Page 24 of Vanquished by a Viscount (Tales from the Brotherhood #3)
Barbara squeaked, grasped her plate, and stood from her seat to march around the table and away from Robert without even looking at him.
Robert sighed and bowed his head for a moment before sending Gray a look as if to say “I told you so.” He moved on to assume his seat at the head of the table, far away from his wife.
The actions of the hosts did not go unnoticed by the house party guests. Nearly all of them sat a bit straighter, clearly on edge. Glances were exchanged and unspoken questions were asked. The situation was as far from ideal as possible.
The one, promising light in the whole thing was that Gray took the empty seat beside Charlie. He sent Charlie a knowing look as he tucked his chair into the table, then shifted his leg under the table to tap Charlie’s, quietly saying, “Something must be done.”
Charlie’s heart beat faster. Indeed, something must be done. Particularly if Gray was opening the door to something between the two of them.
He had no time to address the issue or even to think of it.
“I have a jolly idea,” Barbara spoke up with false brightness. “All of the ladies should take seats at this side of the table and all of the gentlemen at that side. With seats to spare between them.”
“The ladies on this side and the gentlemen on that?” Lady Winifred asked as if the idea were not entirely without merit.
“Yes,” Barbara said, her smile wider. Manically so. “I propose that the ladies form their own circle for the remainder of the summer and the gentlemen have theirs and that neither one should disturb or distress the other.”
“What, never?” Lady Eudora asked, sending Pettigrew a terrified look. “I do not like that idea at all. Do you, Dr. Pettigrew?”
Charlie could have predicted his friend’s answer before it was given. “The idea is not entirely unwelcome,” Pettigrew said quickly. “Perhaps not for the remainder of the house party, but for a day or two.”
“Yes, you see?” Barbara grasped onto his agreement, staring pointedly across the table at Robert. “The women should keep their own company and the men will keep to themselves.”
Robert appeared to be attempting not to groan and roll his eyes. “I hardly think?—”
“No, you do not,” Barbara snapped, cutting him off.
A brittle silence fell over the table. The majority of the guests looked at a complete loss as they glanced between their host and hostess.
Barbara was doing herself no favors at all in her attempts to establish herself as a leading light in England’s social scene. If Charlie did not rescue her from herself as quickly as possible, the damage could be permanent.
“My sister and I discussed things earlier,” he told the table by way of explanation. “We thought it would be a lark to spend a day in separate company, contriving ways that we each might entertain the other half this evening.”
“Oh, yes,” Lady Patience said, smiling across the table at Mr. Lindhurst. “That would be agreeable, do you not think?”
“Yes, indeed,” Lindhurst said.
The tension surrounding the table lessened and the meal continued.
Conversation shifted quickly to various means of entertainment the different circles of guests might provide for the others.
Lady Suzanne offered to sing, which, apparently, she rarely did, and Lady Carolina said she would accompany her. The moment was well and truly rescued.
“Well done,” Grayson told Charlie once the awkward meal had ended and the young ladies had taken themselves away to the conservatory to do God only knew what. “I was beginning to think the entire party might collapse in a heap.”
“It still very well might,” Charlie grumbled, trying not to be irritated with his sister as he and Gray strode down the hall toward the empty smoking parlor that was generally only used after supper. “I adore my sister, but I have never seen her so determined to behave badly.”
“I asked Robert last night if she was with child,” Gray admitted as they made their way over to the large bay window at the far end of the room, where they could look out into the grey and damp garden.
“She is not,” Charlie said. “She would have told me if she was.”
Gray nodded and hummed. “Robert has no notion at all of why she is in such a state.”
“I would venture that even Barbara does not know what is the matter with herself,” Charlie said. “It can only be a result of all the changes that have happened in her life as of late.”
He truly was speaking about his sister, but when Charlie glanced up and met Gray’s eyes, the squeezing, pulsing feeling in his heart hinted that he was speaking of himself as well.
Why else would he find himself so vulnerable to the allure of the past?
Barbara had left him on his own, his duties at Downham Manor were poor company, and seeing, feeling, and kissing Gray again had opened a part of him he’d thought he’d closed.
“Everything changes,” Gray said, his voice slightly softer, though he kept his distance from Charlie and made no move to reach for him. “Often it changes in ways we are not ready for and that we do not like.”
Charlie’s cheeks went hot and he looked away. It was his fault, all of it. He’d hurt Gray, and though the wound had been inflicted years ago, it felt somehow deeper now.
“We must do something about the current state of affairs,” he said, forcing himself to look at Gray once more. “Too much hangs in the balance to allow this rift to continue.”
“Yes,” Gray said slowly. “Your sister’s reputation and my brother’s happiness are at stake.”
“Agreed,” Charlie said, feeling unaccountably breathless. “We know they love each other and that their future is destined to be one of closeness and adoration.”
“They have simply lost their way for the moment,” Gray agreed.
“We must help them find it again,” Charlie said.
“And the only way to do that is to ensure that the two of them are thrown into close proximity as much as possible,” Gray said, eyes suddenly glittering with inspiration.
“We must set them some sort of task or mission that they can only perform together,” Charlie said. “Something that will force them to communicate and work together.”
Gray suddenly burst into laughter. The sound and sight had Charlie trembling with ardor and longing to grab the man’s face so that he could slam his mouth over Gray’s laughing one.
Instead of doing that, he blinked and asked, “What is so amusing?”
Gray’s laughter settled and he shook his head. “Apples do not fall far from trees, it would appear,” he said. When Charlie frowned at him in confusion, he went on with, “We are plotting to reunite our siblings using the same strategy they have been using with us.”
As soon as he understood the joke, Charlie grinned. “We do share the same blood, after all,” he said.
“And one could argue that the strategy works,” Gray said.
As soon as those words were spoken, both Charlie and Gray held still for a moment, gazing at each other.
It had worked. Barbara had pushed the two of them together, and regardless of their motivations or the nature of the arrangement, the two of them were not only speaking again, they’d renewed their intimate acquaintance with each other’s bodies as well.
“We might employ the same strategy,” Charlie said, sobering a bit as his vulnerability flashed to the surface, “but our execution of it needs to produce more permanent results than theirs.”
“Yes, yes, of course,” Gray said, suddenly quieter and twitchy. “Not like the arrangement between the two of us.”
“No, nothing like that,” Charlie said, his heart beating so hard he thought it might burst through his ribs. “Our agreement is merely practical and temporary. Their attachment should be much more permanent.”
“Precisely,” Gray said. “Not temporary.”
The two of them stood where they were, gazing at each other.
Part of Charlie wanted to say things between them should be more permanent as well, but another part of him had no idea if that was what he truly wanted.
He might have been in the wrong originally, but Grayson did not have to rush off to the Continent to fling himself at every amorous gentleman or doe-eyed youth who crossed his path.
Still, nothing had been the same in his life without Gray.
“I believe I have an idea,” Gray said at last, breaking the silence.
“Oh?” Charlie leaned slightly toward him, hoping that idea was that the two of them should run away together and live out the rest of their lives as one.
“Yes,” Gray said, stepping away from Charlie and heading toward the door. “And it will fall in line with the suggestion you made earlier of everyone finding ways to entertain each other.”
“I see,” Charlie said, even though he didn’t quite.
“Trust me,” Gray said, glancing back over his shoulder at him with a grin.
Charlie caught his breath. He wanted to trust Gray. He wanted to trust himself, but the prickling feeling that everything might still fall apart haunted him.