Page 5 of The Best of Friends
Toss knew precisely which brother-in-law Charlie referred to. “His Grace would likely pummel my brother within five minutes of being forced into his company.”
“I am not unaware of the likely outcome.” Charlie shrugged, raising an eyebrow. “Might even be one of the reasons I suggested it.”
They walked together to the library, small when compared to most, but as the room was mostly for show, where Laurence was concerned, it didn’t need to be enormous.
“Do you think your brother will keep his word and allow you to spend this Season however you choose?”
“‘Within reason.’” Toss repeated the caveat Laurence was certain to include every time the topic was raised.
“What do you mean to do with your brief bit of freedom?” Charlie asked, dropping onto an obliging chair.
“If I thought my brief bit of freedom could possibly include returning to Cambridge, I’d commandeer some unsuspecting person’s carriage and make the journey in a heartbeat.”
“That was badly done of Laurence. You ought to have been permitted to finish your studies.” Charlie spoke with utmost empathy. He, too, had been forced to leave university before he’d planned to. Charlie had previously held the goal of being a don, lecturing in theoretical mathematics, but circumstances hadn’t allowed it.
“I had one term left.” Toss leaned against the mantel, knowing his audience wouldn’t begrudge him the expression of frustration. “One. There was no reason Laurence couldn’t have allowed me that.”
“No reason other than him being a starched-up rip of a fellow.”
“A starched-up rip who despises music,” Toss added. “Music connected in any way to his brother, especially.”
“Does he have any idea how talented you are?” Charlie asked.
“He has heard me play often enough, and I’ve told him which compositions were my own.” Toss shrugged, making his way to a chair and dropping inelegantly onto it. “He was unimpressed.”
“Meaning he’s pudding-headed, to boot.” Charlie scratched at his chin. “Are you certain the two of you are related?”
“I wish I could say we weren’t.” Toss crossed his legs at the ankles and set his hands behind his head. “Still, I’ve been given leave to not be entirely miserable for this one Season. Seems I ought to prove myselfnotpudding-headed and make the most of that.”
“Then consider me your temporary social secretary,” Charlie said with a smirk.
“You’ve come with a suggestion?”
“An exceptional one, in fact.” Charlie sat up straight once more. “Tonight is the Debenhams’ ball, the annual event at which the Huntresses make their entrance into the social whirl each Season. It is quite a sight to behold. You don’t want to miss it.”
Though Toss had been present for about a week of the previous Season’s activities, he hadn’t experienced what was quickly becoming legendary. “I’d enjoy seeing the moment play out.”
“My Artemis certainly knows how to make an entrance.” Charlie couldn’t have looked more besotted if he’d tried. “And she’s taught her Huntresses well.”
“I recall a time when you didn’t speak so highly of ‘your’ Artemis’s entrances.” Toss bit back his amusement. “Repented, have we?”
“I’ve seen the error of my ways, yes.” He didn’t even look embarrassed to have been so wrong about his beloved for so long. “And this time, Newton and Scott and I all get to make the entrance with them. You don’t want to miss that.”
Newton and Scott were friends of theirs who had both married members of Artemis’s band.
“Will it be enjoyable enough to be worth Laurence refusing to fund my final term at Cambridge?”
“No,” Charlie said without hesitation. “But it’ll be loads better than whatever your brother would suggest you do instead.”
“And unlike years to come, this Season, I don’t have to listen to his suggestions.”
Charlie’s gaze narrowed a little. “You are a grown man who has reached his legal majority. You don’t truly have to listen to Laurence after this Season has ended.”
“Except he has complete control over my income, and the roof over my head is his. Unless I find a means of making my music compositions profitable, which is unlikely without having completed my time at Cambridge to give me cachet enough to receive endorsements and assistance from influential people in the world of music, then I do have to listen to my rip of a brother.”
“Have you considered simply being a vagabond?” Charlie shrugged. “You’d likely be a dab hand at it.”
“We tried that once, you will recall. Didn’t last long.”
