Page 30 of Vanquished by a Viscount (Tales from the Brotherhood #3)

“Lady Eudora has pursued Dr. Pettigrew with single-minded focus and no one has scolded her,” Lady Patience hissed to her chaperone without answering Gray’s question. “If I do not do the same with Lord Iverson, Lady Winifred will?—”

“Your offer of help is kind, sir,” Miss Kennedy raised her voice to cut off her charge. “But this is a matter that I can resolve independently.”

“I will not have you take me away from Hawthorne House,” Lady Patience muttered, crossing her arms and sending Gray a look that asked for his help.

While Gray could not have cared one way or another if Lady Patience stayed or was taken home, he knew that Barbara would feel the loss of one of her guests acutely, and that it would send her into an even deeper melancholy than she already had.

“Perhaps if some sort of activity was arranged that gave the ladies more of a chance to interact with the gentlemen,” Gray suggested. “That way, there would be no need for pursuits or retreats.” He appealed to both women.

Lady Patience seemed willing to consider any suggestions. “Lady Eudora says?—”

“That young woman is a menace, and she will find herself on the wrong side of society before her twenty-first birthday,” Miss Kennedy interrupted again.

Gray was inclined to agree with her, but before he could say as much, he caught sight of Charlie crossing past the conservatory doorway.

“If you will excuse me,” he said quickly to the ladies, hurrying past them in the hope of catching Charlie. “I will give this matter thought. Please do not leave Hawthorne House yet, Miss Kennedy.”

He did not wait to see how his plea was received. With a complete lack of grace, he stumbled quickly into the hallway and shouted, “Charlie!” with far too much emotion.

Charlie had not quite made it all the way to the front hall. He jerked to a stop, his shoulders hunching for a moment, then spun to face Gray.

“Wait,” Gray said, raising one hand as he marched down the hall to meet his lover. He did not like the wary look in Charlie’s eyes at all, so he rushed to say, “Yes, I knew Howard in Italy. And yes, the man is a charming rogue who had me in every which way that?—”

He stopped and was nearly sick. That was not in any way even close to what he’d intended to say when he opened his mouth.

Worse still, Charlie tensed and sucked in a breath, jealousy obvious in his expression. “What you did in the past and who you did it with is no concern of mine,” he said overly formally, meaning exactly the opposite of the words he said.

“Truly,” Gray said, restless and desperate to make the situation better. “I did not know he would arrive on my doorstep like this.”

“I did,” Charlie said, his face twitching back and forth between stony and overly emotional.

Gray assumed he meant that Howard had mentioned to him in some letter or another that he would be paying a visit to Hawthorne House to discuss the railroad, but he was proved wrong when Charlie went on with, “I should have known that your sordid past would come back to revisit you.”

He turned to walk away, but Gray leapt after him, grabbing his sleeve. “No!” he gasped. “No, no, no! Do not walk away from me like that, as if I invited all of this as a means of frustrating or humiliating you.”

Charlie turned back to him with a doubtful expression.

Gray latched onto that, recalling everything that had happened surrounding Howard’s arrival.

“You saw how surprised I was,” he said, lowering his voice as Mr. Gunnerson and Mr. Lindhurst walked through the front hall toward the door within sight of them.

“Do not allow yourself for a moment to believe that I am in any way false with you or that I arranged for Howard to interrupt what has become a much longed for reconciliation between the two of us.”

Charlie went completely still, staring at Gray. His stance softened a bit, but his eyes were still hard with conflicted thoughts. Finally, he said, “Howard?”

Gray wanted to growl with frustration. “Mr. Bradford, then. Call him whatever you will. You must know that I did not invite this.”

“Anyone with eyes can see your feelings toward him,” Charlie said, far too quietly.

“Anyone with eyes feels that way about him,” Gray countered. He fixed Charlie with an expression that asked whether he had not felt the same magnetic pull that Howard possessed.

Charlie let out a breath like a hissing teakettle and rubbed a hand over his face. “He does have a remarkable amount of charisma about him,” he admitted.

“You see? You cannot fault me for?—”

“Ah. Grayson, Lord Broxbourne, there you are,” Robert’s voice interrupted the fraught moment.

Gray wanted to throw up his hands and scream. He turned to find Robert and Howard approaching them from the end of the hall, having come in through one of the back doors.

Charlie stiffened and stood at his full height, staring at Howard as though looking for the chinks in a rival’s armor.

“Mr. Bradford here has just made the suggestion that he regale us with a lecture about the recent advancements in the railroad business as a way to entertain the house party guests tonight,” Robert went on.

“It is the least I could do to assist Lady Felcourt in keeping her guests happy and satisfied,” Howard said with smiles for everyone, but a particular glint in his eyes for Gray.

“I think Barbara would be grateful for that,” Charlie said, though Gray knew him well enough to sense the reluctance behind his gratitude.

“Excellent,” Howard said, clapping his hands together. “I have been invited to stay and join the house party for a few days as well, so you must excuse me if I return to the inn in Maidstone to gather my belongings and have them transferred here.”

“Not at all,” Charlie said with a gracious bow, stepping aside to allow Howard to walk past them to the front hall.

Howard paused near Gray to say, “We must have our reunion chat this evening.”

“Yes, of course,” Gray said, followed by an anxious laugh.

Howard nodded and walked on.

Gray turned to find Charlie glaring at him.

“Is something amiss?” Robert asked.

“Do you plan to tell him?” Charlie stared at Gray.

“Tell me what?” Robert asked.

Charlie broke eye contact with Gray and marched away, saying, “I must find my sister and inform her of the change in tonight’s program.”

Gray and Robert watched him walk away before Robert turned to Gray and asked, “Tell me what?”

Gray sighed and took a few steps toward the wall so that he could slump against it. He buried his face in his hands and groaned, “I spent time with Bradford in Italy.”

“Oh, Grayson,” Robert sighed, moving to lean against the wall with him. “Paying the piper, are you?”

“Paying him everything I have,” Gray admitted, sending his brother a doleful look. “But in case you were wondering, Bradford is a good man and an honest one. You can trust him with the railroad business.”

Robert hummed and crossed his arms. “But can I trust him with my brother’s heart?”

“I love Charlie,” Gray said before truly thinking about it.

He’d never admitted as much to his brother, or even himself, but expressing the sentiment did not make him feel better or more confident about the muddle he was in.

It only made him sad and terrified that Charlie would not forgive him for the impulsivity of the last few years, even if he was to blame for much of that impulsivity.

“Well, there’s nothing to be done now,” Robert said, pushing away from the wall and offering Gray a hand. “We still have the worst house party in the history of England to see through, and a potential land sale to the railroad company to contend with on top of that. We’ve no time for tears.”

“Tell that to your wife,” Gray said, grasping his brother’s hand to give him the leverage to stand straight.

Robert sent him a withering look, but strangely enough, that made Gray feel better and sent him into ironic laughter. Everything around them had been turned upside down, but at least he was not fumbling through romantic entanglements and mishaps on his own.