.
When Justin returned to the orphanage from his hunt for Alex, which had been unsuccessful, Alicia was the only one there to greet him, informing him that Alex —and his unwelcomed sisters— were not there. Since he’d stopped by Chris’ home and the toy store only to find Alex not there either, he’d decided to return to his own London residence to deal with his siblings.
He found them on the couch in the sitting room. Both stood with matching smiles as he entered, acting as though the scene in the orphanage basement had not taken place.
“We’re here.” Lucy straightened her pale pink dress. “Just as you instructed.”
Selina folded her hands in front of her and seemed to wait for further instruction.
Justin stared at them and didn’t know what to do. He knew nothing about raising children, much less two girls who were old enough to marry.
He placed his hands on his hips and pulled in a breath. “Perhaps you should return to the school.”
The looks on their faces reminded him of shattered glass.
“You can’t.” Lucy took a step toward him, but at his menacing stare she retreated. Tears filled her eyes, but he’d not fall prey to them like his father had over and over again.
“Please, Justin,” Selina said. “We’ve done nothing wrong.”
“You offended Alexandra!” He swept a hand through the air as though the answer were obvious. “You insulted a woman you don’t even know.”
They both took a step back.
Lucy Ann frowned in confusion. “But she’s little more than a maid.”
His eyes flashed as his heart began to race. Alexandra was so much more than a maid, but he could not tell his sisters such a thing. They were gossips at heart, and if he said a word to them about his plans he could trust it would be spread all over London before nightfall.
Selina came toward him, tentatively, and touched his arm. “Justin, please don’t send us away again. We want to be with you.”
He jerked from her. “I’m tired of your games and your lies.”
“We’re not lying!” Lucy shouted. She looked shocked by her own anger and then choked on her next words. The little chit. “We want to stay.”
He shook his head. “I don’t think that's a good idea.” His life was easier when they weren’t around, but he admitted that it was only marginally better. It hadn’t been truly better until Alexandra had come into his life, and his sisters had caused her to run from him.
If he didn’t get her back… he wasn’t sure what he’d do.
“Go to your rooms,” he whispered, already drained from their short argument. He couldn’t trust anything they said. He’d seen them lie too many times.
Selina left without a word.
Lucy started to do the same but stopped at his side. “How silly of me to envy your whores. They at least get a grain of your attention.”
Justin succeeded at not putting his hand to her for calling Alex a whore. He’d never hit a woman, but Lucy Ann’s words burned him, and it burned him more to do nothing in return but speak. “Perhaps I should take you with me when I visit the brothel next time. There’s much you can learn from the women there.”
She reeled back as though he’d struck her.
Then he leaned over her and whispered, “Like how to keep your mouth shut when no one wishes to hear you speak. Would a guinea see it done?”
A look crossed her face that Justin could not understand. He was sure he’d never seen it before. It was quick, but it left him ill at ease before her entire expression closed to him. And then her eyes were blank.
She turned and left the room.
The room grew silent once her footsteps disappeared, and Justin hated it.
So he left and went to the last place he could think of that Alex might be—Lord Wint’s home.
The butler answered the door but informed him that Alex was not there, nor had she been that entire day. He thanked the man and heard the door close behind him as he turned back to the street.
It was there on the step he realized just how little he knew about Alex. Yet still he was so sure that she was what he needed to be happy.
“Lord Chantenny.”
Justin looked over and nodded his head at Lord Bessborough. He was an old marquess whose young daughter had married another marquess too close to her father’s age for Justin’s liking. Still, Justin knew the old man to be kind and knew that he’d not forced his daughter into the marriage. Lady Clarissa had chosen to wed the man on her own. “Good day, Lord Bessborough.”
“Good evening.” The old man looked toward the sky. The sun was setting beyond the buildings, and the road was becoming busier. Justin was sure that more than a few parties would begin in the next hour or so. “How are you?” the man asked him honestly. He’d not been close to Justin or his father, but everyone knew that Justin had taken his father’s death very hard.
He sighed and smiled. “I’m managing well.”
Lord Bessborough nodded. “I saw you take Ms. Alexandra Smith into the house the other day with Mr. Reuben. He’s a good fellow to have around.”
Justin moved closer to the man. “You know them?” He’d take any insight into Alexandra that he could.
“I know Colonel Reuben,” the man said. “He worked for me before he joined the army. He was the best footman I ever had.”
That was a mighty boon coming from Lord Bessborough. He ran a staffing business and everyone knew that to hire a man or woman from Bessborough was to gain a perfect servant and ally.
He’d not known that Reuben was a colonel and was surprised that the man had said nothing about it. Then Justin thought about all he knew of the Smith family and ceased being surprised. They were a humble group. His sisters could learn so much from them. “Would you know of any good chaperones?” he asked, since he had a mind to relieve the one the girls currently had. The woman had let them run around London alone.
Bessborough smiled. “If you stop by the office, I’m sure my staff can find you anyone you need.”
Justin tipped his hat to the man and left.
He found his way to Chris’ home once more, only this time Chris himself was at the door.
“We’re having dinner. Go home and have dinner with your family,” Chris said.
Justin didn’t want to have dinner, and he certainly didn’t want to do so with his sisters. He was actually in the mood for a scotch but decided to stay clear of that path for the moment.
“May I speak to her?” Justin asked.
“No.” Chris’ hand rested on the door, but he didn’t close it. Instead, he waited for more.
“I would like to apologize for this afternoon.”
“I’ll see that she receives it.”
Justin frowned. “May I come by tomorrow?”
“No. Good day, Lord Chantenny.” Chris started to close the door, a
nd Justin let him do it.
It was obvious that Alex was offended. He’d give her time before he tried again, but he had to speak to her soon.
