“Allow me to pour.” Val did a creditable job with a teapot. He’d attended any number of his sisters’ tea parties as a child, and it was a skill any mincing dandy—real or impersonated—had to perfect. When he passed Freddy his tea, Val had the satisfaction of seeing Freddy’s hand trembled slightly.

“I say.” Freddy smiled brightly at Val. “Since it’s just we fellows, would there be something we might doctor this with to set the day to rights?”

Val silently passed along to Freddy the decanter of very good brandy Freddy had no doubt spied on the sideboard.

“Am I late?” Nick sauntered in without knocking. “I am, and I beg the pardon of the assemblage. Roxbury.” Nick met the man’s eyes but did not bow, because Nick did, clearly, outrank Freddy.

“You’re Reston.” Freddy rose, all smiles again and stuck out a hand.

“Owing to a recent bereavement,” Val interjected, “he’s Bellefonte now.”

Nick inclined his head and pointedly ignored Freddy’s hand. From his great height, Nick stared down his nose, blue eyes glacially cool, until Freddy bowed in response.

“Tea, Bellefonte?” Val gestured toward the tray.

“Of course.” When Nick spied the brandy, he arched a disbelieving eye. “Lord Valentine, you are not ruining a perfectly good pot of libation with that profane practice of brandying the tea, are you?”

“Of course not,” Val replied pleasantly as he poured Nick a cup.

“Bellefonte was visiting friends at Candlewick,” Val explained to Freddy, “and deigned to grace us with his presence today. We are acquainted through family.”

Val and Nick deftly dropped one titled name after another, until Freddy was all but trying to disappear into his teacup between longing glances at the brandy decanter.

Val rose when the teacups were empty. “We’ve had our tea, and Lord Roxbury did not come all this way to listen to us reminisce. The point of his sortie was to see the progress made with the property, so let’s give him a tour of the house, shall we?”

Val started in the kitchens, and room by room, rattled off the repairs, renovations, and restorations required. He tossed in the work needed on the roof, in the yard, in the outbuildings, and on the grounds. The list was endless, and while it should have made Freddy ashamed, the only visible result was to light a sullen spark of anger in his eyes.

They’d toured all four floors when Lord Roxbury asked for the use of a water closet and was shown to a guest room.

“I’ll be happy to meet you gentleman out front, if you’d like to stroll the grounds now we’ve seen the house?” Lord Freddy offered.

“We’ll await you on the front terrace,” Val replied, not meeting Nick’s eye for even an instant. They walked off, leaving Freddy to ostensibly use the water closet.

“Don’t give him too long,” Nick murmured as they walked, “it’s the work of a moment to nip up the attic stairs and strike a spark on that pile of kindling.” Val nodded as they turned the corner of the corridor and found Darius waiting for them.

“What an insufferable little ass,” Darius whispered, rolling his eyes. A door opened and closed down the hall, then footsteps sounded on the narrow stairs leading into the attics.

“Let’s go.” Nick tugged on Val’s arm, but Val held still, listening to the pattern of the footfalls.

“Now. We’ll leave the door open, Dare.”

They climbed the attic steps silently, pausing at the top to listen. Freddy was jiggling a can half full of liquid, swishing it around, presumably to let some slosh over the lip, then swishing it again. The can was set down, and another silence ensued, during which the distinctive scratch of flint on steel came clearly through the stillness of the attics. Val moved; Nick silently followed.

“Why the hell won’t you light, damn you?” Freddy was muttering at the pile of tinder.

“Because,” Val said, “the wood has been kept quite damp, and you really do not want to swing for arson, Roxbury.”

“Windham!” Freddy rose to his feet, his face turning an interesting shade of red. He slipped the flint back into his pocket and glanced around, as if an excuse would come winging to him from the rafters.

“Downstairs.” Val gestured through the attic doorway. “Now.”

“You can’t prove anything,” Freddy hissed in a low, mean voice. “It will be your word against mine.”

“And mine,” Nick added pleasantly from Val’s elbow.

“And mine,” Darius chirped from Val’s shoulder. “I believe you’ve been invited downstairs, Roxbury?”

Val let Nick and Darius escort an abruptly quiet Freddy back down to the formal parlor. It was a bit of a progress, since they had to cross the house and descend three floors, and in that time, Val wondered why he didn’t feel a greater sense of triumph. His instincts had been right. Ellen’s warning had been accurate—Freddy had been out to destroy the house, but Val still had to wonder why.

