“The problem is that we need to get Alex out of the way. Let me take care of it,” Sophie said with sudden vigor. She left Charlotte to find Katy and instruct her to pack Pippa’s things. Sophie walked down the stairs, straining to hear Alex’s deep voice. The house was silent. Her feet resounded on the marble floor of the entrance-way as she hesitated a minute. Then she headed for the library. She entered and closed the door, leaning back against it.

Alex was drinking a glass of brandy, his third that day. He looked up without interest.

“If you have come to plead her case, you might as well forget it,” he said curtly.

“Where is your brother?”

Alex measured Sophie’s length with his heavy lidded eyes. “I feel sure that my lovely wife can answer that question better than I can,” he sneered.

“You need to find your brother,” Sophie repeated. “Where is he?”

“In Leicestershire, they say.”

“Can you find him?”

“Why bother? I’m sure he’ll show up here sooner or later. He can’t have had all he wants of Charlotte’s body, even if she is pregnant.” He threw back the glass of brandy and poured himself another.

“Can you find him?”

“I suppose,” Alex said with deadly irony. “But why bother?”

“Because you are an idiot and there’s always the chance that your brother can bring you to your senses,” Sophie said, speaking with just as much irony as he had used. “On the other hand, he is your brother; maybe he won’t be able to remember who he slept with in the past five years or so.”

Alex flashed her a look of acute dislike. “Hellion,” he said unemotionally.

“I may be a hellion,” Sophie bit back, “but I wouldn’t ruin my family when there was no evidence to justify it. Surely your conscience won’t allow you to throw away your wife like a used cravat before you even speak to her supposed seducer?”

“Seducer? I would say that she was almost certainly the seducer,” Alex growled.

“You are remarkably precise, my lord,” Sophie replied. “Are you afraid to talk to your brother? What will you do when he tells you that he met your wife only twice, for extremely brief periods of time?”

Alex stared at her, a small pulse beating in the corner of his mouth.

Sophie stared back, her eyes steady. “Will you simply condemn your own twin brother, out of hand, as you have condemned your wife? Without asking for an explanation?”

Alex felt as if a band was tightening around his forehead. “Just what would you have me do?” he asked harshly. “I left my wife when she had her monthly bleeding, and I return to find her pregnant. Exactly what explanation could she offer?”

Sophie ignored this statement. She was none too clear about the progress of pregnancy, and certainly not enough to quibble over medical facts.