it’s the last hit you’re going to get in.”
His brother cleared his throat and his eyebrows shot to his hairline. Hillary’s lips pressed tightly together, tremors making him shake. His slap nearly left Sebastian cross-eyed. He shook his head to clear the ringing from his ears. There had definitely been a bit of knuckles involved that time.
Sebastian gritted his teeth. His fingers clenched around the glove and he drove it through the air with all he had. The slap echoed and several men issued laughing groans. A trickle of blood slid down Hillary’s cheek from a thin slit.
He swiped at the cut then examined the blood on his fingers. With a guttural growl, he threw the glove to the ground. “First blood. That is what you wanted, wasn’t it? I hope I have satisfied your need for revenge.”
Sebastian tossed his glove to Jake then jabbed a finger in Ben Hillary’s direction. “If you come around my sister again, she won’t be choosing the weapons.”
He turned on his heel and stalked away. Ellis fell into step with him. When they reached the edge of the field, he stopped Sebastian with a hand on his arm. “Would something like this right the wrong I dealt you?”
Sebastian studied him, trying to imagine Ellis with Gabrielle to stir his anger, but he could barely conjure an irritation. Eve was back in Society, which had been his aim all along. With thoughts of Helena filling his mind at all hours, Ellis and Gabrielle’s betrayal had lost its importance. Sebastian desired Helena beyond reason, and if he were being honest, she was the only one he had ever desired. It would be unjust to despise Ellis for loving a woman Sebastian hadn’t.
“Tell me you have brandy in your carriage, and we will be on the right path.”
Ellis pulled a flask from his jacket pocket and handed it to him.
Sebastian took a long swill before passing it back. “Much appreciated. My face is in excruciating pain.”
Ellis smirked. “You’re not the only one pained by that ugly mug.”
“You are just happy I look more like you.”
The earl laughed and took a swig from the flask too. Their bantering continued as they climbed into Ellis’s coach. It felt familiar and good, so Sebastian left his anger for the earl on the field along with his need to defend his sister’s reputation.
***
“Is something troubling you, my dear?” the Dowager Duchess of Foxhaven asked.
Helena jerked out of her reverie and realized her crossed leg was swinging wildly under her skirts. She froze, mortified, and was tempted to hide in the retiring room until the opera started.
Gabrielle, Lady Ellis, turned curious gray eyes on her. Never had Helena felt more unrefined and out of place than sitting in the Duke of Foxhaven’s box with ladies who wore their ranks as comfortably as the King wore his crown. If not for Eve, she probably would have feigned illness to get out of the invitation, but she couldn’t deny her friend this fortuitous opportunity. Even if it meant her own discomfort.
Helena uncrossed her leg and smoothed her skirts. “I expected Lord Thorne and his sister to have arrived by now.”
As the dowager duchess’s guest, Eve would enjoy a coveted position and a powerful statement would be made. There was no bad blood between the families.
Lady Ellis smiled sympathetically at her. “If it is any consolation, Anthony said Lord Thorne was well when he left him this morning.”
“And was his morning successful?”
If Sebastian had lost, Eve’s reputation would remain sullied. Perhaps the damage would be even worse since the scandal had faded from most everyone’s memory, but Sebastian had been unwilling to listen to reason.
“I will not lose,” he’d stated with unwavering strength.
But Helena knew even the strong could fail. Her husband had seemed as solid and lasting as the crags surrounding Aldmist Fell when he left to hunt stag. It wasn’t until Fergus arrived with the cart bearing Wickie’s broken body that she understood her husband had been a man and not a god she must please.
“Everything is well, Lady Prestwick. I am sure Lord Thorne and his sister will be here soon.”