Discovering the Devil

E l e v e n

XI

"HAVE you kissed her yet?" Zachary asked.

Harry, Percy and Zachary were breaking their fast over coffee, cigars, and cake.

A stream of coffee bubbled back up his throat and spurted onto the dining table, inducing a coughing fit. Zachary patted his friend's back as he recovered from the worst of it. Percy kindly poured a glass of water, which Harry readily drank.

Once Harry had recovered, Zachary posed the question again. "So, have you?"

The ghost of soft skin and slender fingers kissed his palm. "I don't know what you mean. I've already said that there is nothing between us."

"His ear twitched. Did you see that, Zachary?"

"I did."

Harry's eyes rolled. "My ear did not twitch."

"It did," his two friends declared in unison.

"It didn't. And even if it did, Harry began to busy himself with lathering butter on his bread, it doesn't prove anything. My ear doesn't twitch every time I lie."

Percy grinned. "It twitched again."

Harry hated that they were right. He also hated himself for flirting with her in the study. But then again, was he really to blame? He had been high on the adrenaline of his victory, that was all. It wouldn't happen again. Then why can't you meet their eye? A small, cumbersome voice asked. Harry quieted it with a bite of his bread.

"Do you think they kissed yet?" Percy asked Zachary as if Harry wasn't in the room.

Harry rolled his eyes.

"No," Zachary replied. "Not yet, anyway."

"Good morning, Sir," said the butler. He extended a silver plate that held a newspaper.

"Not today, Reginald. You can burn it."

"Burn?" Percy's eyes swiveled in the direction of paper. "Why?" Harry didn't respond, he only waved his butler away. "Give it here." Reginald reluctantly delivered the tin tray to Percy who snatched the column as soon as it was within arm's reach. Percy's eyes widened as they scanned the page. He looked up at Harry with incredulity. "You let them talk about you like this?"

"What would you have me do?"

"I'd sue," Percy said.

"Let me see," Zachary demanded.

"You can take it," Percy sighed, handing over the column. "I've read enough."

Even Zachary's eyes squinted at the column's contents. "It wouldn't hurt to hint about charges of defamation of character, Harry."

"It would only make things worse," Harry said.

Milford's latest rag had readily reported the duel between the Duke of Burberry and the Earl of Nottingham. The details, however, were completely backwards. Apparently, it was the earl who had proposed the confrontation, even though it was he who had stolen the duke's beloved. When guns were drawn at dawn, the Duke threw down his gun and miraculously avoided bloodshed, even though the Earl thirsted for his head. There was a mash of direct quotes acquired from an "unnamed source" which described the Duke's behavior in stomach-turning descriptions.

"Everything they're saying...all of it is a lie," Zachary sputtered.

"Per usual," Harry said calmly.

"The bit about his live-in mistress wasn't far off," Percy pointed out.