Tension roiled in the air, and Lucan had been picturing Constance’s face for the past few minutes to thaw the icy rage that had flared inside and encased him upon seeing the man. Calydon roused Lucan’s ire instead of forgiving thoughts. Constance needed him to be forgiving, to be understanding. But it pained him to see Calydon standing in such wealth, experiencing such happiness and love with his duchess while Marissa rotted, beyond redemption, her soul lost and tormented if Lucan was to believe the church.
Lady Calydon’s dark beauty was quite stunning, and so was the apparent control her presence had on the duke. It was as if she grounded him and prevented him from attacking Lucan. A smile twisted his lips, and he fancied it was unpleasant from Lady Calydon’s blanch.
“Are you here to offer for Constance?” Calydon asked from where he stood by the windows. The man did not even face him.
“No,” Lucan said flatly.
The man turned with affected calm, but Lucan could see the controlled violence Calydon emitted.
“Why not?” The strident demand came from Lady Calydon. She shifted in the high wing-back chair she sat in, and rested her hand with tender care on her rounded stomach. Her gray eyes as she assessed Lucan were actually welcoming, which he found quite strange.
“I am here to lay the demons that haunt me to rest, nothing more.” He had no plans to get ahead of himself. This was just one hurdle he had to cross. After he had secured Constance’s forgiveness he would approach Calydon for her hand.
“Marissa,” the duke murmured.
“Yes.”
Pain flared deep in Calydon’s gaze before he lowered his lashes, obscuring his eyes. “I never knew Marissa had a brother.”
Lucan flinched. No, he doubted she would have been proud to talk of her merchant connections. Not when she had aspired to move in loftier circles. “Is that why you thought nothing of treating her with such callous disregard?” he asked softly. “Because she had no one to defend her honor?”
Calydon thrust his hands in the pocket of his trousers and met Lucan’s gaze without blinking.
“I met Marissa when I was young,” Calydon said bluntly. “I was enchanted by her, though I knew I did not want a wife. You see, I was very turned away from the notion of marriage, and thought no woman would honor their marriage vows. I am now aware of how misguided I was.”
Lucan stared at the man. This was Calydon’s defense? He had not wanted a wife? “Yet you took Marissa’s purity and ruined her for marriage,” Lucan snarled.
Calydon grimaced. “We courted and danced around each other for a couple years…then I did take her innocence. And I did battle with offering for her afterwards. She knew how I felt about marriage, but after a few weeks I realized none of it mattered. For I loved her.”
“Love?” Lucan demanded the rage he was trying to fight firing to life.
“Yes, I loved her. What was later revealed as a bid to force my hand, Marissa accepted an offer from Lord Stanhope. I was young and foolish and saw it as a betrayal, despite dragging my feet to offer for her. I went to explain my initial reluctance and to ask for her hand when I saw her with him, making love. It was hard for me to reconcile her being intimate with someone that was not me. We argued and it became evident that she had been intimate with both of us from the very beginning. When she perceived she had lost a duke, she went for an earl.”
Lucan closed his eyes and turned away. Calydon told him nothing he did not know, but it was still painful to hear. It made it all the more real.
“I do not intend to malign your sister. I am simple presenting the facts as how they were for me.” Calydon’s voice was sincere. “I went away for a few months, and when I returned she was the Countess of Stanhope. It did not take long for us to resume our affair…and it lasted for years.”
“I know,” Lucan said.
Lady Calydon stiffened. “I don’t understand, if you knew, why you did—”
She flushed at the look he dealt her.
“I knew all from the moment Marissa met and fell in love with Calydon. We were close. I was her rock and she my joy. She wrote to me, and wherever I was her letters found me. Sometimes months later. But I knew every thought, every hope and dream she had in relation to you, Calydon. I know how flawed and imperfect she was. I know of her continued affair with you after marrying, I know of the brutal beatings she suffered. I know you claimed you loved her, but abandoned her to the cruelty of a jealous and possessive husband, the scorn of society, I know it broke her, and when she could bear it no more, instead of waiting for me, she took her life.”
The duchess rose and went over to Calydon. He wrapped her in his arms and Lucan could see the torment in the man’s eyes. “Marissa lied to me…mayhap to you, Mondvale. I wish not to shatter any belief you had in her, but Lord Stanhope had not been beating her. When she accused him, telling me of how he abused her I confronted him. He was eager to fight with me because he knew I was bedding his wife, and I was just as eager because I thought he was her tormentor. I almost killed him. I broke his bones and stripped his pride that day, all on a lie.” Calydon’s hand went to the rapier scar that flayed his left cheek. “And Stanhope gave me this. It was as he lay cursing I realized Stanhope thought I was the one abusing his Marissa. She inflicted the bruises herself. When I confronted her, she urged me to kill him so we could wed. I said no, and ended our association. A few days later she killed herself,” he ended on a hoarse note.