Of all the things that Max had been bracing to hear, he was not prepared for that.
His fingers tightened on the dainty handle of the teacup, his jaw clenching as he turned back to the beautiful view, now soured by his brother’s idiocy. Hissing each breath through his teeth, he watched the bony limbs of the oak tree shiver as an ill wind swept through, fighting to calm his mind enough to think of how to proceed.
Lady Caroline? What were you thinking, Dickie?He had made no secret of the fact that he did not approve of his brother’s friendship with Caroline. He had not forgotten how she had burst into his bedchamber in the dead of night, thinking it was Dickie’s, and, deep down, he supposed he had known that something like this might happen if they were not distanced from one another.
To his mind, men and women could not be friends, for this very reason.
It was why he had been comforted, almost, when his sister had shown such distaste for Percival. When they had fallen in love, it had been a huge shock. Max was overjoyed, of course, that his best friend and his sister had found one another, but it had required some readjustment on his part. In truth, he was still getting used to it.
He rallied quickly.First things first.
“Is Lady Caroline still in her guest chambers?”
Mrs. Pollock shook her head. “She departed not long after the news began to spread, accompanied by her brother and his wife. I can’t say if he heard or not—though I’m inclined to think not, as he would surely have demanded satisfaction—but he’ll know soon enough.”
Max cursed under his breath. “Thank you for informing me, Mrs. Pollock. You did the right thing.”
And now, my brother will have to…
Setting down his cup with such force that the handle broke, tiny fragments of ceramic dusting the tablecloth, Max passed Mrs. Pollock and headed out of the room with just one destination in mind.
He did not bother to give Dickie the courtesy of knocking, barreling straight into the bedchamber as loudly and angrily as the situation demanded. His ire only increased, simmering in his veins, as he looked to the bed and found Dickie emerging blearily from sleep.
“I am surprised you have been able to rest at all, considering what you have done,” Max barked, striding to the windows to wrench open the drapes.
Brutal morning light struck Dickie’s face, and he recoiled like a rat whose hiding place had been discovered, squinting in sleepy confusion. “Why are you screaming?” he mumbled in a raspy voice. “Is the manor on fire? Have the French conquered us? Is there a revolt in the sheep fields?”
“There willbea revolt if you do not sit up and heed me, this very moment,” Max replied, staring at his brother with the kind of authority he rarely mustered for his family.
I am to blame for this.He liked to think he had done his best to fill the rather large shoes that his father had left behind when he passed. It had not been easy to strike a balance between being the older brother, the missing father, the Earl of Greenfield, and then the Duke of Harewood, but he was beginning to understand that he had likely been too soft, too brotherly, too lenient with Dickie.
“If I had known you would do something so stupid just as soon as you received this inheritance from me, I would never have petitioned the Royal Court in your favor,” he raged on, clenching his hands into tight fists. “And I have half a mind to make a petition to have me reinstated, but that will depend on your response to what comes next.”
Dickie sat up and rubbed his eyes. “What on earth are you wittering on about, Max?”
“I do not wish to know the details, but I know that you have compromised Lady Caroline,” Max replied tersely. “As such, you will marry her. We will ride to Westyork immediately and you will do the right thing and ask for her hand. We cannot beat the scandal sheets now, but we can reduce the destruction your antics will cause.”
Dickie shielded his eyes from the glare of the sun, his expression turning more serious than Max had ever seen it. “Myantics?”he scoffed. “There were no antics, Max, but of course, you would believe what gossipmongers have to say about me. Perhaps, you might at least have asked me if it is true, so I could explain myself.”
“Please do, though I doubt there can be any explanation that will not have the same outcome for you,” Max said sternly, hating the way it felt.
He was not accustomed to truly scolding his brother, but there was too much at stake for him to be gentle now. Their father had always managed to be firm yet fair, giving his children affection while also demanding respect and good behavior from them all, and Max had no idea how he had done it so seamlessly.
“I sought to escape the ball—more specifically, Lady Joan,” Dickie replied, pulling a blanket around his shoulders. “Caro was with me at the time, and she followed me when I made my escape. We took the secret corridor to your old study, and we talked and had a snifter of brandy. That is all. Yes, I know I should not have been alone with her, but it is ridiculous that two friends cannot speak in private, merely because one of them is a woman. It is so… archaic!
“Anyway,” he added with a sour twist of his face, “it is Lady Joan who ought to be punished for being a Peeping Tom. What do you suspectherplan was, had she found me alone? It was not something appropriate; I am certain of that. Yet, out of spite or jealousy or some such nonsense, she chose to cause a furor instead, running back to the ballroom to tell tales like a bloody infant.”
Max closed his eyes, digging his fingernails into his palms in order to gain some clarity from the pinching pain. It was obvious that Dickie thought he had done nothing wrong, and that would only make Max’s next task ten times as difficult, for if there was one thing that Dickie was a champion of, it was stubbornness.
“You were alone with Lady Caroline. Whether you were merely talking or not, you were seen, you behaved in an ungentlemanly fashion, and now you will do as I ask and marry the girl,” Max said in a slow, measured tone, so his brother would be sure to understand that he was quite serious.
Dickie snorted. “I certainly will not. Why ruin her life because Lady Joan decided to hunt me down like a limping fox? It will pass, as all gossip does.”
“And if Anna was in that situation? Indeed, shewasin a situation like that with Percival, and you did not seem so blasé then,” Max pointed out. “And before you say, ‘well, that ended happily,’ I would urge you not to forget that Anna and Percival ended uptogether.”
Dickie’s mouth fell open, a faint crackle sounding in the back of his throat like he was trying very, very hard to think of a retort. Something that would weasel him out of marrying Caroline. But it was clear to both brothers that, for perhaps the first time in his life, Dickie could not find the words.
“Yourreputation might recover, Dickie, but Lady Caroline’s will not,” Max pressed. “So, you can come with me and do this the simple way, or you can be stubborn and stay here and bury yourhead in the sand until Anna and the rest of the Spinsters’ Club arrive at your door to tell you that you must marry Lady Caroline without delay. They will not be as polite as I am being, I assure you. After all, she is their friend and family, and they are more powerful than you.”