Justin returned home and found someone in his sitting room. His face was much more pleasant.
Gerard rose. “I brought some manuscripts over that Lord Brewly thought you might translate for him.”
Justin sighed. At the moment, he couldn’t wrap his mind around the translation of anything.
“How’d the day go?” Gerard asked when he said nothing.
Justin took off his jacket. “Can we move this to the parlor, and I’ll tell you over a single glass of scotch?”
“No.” Gerard sat down again and smiled. “But your cook did make pie.”
“Well.” Justin went over to the bell and rang. “Pie it is.”
Once the pie and tea had been brought in, Justin said, “Shall I start with the fact that your father threatened me?”
Gerard made a pained expression. “I’m sorry. What was it about this time? I would have sworn he’d be happy about what had been printed in the newspapers.”
Speaking about the duke made Justin lose his appetite, and he put his plate on the table.
He recalled believing the very same things that Gerard did when he’d walked into the duke’s office that morning, but why he and Gerard continued to try and understand Avon was beyond them. Justin was usually right when he assumed that the duke wanted to cause pain to someone.
If only he’d thought that way when it had come to his mother. Perhaps if he had, Justin wouldn’t have felt as he did growing up around her, a strong pull of both love and hate until he felt his body being split from the middle.
Until she'd died.
Gerard put down his own plate and leaned forward, resting his arms on his knees. “What are you planning to do?” With his eyes and open demeanor, Gerard claimed to be in all the way.
Justin smiled and asked a question he’d asked a million times. “Why are you still my friend?”
Gerard grinned but looked down at his hands. “I ask the same of you every day.” Then he lifted his head and looked at him, but the smile was gone. “Your pain may be because of me, because of our friendship.”
“What?” Justin straightened. “I don’t understand. That’s not possible.”
Gerard lifted a brow. “But isn’t it? My father has always thought his counsel the only counsel I need. He purposefully drives people out of my life so that only he remains. I just never thought he’d go so far as to threaten your happiness.” Gerard’s face looked pained. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologize for him,” Justin said, growing angered by his friend’s hurt expression. “This is not your fault, so don’t let him make you believe it is. Besides, there’s no getting rid of me anyway. Let your father do his worst if that’s the case.”
Gerard smiled, and his shoulders fell with a sigh. “So, what’s the plan?”
“I was going to back away for a time,” Justin admitted. “But before I knew it, we were locked in a passionate embrace.”
“Embrace?” his friend asked for clarity.
Justin closed his eyes at the memory of it. “I can’t keep my hands off her, Gerard.”
“I knew from the moment we met her that she was special,” Gerard said. “You should marry her. Never mind my father. Let him do what he wishes. I’ll simply undo it all when he’s dead.” The last words had been said tightly because even though Gerard detested Avon just as much as the rest of the world, like Justin with his own mother, Gerard still had an undeserving amount of love for him. “Propose,” Gerard went on. “Don’t let her see that there are better lords out there.”
Justin chuckled, but his humor left him as his final memory of Alexandra surfaced. “I did propose... Well, almost anyway.”
“What happened?” Gerard asked.
“The Padmore Darlings got to her first.”
Gerard reeled back and looked up at the ceiling as though Lucy Ann and Selina could hear him. Even Gerard, being an earl, didn’t much like crossing their paths. When they were sweet, they could be very sweet, but once they were cross with you they had a way of reaching into your soul and crushing it with their dainty hands, leaving only ashes to be swept away on the winds of disparity.
“I’m sorry the Padmore Darlings ruined that for you,” Gerard whispered.
Padmore Darlings was what the ton called them in jest. The girls were skilled at getting one to put down their guard just before they ripped them to pieces. More recently, the only thing 'darling' about them had been their faces. They could have been angels if they’d not been so cruel.
Justin sighed. “Be glad you’ve only yourself to worry about.” Because worry he did for his sisters. “I was unkind to Lucy Ann tonight, not myself.”
Gerard frowned. “Perhaps it’s because you finally found a woman you desired to share the rest of your life with, a woman who’s managed to get past the walls your mother constructed in her cruelty, and Lucy Ann is not helping.”
Justin knew Gerard was right, yet though he’d tried to ignore it, he couldn’t get Lucy Ann’s final look out of his mind. He would hate to apologize for his behavior, but he thought it might be the right thing to do.
But how to do so without them thinking they could get away with their awful behavior?
He thought about dinner with the Smiths and how pleasant the family was as a whole. They weren’t even blood and still he could feel the invisible ropes that tied them together, bound through experience and trust.
Was such a thing even possible with Lucy Ann and Selina?
He admitted that he’d tried to be brotherly when they’d been children, but one look from his mother had warned him away. The countess was no longer here to barricade him, so why not take the chance and see what came of it?
Justin cursed. “I think I might apologize to my sisters.”
He looked over and found Gerard shaking his head.
“What?” Justin asked.
Gerard smiled. “I feel like the old you is returning. A good man apologizes when he feels as though he’s acted in error. You’re a good man, Justin.”
Justin smiled. “Is that a lesson you learned from your father?”
Gerard laughed. “No. My grandfather, may he rest in peace.”
Justin remembered the old Duke of Avon. He’d been much like Lord Bessborough, a pleasant man. There was strain between Gerard and his father, but Justin didn’t want strain between himself and his sisters. Especially not if he was to bring another person into the family. His father wouldn’t have wanted that.
It had been a long time since he could recall what his father would and wouldn’t want. Yet another benefit to sobriety, he supposed.
Justin stood. “I’d better go deal with them.”
Gerard lifted his tea at Justin’s retreat. “Good luck.”
Justin thanked him, for he had a feeling he would need it.