“I hope you understand that I won’t force her to reconcile with you. I support my wife no matter her decision.”
“I see that I at least didn’t make a mistake in permitting you to marry her.”
Will chuckled. “Do you really think it was your decision? Up until the moment we married, I fully expected her to find a way to jilt me. And even standing before the priest...” He shook his head. “She could have said no. She owed neither of us anything. To presume otherwise...” He didn’t need to finish that sentence. They both understood.
Cromby groaned.
Will crunched his knuckles. “Seems like this cockroach is about to wake up.”
“Good,” Hatton said, a steely edge entering his voice once more.
Cromby opened his eyes, clutching his jaw. “What the devil?” His eyes fell on Will, and he roared, “What is the meaning of this, you blackguard?”
“I will only ask you this once, Cromby,” Will bit out. “Where is my wife?”
The man’s face contorted. “What are you talking about? How the hell would I know where your wife is?”
“She has been kidnapped, and answer the question,” Hatton growled.
“For Christ’s sake,” Cromby snapped. “I don’t know anything about your wife. I didn’t even know she was missing, damn it.”
Leeds hunched down beside the man, jabbing a finger at his chest. “You are the one who spread the rot of me having a mistress and entering a gaming hell.” A statement. A fact.
“Is that the same as kidnapping?” Cromby growled, levering himself into a sitting position. “You humiliated me and blocked me from all the respectable clubs in London! You expect me to take that lying down?”
“You don’t deserve to belong to any respectable club after all you’ve done.”
“Agreed,” Hatton said, stepping on Cromby’s shin. “Leeds asked you once, now I shall ask you once. Where is my daughter, you filth?”
Cromby cried out in pain.
“Damn it, I don’t know!”
Will rose and punched his fists together. “Do you believe him, Hatton?”
“Every word from his mouth smells like shit.”
Cromby spluttered. “This is common assault! You cannot just accuse people left and right of kidnapping and batter them in their own homes!”
“Don’t,” Will shot the man a menacing glare, “speak to me of assault if you know what is good for you. “You accosted my wife once. Who is to say you didn’t take her now?”
“I never touched your wife!”
Will’s brow shot upward. “Didn’t you force a kiss on her?”
“That . . . that . . . lies!”
“You are denying it?” Will asked. Just when he thought Cromby couldn’t become more loathsome a character, the man proved otherwise.
“He did what?” Hatton said in a low—very low—voice, his chest rising and falling with each deep breath.
Panic crossed Cromby’s face, and he tried to scramble to his feet.
Hatton lifted his leg and stomped down. His boot landed squarely on Cromby’s chest, pushing him back to the floor.
“Damn it! I’m sorry! Nothing happened, did it? She still married you!”
Will sneered in disgust. Once a coward, always a coward. He suddenly didn’t want to breathe the same air as this bloody bastard.
