The Wickedest Lord Alive Read Online Free PDF Page B

mark,” said Xavier. “But do go on. Enlighten me as to my motives. You are nothing if not entertaining.”
    As their horses walked, Lydgate pursed his lips. That shrewd look was one his family had learned to mistrust. “You profess to be the Devil himself when it comes to sin. You throw orgies to rival the Hellfire Club—”
    “Now, there, I must protest,” said Xavier, holding up one gloved hand. “My orgies never involve vulgarity, and I find Black Masses and the like utterly ridiculous.”
    “—and yet you rarely take part in those orgies yourself,” continued Lydgate as if he had not spoken. “In you, my dear cousin, I detect strong ambivalence. When obliged to marry this Miss Allbright, you did not wish to mend your ways, but you wanted to protect her from your world. Perhaps, even, from yourself.”
    Xavier found that his jaw was rather too tightly clenched. He ought never to forget that Lydgate possessed a keen mind beneath all that hair.
    “How is that so far?” asked Lydgate.
    Deliberately, Xavier relaxed his facial muscles. “Like a bad play. But pray continue.”
    Lydgate’s voice gentled. “Now you find yourself in sudden need of a son, a necessity that never seemed likely before.”
    He had braced himself for some allusion to Ned and Charlie, but he felt the anger rise up all the same. Not at Lydgate, but at cruel, perverse Fate, which had seen fit to take two blameless little boys while allowing corroded souls like his own to live on.
    He would have died to spare his cousins from the fever that took their young lives, but he’d long ago learned the futility of such bargaining. He might as well hold Black Masses, for all the good that would do.
    In a more forceful tone, Lydgate added, “You cannot allow Bernard to step into your shoes, nor that ineffectual whelp of his. You need a son.”
    Coldly, Xavier said, “Either that, or I can simply ensure that my uncle and his ineffectual spawn predecease me.”
    Lydgate tilted his head, no doubt considering ways and means. “Something could be contrived.”
    Xavier snorted. “Do not trouble yourself. I don’t want blood on your hands on my account.”
    “Oh, I shouldn’t think we’d need to murder ’em,” said Lydgate cheerfully. “Perhaps we might produce an entirely new heir. A long-lost brother?”
    “Dear God, wasn’t Davenport’s resurrection enough?” said Xavier.
    Another Westruther, Jonathon, Earl of Davenport, had staged his own death for reasons that Xavier privately thought nonsensical. If the fool had thought to come to Xavier for help, he would not have needed to take such drastic measures. It was Xavier’s practice never to interfere with his relations if he could avoid it, but sometimes one was obliged to make an exception.
    He waved a hand. “Forget finding a new heir. Even I balk at perpetrating such a fraud. My ancestors would spin in their graves.”
    “Very well, then,” said Lydgate. “So. Unbeknownst to everyone, from your nearest and dearest to the Ton’s wiliest matchmaking mamas, you already have a wife. Ergo —”
    Xavier cut him off. “I think we shall leave the rest unsaid.”
    He never spoke of his affaires, not even with Lydgate. He found himself particularly reluctant to discuss his admittedly obvious intentions toward Lizzie Allbright.
    He began to wish he’d never allowed Lydgate to accompany him to Little Thurston. But his cousin knew Lady Chard well enough to make visiting her their excuse for coming. Xavier had no legitimate reason to be here.
    No reason but to bed his wife.
    His naïve, deceitful, pert, and damnably alluring wife.
    Perhaps he’d hesitated too long already to claim her and beget that heir, but he’d deemed it obscene not to wait a decent period after Ned and Charlie were gone. Now there were no more excuses to delay. He might be a marquis with more money than Croesus, but he was still mortal, subject to the same ills and accidents as any man. He had enemies, too. It wasn’t