And in the next fifteen minutes, he wanted to find out.

Needed to.

“You have one chance,” Nick said when they’d reached the formal parlor, “and one chance only to explain why you just tried to burn Lord Valentine’s property to a cinder.” He pushed Freddy once on the chest, dropping him into a chair. Freddy looked from Nick to Val and back to Nick again.

“I’d spill,” Darius said with a sympathetic shrug. “The man wants the truth, and after all, there was no harm done.”

Freddy huffed out a semblance of an indignant sigh. “There is no need for all this drama. You caught me fair and square, and I’ll take my lumps and go home.”

“Fair and square?” Nick’s tone was laden with menace. “You’re fool enough to lose an estate on a wager, and you think fair and square served when you’re caught trying to torch that same estate, Roxbury? There are servants here, women and girls, who wouldn’t know the attics were in flames until it was too late. And in a house this age, fire would spread even without the lamp oil you so obligingly provided.”

“How did you know it was lamp oil?”

Nick rolled his eyes at Darius, leaving Val to stifle a derisive snort. How could a man this stupid have come so close to achieving his ends?

Nick leaned in, letting his size silently speak volumes. “Talk, Roxbury. Now.”

“Best heed the man,” Darius offered. “He has a devil of a temper, and you’ve threatened his friend. Then too, if you’re thinking of taking your chances in the Lords”—Darius paused and shook his head—“consider that one.” He nodded at Val. “Moreland will take it amiss you disrespected his son, and Moreland has the Lords in his ducal pocket.” Darius offered Nick a small smile. “Not to denigrate your influence, my lord.”

“Of course.” Nick returned the smile but let it die when he turned to Val. “We’re wasting time, my lord. Let me have five minutes with this miserable excuse for dog shite, and you’ll have your answers.”

“Please!” Freddy shot out of his chair as if cued for it in a stage play, only to have Nick’s single, meaty hand shove him right back onto his seat. “I can explain, and it isn’t complicated. I was simply, well, going to encourage you to sell the place back to me.”

“By creating a series of accidents?” Val posited, settling into a comfortable wing chair. “Starting with loose slates on my roof? Including a couple of bonfires in my residence? Continuing on to an attempt to collapse my hay barn while the roof was being restored?”

Freddy’s complexion went from ruddy to sheet white in a moment. “How do you know?”

Val snapped his fingers and rose. “And I forgot! You tried to destroy Ellen Markham’s cottage by dropping a damned tree on it. Fortunately, the lady wasn’t inside, and only her peace of mind, sense of safety, and pitiful savings were obliterated along with her residence.”

“How do you know?” Freddy cried again. “I wasn’t trying to kill anyone; I merely wanted you gone and happy to sell the property back to me for a pittance.”

“Freddy…” Darius shook his head slowly. “If they didn’t know before, they certainly do now.”

“Leave us.” Val spoke to his two friends through clenched teeth.

“Val,” Nick muttered, “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Neither do I,” Freddy added, glancing nervously all around the room.

“The windows are locked,” Val informed him, “and my friends will be right outside the door. They will not interfere, however, unless I ask them to.”

“Val.” Darius met his friend’s eye, raised his left hand to his waist, and made a tight fist. “Be careful.”

Val nodded and let the silence build. Nick merely rolled his eyes and followed Darius from the room.

“So what are we about?” Freddy asked, swallowing audibly when the lock clicked shut on the only door.

“We’ll settle this like gentleman.” Val shrugged out of his coat. “And I promise not to kill you, because I understand you’ve only the one heir, and his claim to Markham blood is quite attenuated. Surprises me I’d care about your miserable succession, but I think it would mean something to Ellen.”

“Ellen?” Freddy ran his finger around his neck cloth again. “Is this about her?”

“Coat off, Markham.” Val started rolling back his cuffs. “I’ll even let you take the first swing, and yes, part of this is about Ellen. You are no kind of man if you think preying on your cousin’s widow is acceptable.”

“She’s managing,” Freddy muttered as he struggled to get out of his coat. “She’s the kind of female who will always manage, and how was I supposed to squeak by on a bloody damned allowance like some schoolboy!”

“She manages.” Val removed the signet ring from his smallest finger. “Why couldn’t you?”