Page 37 of Married to the Rake

“Don’t you tell my son what to do.” Mr. Waverley squared his shoulders and faced her father head on.

“Everyone is looking, Chloe,” her brother said, tucking himself behind their mother as his freckled cheeks reddened.

A crowd had begun to gather around them. Chloe unhooked her mother’s arms from hers, patting the back of her hand. If she did not do something soon, she suspected it really would come to fisticuffs. She stepped up to the two men as they raised their fists. Brook had already inserted himself fully in between them, however, they continued to shout at each other as though he was not even there.

“Stop!” Chloe stamped down a foot and put a hand on her father’s chest, then to Mr. Waverley’s.

Both men froze. She turned her attention to her father first, ensuring that he made eye contact with her. “Stop,” she said more softly this time. “This is not how a gentleman behaves.” She turned to face Mr. Waverley. “I do not care how much you two hate each other, this is not the way to act in public. I am ashamed of both of you. What an example you are setting to your children.”

“Look, Freddie is watching your every move. Do you wish him to behave the same when he grows up? You wish for him to be fighting in public? Airing all of his private business?” she demanded of her father.

He gave a grunt.

Brook gave her a brief but grateful look. This had not gone how either of them had planned and Chloe was beginning to wonder why they ever thought it would be any different. Decades of bad blood between the family was not going to be ended by one quick meeting. If they were to ever fix this—good Lord, she could not fathom how—it would take a lot more than a chance meeting.

“She’s right, Father,” Brook agreed. “You are both making a scene.”

“I did not make a scene. He started it.” His father puffed out his chest.

“Why you—” Chloe’s father began.

“Father!” Chloe snapped. “That is enough.” She forcibly took her father’s arm and began to walk away. She thought he might fight her on it, but he relented, allowing her to take him back to the carriage. It did not prevent him from shooting daggers at George Waverley, however.

She could hear Mr Waverley muttering angry words under his breath. She corralled her father back into the carriage and her mother swiftly settled next to him. Freddie leaned his head far out of the coach to eye Brook and his father.

“Marcus, you really shouldn’t have,” her mother said softly, tugging Freddie back into the carriage by his jacket.

Freddie simply looked amused by it all. “I think you should have punched him, Father.”

“Freddie!” Mama scolded.

“If he had punched him,” Chloe told her little brother. “They might well have ended up in jail. You wish our father to be dead?”

“I could have bested him,” her father grumbled. “He’s weak after a heart attack. He is a weak old man.”

“And you are no sprightly lad,” her mother said with a little more bite than Chloe might have expected.

Her father snapped his mouth shut after shooting his wife a surprised look. Settling back in the carriage, he tugged his hat over his face and closed his eyes, pretending to sleep. At least he was no longer spouting threats of duels and beating up Mr. Waverley.

Chloe watched Brook and his father still standing by the fountain as the carriage rolled away. He shot her the briefest, regretful look before his father could spot him. They would have to meet again, and soon if they were going to fix what had happened. She suspected their meddling may have made things even worse. Especially now that her little brother had seen what had gone on and seemed to think it all highly amusing.

Her mother tapped Chloe’s hand, giving her knuckles a little rub. “Do not be upset, Chloe. I have witnessed too many of these arguments and they all turn out the same. Both men will go off, fight about the border a little longer, and hopefully never see each other again.”

Chloe could not decide if she was more upset over the events of today or whether she had been so foolish to think that she could fix so much anger within one day. It seemed to her that the fates were completely against the families ever coming to an agreement. And that had to mean, there was no chance there could ever be anything between her and Brook. Even if she had, for one silly moment, believed his words yesterday.

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