Page 4 of The Best of Friends
Ending her days in London.
Her parents were allowing her to return, it seemed. But only this once. One last Season with the Huntresses. One more adventure in London. One last extraordinary dream to cling to.
She would do well to make the very best of it.
Chapter Two
Older brothers ruin everything.
While Thomas Comstock, known to his friends as Toss, had been making that declaration for most of his life, he’d done so with extra conviction the past few months.Hisolder brother was wreaking more havoc than usual, which was saying something.
Laurence had been a nuisance when they were children, taunting and harassing Toss at every turn. But their parents had tempered that with kindness and understanding. Toss’s little sister, Rosamond, had kept him from dismissing all sibling relationships as a misery.
They’d lost Mother five years earlier and Father a year after that, and upon inheriting the estate, Laurence had begun shifting from a bother to a nightmare. The misery had reached new heights when Laurence had arrived at Cambridge mere weeks earlier to bring Toss home, having decided without warning and without reason that he would no longer fund Toss’s education. There’d been no arguing with him.
“Do stop sulking, Thomas.” Laurence descended the stairs of their London house with that encouraging declaration. “It isn’t as though you never slipped away from Cambridge to attend London events. You did so this time last year.”
“I was away from Cambridgetemporarilyand of my own choosing. Neither of those things is true now.”
“You were wasting your time and my money.” Laurence tugged at the wrists of his gloves as he crossed the entryway. “I put an end to both.” He set his hat atop his head. “Your time is better spent here establishing yourself in the circles you ought to occupy.”
Laurence had always been overbearing. The current situation had but one twinkling light of hope. “Were you in earnest about this Season being mine to do with as I choose?”
He nodded. “Within reason. Every gentleman should have at least one bachelor Season. This is yours. Don’t squander it.”
On that declaration, Laurence stepped to the front door but, after the footman opened it, paused. “I still need to stand you for membership at my club.” He uttered the realization in much the way one would acknowledge an obligation to empty the chamber pots.
“Don’t torture yourself for my sake,” Toss said dryly.
“A gentleman has to belong to a club. You’d be a laughingstock otherwise.”
It was a shame Laurence was the sibling he would be required to spend the next few weeks with. Rosamond was actually pleasant company.
From the other side of the open door, a familiar voice said, “Mr. Comstock, what a great honor it is to be in your presence.” Toss could only just make out the figure of his very good friend, Charlie Jonquil, at the door, bowing so deeply and formally to Laurence that one would assume Charlie was in the presence of royalty. “To think, if I’d been a mere minute or two delayed in my arrival, I would not have crossed paths with you. What a blank my life would have been without this chance encounter.”
Laurence sighed almost silently and looked sidelong at Toss. “Why are all of your friends utterly ridiculous?”
“He isn’t wrong,” Charlie said, grinning affably as he stepped inside the house.
“Ridiculous, they may be, but this one is the son of an earl,” Toss said to his brother.
“Theseventhson of an earl. That makes him little better than absolutely nobody.”
“He isn’t wrong.” Charlie’s smile still hadn’t slipped. Few people had his knack for enjoying the absurdities of life. Fortunately, one of those few was Toss himself.
Laurence, as always, looked unamused. “Do spend some time this Season, Thomas, filling your social circle with people I need not be ashamed to interact with.”
Charlie assumed a look of confused concern. “Does this mean I need to stop picking my teeth in ballrooms?”
“Not if you use a golden toothpick,” Toss said in mock-serious tones. “And make certain you identify any bits of particularly fine food you discover in your digging so all within earshot will know how refined your meals are.”
Muttering something indiscernible, Laurence quitted the house, and not a moment too soon.
“He is still a ray of sunshine,” Charlie said.
“Watch yourself, there, Charlie. If you don’t stop being so ridiculous, I’ll be forced to stop spending time with you next Season.”
Charlie chuckled. “I have a brother-in-law who is very fond of the wordridiculous. Perhaps we ought to introduce Laurence to him.”
