Evan shrugged. “It is not fear, exactly.” He paused, staring ahead at the rolling moorland that would inevitably give way to Lisbret House. He couldfeelthe manor long before he saw it, like a prowling wolf who had decided that he would be luncheon. “I always thought I was finished with that house.”
“Until your father died, you mean?” Daniel said.
Evan chewed his lower lip, shaking his head. “Even then, I had no desire to return. I always planned to sell it as soon as I inherited it, purchasing a smaller residence somewhere charming, somewhere new. Somewhere closer to you and Aunt Amelia and Caro.”
“Not anymore?”
Evan managed a thin smile. “Well, we would not be venturing there if my plans were the same.”
“But it will not be your marital home?” Daniel had been unusually inquisitive since the beginning of the ride to Lisbret House, asking a thousand questions about the Countess of Grayling’s ball, two nights prior.
In that, Daniel was not alone.
“Of course, it shall be their marital home,” Amelia interjected, drawing level with her son and her nephew. She had insisted on coming with them. Indeed, both had, for Evan had initially planned to ride “home” by himself.
Evan rolled his eyes. “Nothing has been decided, and as long as my father is there, my beloved will not set foot inside that house. And as he sold the manor that should have been mine at Bridfield to punish me or trap me or some such nonsense, I am afraid that you will all be stuck with me for a while longer. And Olivia, should she consent to be my wife.”
“Oh, she will!” Amelia cheered, clapping her hands together. Her horse tossed its head in disapproval, startled by the sound. But Amelia was a gifted horsewoman, and her mount knew better than to bolt in fright. “I must say, I admire her all the more for making this suggestion as a… test of sorts. You know I have no affection for my brother, but I do think this will be of benefit to you. If one keeps burying one’s troubles, the mound only gets higher, you know?”
Daniel smiled at his cousin. “You and Olivia will be welcome at Westyork for as long as you desire to remain there. I have been telling Mother that it is far too vast a house for just me and Caro, and Caro spends most of her time at the Dowager House anyway.”
“But what about your own future bride?” Amelia looked stricken.
“IfI should marry, there will still be room aplenty for everyone,” Daniel replied, tilting his neck from side to side as if the prospect made him uncomfortable. “That being said, Mother, I would not raise your hopes too high.”
Evan laughed, the ongoing squabble between son and mother soothing his anxious soul. “I know of four excellent young ladies, if you would like me to tell them of your merits?”
“The Spinsters Club?” Daniel scoffed, though his cheeks flushed slightly. “You have somehow hooked one, cousin, but I doubt the rest shall ever be swayed. Not that I would desire to sway any one of them. I say, leave them to their happy solitude.”
Evan frowned at his cousin, puzzled by the thickness in his voice and the redness in his cheeks.Hadone of Olivia’s friends caught his eye, or was there someone else?
“I do not know what we shall do about the scandal sheets,” Amelia said, sparing Daniel his blushes. “You have tied yourself up in quite the reprehensible knot, Evan. They were hailing Olivia as a heroine, but if she consents to marry you, I imagine the pair of you shall be spurned for some time. Not that I want her tonotmarry you, of course, but it is something to consider.”
Daniel and Evan exchanged a look.
“It is being taken care of,” Daniel said. “As soon as Olivia agrees to marry this old rogue, the scandal sheets will run a story that will undo everything that has been done.”
Amelia arched an eyebrow. “How, pray tell?”
“Daniel and I are well acquainted with the primary writer,” Evan explained. “For years, he has written whatever we have requested. Namely, those stories about me, but this story shall be one of the greatest sagas ever to touch the page of the scandal sheets. The fellow is ready to publish, the moment we give the word. However, there are two versions, and the one to be printed rather hinges upon this meeting with my father.”
Amelia squinted at her nephew, as if she hoped to find the details etched upon his face. “Whatever do you mean?”
“You will see, but I cannot say more,” Evan replied.
Just then, Daniel gave a low whistle. “There it is,” he whispered, almost reverently, his gaze fixed on the horizon.
Evan followed Daniel’s line of sight, his heart and stomach lurching together as he set eyes upon his former home for the first time in well over ten years. The dark gray stone, almost black, sucked in all the light around it, making it appear like a void in the center of the moorlands. Three slate spires clawed skyward, a rusty weathervane spinning aimlessly upon the middle spire. And though the sprawling gardens were pristine, they held only a brutal beauty, the trees all bent against the elements, the flowers refusing to bloom, the immaculate lawns neat and lifeless, lacking any character at all.
Of course, he knew that he was seeing with tainted eyes. Perhaps, to those who had not suffered in that manor as he had, it might have looked like a very beautiful manor indeed.
“You are to let us speak alone,” Evan said flatly. “No matter what you may hear, you are not to intervene.” He cast a pointed look at his aunt, for though she had saved him when he was a much younger man, this was something he needed to do by himself.
She nodded. “I will restrain myself.”
“And if she cannot,” Daniel added, “then I shall restrain her.”
Evan tried to laugh, but it came out as a strained choke. Lisbret House did not only suck all the light from everything around it, it sucked the mirth from anyone who came too close. Indeed, as he looked toward the manor and urged his horse onward, he could not remember a single moment in which he had laughed or even smiled within those walls.
