Page 9 of The Diamond's Absolutely Delicious Downfall

Instead of leaving the horses to the footmen, Ajax, Hector, and Zephyr walked the animals back towards the stables.

Heron House was nothing like a London town house. Not the kind that so many built and purchased now, arranged around parks and squares.

“I’ve never been on an estate like this so close to London,” Tobias said simply.

Hector nodded his dark head. “It’s a holdover from a different era. Once, many years ago, the great lords lived on the outside of the city and took barges and boats to the central governing houses. It was the best way to keep safe from the disease of the city, the poverty there and all of that.”

The path to the stables was framed with climbing orange flowers that filled the air with a delicate scent. The place was a veritable treasure box of beauty and wealth.

“And you don’t want to have a London town house near Green Park? Like the Devonshires?” he asked.

“Bloody hell, no,” Lord Ajax scoffed. “Can you imagine having to live with all those other idiots?”

“Idiots?” he echoed, uncertain who Ajax was referring to. “Peasants?”

Zephyr shuddered. “No. Other aristocrats.”

“They’re a bunch of dandies,” proclaimed Ajax. “The lot of them.”

Zephyr let out a low whistle. “So much in-breeding has occurred that they’re all cousins of some sort. It takes a great deal of their intelligence away.”

“Lots of weak chins about,” added Ajax.

“We’re deeply grateful that father picked Mama,” Hector quipped. “It’s the only reason we have two bits of wit to rub together.”

“And chins,” said Ajax. “Rather nice, that.”

All the brothers had square jaws.

Tobias let out a laugh at that. “You admit the problematic nature of the aristocrats marrying each other?”

“Oh yes,” agreed Hector quickly as the massive stables came into view. “At some point, if you keep doing that, you won’t have a family tree, just continually re-connecting circles.”

Zephyr grimaced as they crossed into the paddock just before the building. “And no one wants such a thing.”

“That’s not true,” Hector countered with disgust. “Lots of people want such a thing.”

“Lots of people who don’t mind their chin being attached to their neck and their brain having as much intelligence as a pudding.”

Tobias bit back another a laugh, damned surprised at the frank discussion taking place around him. “I will say the lot of you are not like any aristocrats I’ve met.”

“Thank you,” Hector said sincerely as they handed the horses over to the stable lads, who would make sure the animals’ coats were wiped down and ensure they had good feed and rest.

They started back towards the massive Elizabethan manor in what seemed like companionable silence before Hector suddenly ventured, like a hunter setting a trap, “Why have you come to stay?”

“You’re the second person who’s asked me that question today,” Tobias replied, slightly unnerved.

“Am I, by God?” Hector asked, grinning, but there was an edge to it.

“And who was the other?” Zephyr asked, his gaze dancing as if he was looking forward to something.

Tobias cleared his throat. “If you must know, your sister, Lady Juliet. She seemed most surprised that I would want to come and stay here.”

“Yes, you two danced very cozily last night. Didn’t you?” drawled Lord Ajax, his blond hair gleaming like the hay in the stables. And his muscles shifted under his linen shirt, not entirely dissimilar from the powerful beasts that dwelled in the barn.

He looked as if he belonged in a museum holding up the world like Atlas.

“Would you prefer that I look pained when I danced with Lady Juliet?” Tobias ventured, sensing where this could be heading, wondering if he could try for an element of surprise if they all jumped him at once.

Zephyr gave an exaggerated shake of his silvery blond hair. “Not pained. That would be insulting. You are correct about that.”

Hector stopped and said, “But you looked as if you wished to eat her up, and we find that it’s best that we warn men about our sisters.”

He drew in a breath, readying to at least protect himself.

“Now,” began Ajax with a surprisingly friendly tone, “you are not singular in this.”

“That’s right,” affirmed Zephyr jovially. “We did it to our other sister’s husband before they wed.”

“Husband?” Tobias echoed.

Hector nodded. “The fellow did marry Hermia.”

“I have no intention of marrying Lady Juliet,” he stated quickly. He wanted no confusion about that.

“Don’t worry,” assured Hector quickly. “She has no intention of marrying you. She wants a title. Someone powerful here in England. Certainly not an American.”

The three shuddered.

“We’re not all that terrible,” he ground out.

Hector put his hand over his heart. “Oh, no, no, nothing against you personally, old boy.”

Zephyr nodded. “Exactly. Juliet has a plan, you see.”

“A plan?” he queried, not seeing at all.

Ajax sighed. “She’s had it for years. You know, I’m surprised that she hasn’t already told you about it. She tells anyone who will sit still and listen.”

“And what exactly is that plan?” he asked.

Hector stilled. “She’s going to make a marvelous marriage. One that will ensure Mama is extremely proud.”

The words cut through the air.

“And is her mother not already proud of her?” Tobias asked, his hands folding into fists. “She seems so.”

Hector rolled his eyes. “Oh, she is! But you can’t tell Juliet anything.”

Seeming appeased, Hector started back down the path towards the house and continued, “She’s gotten it into her head that she must do it. So she will.”

“Is she rather stubborn?”

Hector threw back his head and laughed. “Stubborn? Juliet? She may appear a racehorse, but that one is pure mule in her determination. If she sets her mind to something, well, it’s already over and done with, isn’t it?”

