Page 299 of Desires of a Duke Collection

“Do you think faeries live there?” CeCe nudged her twin brother as she peered at the new neighbors through the trees.

The estate had not been lived in for many years, and the children could not have been happier to have new neighbors.

Elias rolled his eyes at his sister. “CeCe, faeries aren’t real.” Being fourteen minutes older than his twin sister, Elias took his role as the older brother quite seriously.

That afternoon, the twins had wandered off from the picnic where their beloved Nana lay, resting her eyes in the warm sun. Nana was getting on in years and had been at Mangrove Manor since their father and his siblings were children.

CeCe turned to her brother in outrage. “Of course, they’re real,” she spouted, crossing her arms in pique.

Elias knew this was a point he might not win, but his manhood demanded he take a stand. After all, CeCe had won almost every argument they’d had. “No, C, they really aren’t!” Eli said, frowning. “Don’t be such a baby!”

Giant tears welled in her aquamarine eyes, and for a moment, Elias thought perhaps he had gone too far. After all, who cared what she believed in? But then he stiffened—she was more than likely faking those tears.

When CeCe realized the waterworks would not get what she desired, she immediately shut them off. “I’m not a baby! You are! You big dummy!” she replied defiantly, sticking out her tongue.

Eli rolled his eyes. What in the world could a boy do with a sister like that? “CeCe, be reasonable. Why would faeries have servants to carry their boxes and trunks in? Wouldn’t they just make them magically appear in the house?”

CeCe slumped. “Drat, you are right, and I hate that,” she said, staring back at the grand house through the trees. “Not faeries, maybe, but perhaps monsters or goblins?”

Eli slapped his hand against his forehead. There was no hope for the girl. Why couldn’t he have had a brother? It wasn’t too much to ask. Why was he blessed with such a frippery gibbet sister? And why did she sound so enthusiastic about the possibility of monsters masquerading as their nearest neighbors?

He was about to set her straight when they heard laughter behind them. Just what a boy wants to hear—others realizing his sister has a few loose screws.

The twins whipped around to see two older boys laughing so hard they were holding their stomachs.

The bigger one seemed to be several years older than the twins. He had wavy blond hair and chocolate-brown eyes. The younger one was skinnier but still blond. They both had welcoming faces.

The older boy smiled at them. “I’m sorry to disappoint you, doll-face, but we are your new neighbors. And I am neither a faerie, a monster, nor a goblin. I’m just a plain old boy.”

CeCe frowned at him. “That is rotten luck.”

The older boy laughed again. “You are adorable! My name is Robert.”

CeCe wrinkled her nose. “Robert? That is a nice name, I suppose. I am CeCe, and this is my twin brother, Eli.”

Robert’s eyes widened. “Twins, I hadn’t figured that! This is my younger brother Charles. He is nine, and I am eleven.”

Eli went over to shake his hand properly, just like he had witnessed his father do. “I’m Elias,” he said formally, “and this is my sister, Celia, but everybody calls her CeCe. We are eight.”

CeCe grinned at Charles, who seemed quite taken with her. In a sing-song tone, she replied, “No, we’re not!”

Eli flushed hotly and shot her a dark look. “Well, we are nearly eight.”

CeCe shook her head. “What a falsehood! We just had our seventh birthday a few months ago.”

Elias looked at his twin like he wanted to strike her dead with his eyes while she grinned back at him. Charles laughed out loud. He liked the brazen red-haired little girl who seemed unafraid of anything.

Robert laughed while patting Eli’s back. “Siblings can be such a blessing, can’t they? We have another brother, Spencer, who is still in the nursery. Why don’t you come to the house and meet our parents and Spencer? We can get some scones.”

CeCe was immediately diverted at the thought of a snack. It didn’t take her more than a second to latch onto Charles and head directly toward their home.

Eli was more hesitant. They had been away from Nana for quite some time, and their nanny would worry if she couldn’t find them.

However, his sister was halfway through the garden, with her hand tucked neatly into Charles’ larger one.

“Are you coming, E?” she yelled back to him.

Robert smiled at the younger boy. “We have a secret passageway that Charlie and I just discovered. It has cobwebs, and we are certain it is haunted. Do you want to see it?”

Eli was captivated, and all thoughts of Nana were forgotten. “Capital! I call the first chance to walk through it!”

The children raced down the garden paths toward the Rotherford’s new country home. It would take some weeks to refurbish it to what the family needed it to be, having been empty for so many years. Soon, however, the Rotherford family would be firmly established in their new home.

The twins found the brothers vastly entertaining. They learned that the estate was riddled with dark and dusty passageways, which was a pure delight for the imaginative children.

Mrs. Mariah Rotherford, wise to her own boys’ antics, sent a footman out to find Nana, who had been quite alarmed upon waking and finding her charges missing.

The children played together all afternoon. This was the beginning of a beautiful friendship. There would be many years of traipsing back and forth between Rotherford Hall and Mangrove Manor.

Never let it be said that there were better friends than these two families.