Page 18 of Once Upon a Gilded Christmas (To All The Earls I’ve Loved Before #4)

Once they reached their shared bedroom, Edward all but threw Kendall aside. "What were you thinking?"

"What?" Kendall declared.

Really? Did he not know? “You were positively beastly towards Lady Juliana.”

“But she made us lose the game!” It was the petulant cry he’d have expected from a boy of five years, not a man of five-and-twenty.

"But you didn't lose. You came second place."

"Second place," Kendall scoffed. "You mean first place loser."

"That is unfair." His son's words stung Edward more than they should have.

Kendall threw a hand out. "Besides. I was generous. I shared my prize with the others."

Edward pinched the bridge of his nose. "With the other young men. Not with the young ladies, and certainly not with Lady Juliana. It was her prize as much as yours."

"It nearly wasn't," Kendall spat. "If it wasn't for her meddling with the card, Bertram and his chit wouldn't have won."

He wanted to shake his son so bad. "If it wasn't for you taking the card, she would not have had to take it off you. For that act alone—" He ran his hands through his hair. This argument was going nowhere. "Your loss is your fault. Not Lady Juliana's, not Lord Bertram's."

Kendall folded his arms tightly. "I still say it's her fault we didn't come first. She kept interfering at every step. It's like she didn't want us to win."

“What did you do to make her want to win it with you?”

“But she—“

Edward’s patience wore thin. “But you! You cannot control her actions, but you can control yours. Don’t think I didn’t watch you, my boy. You should have done everything in your power to make her want to ally with you, to win the game.”

Was that Kendall’s lower lid sticking out? “Well, she could have held up her end.”

“And what, in your many actions, would have encouraged her to do that? No. This is all on you. From the very beginning, this has all been you.” He jabbed a finger at his son's chest.

Kendall stumbled back. “Well, if I’d been paired with someone more agreeable—“

Edward laughed. It was not a kind sound.

“Nobody wanted you. Remember how Juliana asked to swap with Lady Marian? She refused. Even before the game began, she refused. They all refused.” He clicked his tongue.

“I’m afraid your reputation has already been set.

Don’t think I didn't see you show-pony for all the young men. If I didn’t know better, I’d say Lord Clifton kissed the wrong Russell boy last night. ”

Kendal sulked. “I’m not a molly, father.”

“Then stop trying to impress boys and start flirting with girls. Here they are, magicked up to the gills with more charms than a pool of goldfish and you’re nigh on oblivious.

Any more magic on them, and they’d be dragging every stallion, boar, stag and king bee from miles around.

I don’t want to have to explain to the local shepherd the reason his ram came knocking on our door was because my son couldn’t properly woo a young lady. ”

At least he could give the boy some credit. He didn’t argue back or properly pout. Maybe the truth was sinking in.

Edward softened his tone. “I don’t want to be ashamed of you, son, through the eyes of any young lady—especially if she becomes your wife.

If you cause her to feel any grief, I will also feel that grief.

” He laid a hand on Kendall’s shoulder. His son hung his head.

“While you are the eldest and is it a responsibility for you to marry well, I would that you should find joy in such a union. I do not want marriage to be a burden to you.”

When Kendall looked up, his eyes simmered with grief. “Was Mother a burden to you?”

How to answer that? Edward inhaled deeply. Eventually he admitted, “We learned to tolerate each other well.” His late wife could have been much worse. They learned how to compromise and not tread on each other’s personal happiness. “I worked really hard not to be a burden to her.

“I was a younger son when we married. In Society, I was considered a second prize—a consolation prize, really, for anyone unable to secure a better marriage. Sure, my father was an earl, but I was going nowhere. Then my brother was an earl, with a pregnant wife. By the time we realised he would have nothing but daughters, he died and only then did I become an earl. The only reason you are going to be an earl is due to someone else’s very bad luck. ”

Kendall could only stare at his father.

Edward was not done. “What if my brother hadn’t died? Or what if one of my nieces had been a nephew instead? Then what would you have had to recommend you? Certainly not a title. What else would you have to offer?”

Edward shook his finger at his son. “That is what you need to present to a potential wife. The sheer fact that you may some day become an earl is terrible luck. For all you know, I might live to be a hundred and five.”

A quiet voice from the corner said, “Does that go for me too?” Jacob slid out of the shadows, hands curled about his notebook, shoulders hunched.

Kendal and Edward jumped. When had he come in?

“As a fellow second son, our charming personalities is all we have going for us. I don’t want you to be seen as a consolation prize either, my lad.” Edward looked to Kendall. “Either one of you.”

Jacob swallowed. “But Kendall’s the heir. He’ll get the title.”

“No one wants a wife who considers the title of Countess as the consolation prize in an otherwise disaster of a marriage.” Edward held out his hand to his downcast second son.

Was this what Lady Hammond had seen, what Jacob had alluded to?

Did his sons have nothing else to offer but titles and maybe money?

Jacob took the hand and let his father pull both his sons into an embrace.

“I don’t want any young woman be sorry she married either one of you.

Title or no title, I want whoever you choose to marry to be happy.

I want her eyes to light up when she sees you in the morning.

I want her to smile when she turns your way, and to seek out your company in the presence of others.

I want there to be a laugh in her throat and love in her heart because of you. ”

To their credit, his sons pondered on this.