Father sighed. “I’m not exactly thrilled with it. Alex is…older, but it’s been a few weeks already since Zacharie didn’t say anything right away. They seem to get along.”
Aleric wanted to ask him if this was a sick joke. But Father didn’t know Gautier had already used the older son. “He-he’s eighteen.”
“Yes, and he’s an adult now. I can’t stop him. I’d prefer that Zacharie had gone after someone younger.” Father waved a hand. “It’s done. I told him if they’re going to bed together, don’t brag about it.”
“You’re going to trust a man that old with your eighteen-year-old child?”
Father tilted his head. “Alex is a decent man. I’ve known him for years. So have you. It’s not like Alex is a stranger. Besides, Zacharie said I can’t treat him like a baby and try to hold his hand. Technically, he’s right. He’s an adult, and I need to step back.”
“He wants a fresh ass.”
Lord Monet raised an eyebrow. “This is Alex we’re talking about. Don’t refer to your brother as a fresh ass.”
“You think he doesn’t want a young body?”
“Why are you being like this?”
Aleric didn’t know what to say without revealing the truth.
“Also, why are you so cold and nasty to him now? You barely say a word if he speaks to you. Quite frankly, it’s rude. What is your problem with him? Did he offend you somehow?”
Offend. Aleric almost laughed at the word. Gautier had done far more than offend him, and Father had asked him about his attitude a few times over the past few years. Aleric still couldn’t say why.
“If you decide you don’t like someone, that’s you. It doesn’t mean you need to butt into your brother’s life.”
He didn’t like his little brother that much, but how could he look away and pretend it wasn’t happening? Even though they didn’t get along, Aleric wasn’t allowing him to step into that kind of relationship without a warning. Zacharie didn’t deserve to wake up one morning, tend to cuts and bruises, and deal with the burning humiliation Aleric still felt whenever he thought back to that one night or noticed the little white scar on his hip.
Chapter Twenty
Jaime listened as it was poured out. When Aleric described what the lord had done to him, it was in a rather bare, bland way, as if the facts happened to someone else a long time ago, and he was merely relaying the story.
Somehow, it showed the pain more than anything. He wouldn’t even look at Jaime.
“I finally went to speak to him. I told Zacharie what happened and why he needed to stop seeing Gautier. I figured it would happen to him too, and I wanted to protect him.” Aleric tugged his coat cuffs down as if trying to hide his wrists even though there was nothing to see anymore. “He said I was jealous and accused me of having a crush on Gautier.”
“A crush? Are you serious?”
“Mhm. According to him, I hadn’t acted on my feelings, and since Zacharie had gotten to him first, I was pissed. I was jealous and trying to take away something that was all his. He said I already have the position of future lord, and why can’t he have one thing? If Gautier had beaten me, why hadn’t I said anything? I tried to explain why and convince him, and the real insults started. Selfish, liar, pig. You can guess.”
Jaime’s chest pinched. After so many years, Aleric had finally admitted the truth in an attempt to protect his brother only to be treated like pure shit and called a liar.
“I should have immediately gone to Father. Instead, I went to my rooms and tried to calm down because I wanted to go to Father with a more level head.”
“Zacharie told him first.”
“Yes. He twisted everything I said. By the time I went to Father, he thought I’d tried to break them up out of jealousy,and he didn’t believe I’d been with Gautier for two years. He also didn’t believe I’d been beaten because ‘Alex wouldn’t harm a fly.’ He was furious and called me a liar.”
Jaime couldn’t imagine the shame Aleric had felt while his Father said those hurtful words.
“Zacharie made it sound like I’m jealous, and Father doesn’t believe that his best friend would do anything. He thinks I picked something horrible but not the worst thing ever to paint him badly. He asked if I’d tried to get with Gautier only to be refused. Of course,Alexwould be too nice to admit he’d rejected me if so. I have no evidence or proof that anything happened, and the marks were long gone. Even the little white scars had faded. I have a tiny one on my hip if the light is just right, but it could be from anything.”
For fuck’s sake. Jaime couldn’t imagine trying to protect a sibling only to have it all go entirely wrong.
“I know I’m not the same as I was years ago, but I didn’t think he’d call me a liar. I should have said something when I had blatant proof, but…” Aleric leaned on the arm of the couch with his legs drawn up and rubbed his forehead. “I think Zacharie’s more pliable than me. He’s a brat, but with someone he loves, he’ll probably do whatever they say, and Gautier’s had time to think about how to work this. That’s his last chance to be a lord. Even if Zacharie said no in the middle of sex, he’d probably be safe. You can’t beat your last chance bloody. Who knows, maybe Gautier’s stamina is finally wearing down, and he doesn’t care to have sex so much.”
“Do you think Zacharie was a virgin when they started?”
“I’m not sure, but I suspect he was. A virgin is likely to fall harder for their first love. They have nothing to compare it to.”