He hid a wince because he felt fairly certain that Lady Juliet had also set her mind to having an affair with him. Perhaps before she married.

He wasn’t entirely certain how he felt about that. Was he to be her last fling before she chose a steady life as some titled lady on an estate somewhere, putting out baby after baby to ensure the lineage of her titled husband?

“You have the strangest look upon your face,” Ajax observed. “You all right, Yank?”

He forced himself to nod. “I’m just thinking about the printing press. I shouldn’t have left it in the foyer.”

Hector clapped him on the back. “Oh, never you mind. Our butler’s most marvelous at getting things where they need to be.”

Tobias narrowed his gaze, clinging to this new topic, lest he think about her brothers discovering what she was determined to do with him.

“Yes, but if it’s broken—” Tobias started to explain.

“It won’t be broken,” assured Zephyr. “He’s a man of many parts, our butler.”

“I still can’t believe our brother has asked you to stay,” exclaimed Ajax.

He blinked. “Why?” Tobias queried.

Hector turned to him and arched a dark brow. “Isn’t it obvious?”

“No,” he gritted, feeling off foot now.

They knew something he did not.

Ajax gave him a mock sympathetic look. “You like Juliet far too much, and we can’t have anyone getting in the way of her dreams.”

“Is it that obvious?” Tobias blurted, almost missing the part about her dreams.

“Definitely,” Ajax replied. And with that, Ajax put his arm over Tobias’s shoulders, pulling him close in an embrace. That was one step away from a choke hold.

“Now,” Hector began, turning to face Tobias square on. “Our family is a bit different. So a kiss here, a kiss there? A bit of passion behind a curtain?” Hector shrugged. “We won’t say a word. Actually, Juliet can do what she likes. As long as she doesn’t get caught. Getting caught is where the trouble lies.”

He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. It certainly wasn’t what he was expecting. Was this a trick?

Ajax gave him a squeeze. “I can see you’re uncertain. Let me explain, She’s an independent young lady, our Juliet. Mama would murder us if we tried to tell Juliet who she could or couldn’t kiss or enjoy a bit of a cuddle with.”

Zephyr stepped forward, his lips parting in a grin which promised a great deal of future pain. “But if you do anything which hurts her? Now, that is a different story altogether, old boy. Do you understand?”

He swallowed as he looked around at the brothers.

A cuddle.

Had they just given him carte blanche to have an affair with their sister? It certainly sounded as if they had.

“Forgive me,” Tobias began. “Am I mishearing you? You don’t care if I kiss your sister or even—”

“Now, don’t spell it out, Yank,” Zephyr cut in. “We don’t want details.”

Hector shuddered. “Definitely not. But Juliet can decide who she wants and who she doesn’t.”

Zephyr nodded. “After all, we do every bloody day when we go out on the town. It’s unfortunate that most women are kept from doing what they will. But not in our family. As long as you don’t…”

“Get caught,” Tobias finished as he was clearly expected to do.

Ajax released him. “Good. Now listen, as long as you don’t do two things, everything will go well for you.”

“Don’t hurt her or get in the way of her dreams?” he prompted.

“Hmmm.” Hector sighed. “I suppose we actually do have quite a list. If you, in any way, ruin her dreams to marry a titled man, the one she prefers, we will make certain that your printing press falls on top of you.”

“It is very heavy,” Ajax mused.

“It could crush you, you know. Very unfortunate. But accidents do happen,” added Zephyr.

Tobias tugged his coat back into place, which had become askew under Ajax’s attention, and agreed, “So they do, and I should hate to fall under my own printing press. It would be most awkward and a terrible way to go.”

Hector beamed at him. “Whatever would the news sheets say? So glad you understand, old boy.”

He nodded. “Oh, I understand.”

Hector clapped his hands together. “So we shall all get along and have a marvelous time over the next few weeks, and then you’ll leave.”

“And Juliet will be happy. You will make certain that she’s very happy,” intoned Ajax.

Tobias narrowed his gaze as a thought struck him, and he stared from brother to brother.

No, he had to be mistaken.

“Have I been brought here specifically to show Juliet a good time?” he breathed.

A laugh tumbled from Ajax’ lips. “You’re smarter than I thought you were. You didn’t really think that our brother invited you here only because of your printing press, did you?”

“Yes,” he ground out. “I did.”

Ajax blew out a sigh. “Let me explain something right now. It will make your life much better. Our brother knows everything. He is as clever as our mother. So you best be careful what you do… And where. Like say when you are at the theater.”

“Dark hallways and all that.”

He sucked in a sharp breath.

“She has no idea that our brother and mother know what happened between the two of you,” Hector warned. “He has eyes everywhere, and you best remember it.”

Oh, he would. He’d remember it carefully. The powerful Duke of Westleigh was like a man playing chess, maneuvering his family and his would-be friends around the board.

It was a strange feeling.

He thought he’d been brought into the family to do good things, not merely be a moment of pleasure for the sister before she took up her duty. He should leave. He knew he should.

This could only end badly. Surely, it could only end badly. But if he was allowed to enjoy Juliet and her company for a brief period of time, how could he deny himself that?

After all, it wasn’t as if he was planning to fall in love with her or ask her to marry him.

Life was for the living, and he was being offered a chance to have the most remarkable woman he’d ever met. How could he say no?