Page 8 of The Good Girl's Guide to Rakes
Another grunt came from Ned Kilburn.
Kieran eyed the cut crystal decanter on a small table against the wall. It was decently full, and his father’s cellar was excellent, but there wasn’t time to down a glass. The sooner Kieran left this room, the easier he’d breathe.
“Our responsibilities end here,” he announced. “Dom’s been delivered, so I bid you all good night.Finn, shall we?” He bowed, but the smirk he gave his parents surely undercut any of the bow’s deference.
Yet as he and his brother made to leave, Vickers appeared in the hallway, closing the door in his face. Kieran stopped abruptly, blinking at the butler’s disrespect. True, Kieran had never been a model of filial decorum, but the servants had always been polite and deferential, even after he and Finn had moved into their bachelor lodgings.
He pulled open the door to find two hulking footmen blocking his exit.
Spinning around, Kieran met the blisteringly cold stares of his parents. “You set a trap for three.”
“Yet again with your dramatic pronouncements,” his father clipped. “But, yes, my son, there’s to be a reckoning. All of you, sit.”
Dom slouched into a chair, and Finn draped himself on a divan, but Kieran remained standing. He planted his feet wide, folding his arms over his chest. His father’s face pinched in displeasure—a look Kieran knew as well as he knew his own boots.
“I’m assuming the duo in the hallway are here to enforce your will,” Kieran drawled. “Such physical intimidation is beneath you, Father.”
“Whatisbeneath me,” the earl snapped, “is the fact that two of my sons assisted in their own sister’s jilting.” He glared in turn at Kieran, Finn, and Dom.
“The whole town’s talking of what happened,” the countess said tightly. “Fortunately, we were able to avert the absolute worst scandal by letting it be known that the groom arrived intoxicated to his own wedding, causing Willa to halt the ceremony.”
Dom’s expression remained stony, yet a muscle in his jaw flexed.
“Even so, it’s on everyone’s lips,” the earl went on. “Surely you’ve noticed.”
“The places I go aren’t much concerned with the doings of polite society,” Kieran noted. In the rare moments that he was out during daylight hours, he might have observed genteel folk steering wide of him and whispering to themselves, but that wasn’t especially noteworthy.
“A good thing Lady Willa isn’t suing for breach of promise,” Mr. Kilburn added, glaring at his son. “She’d be well within her rights to do so. Instead, she’s gone on holiday until the whole ruddy mess has quieted. Bad enough that we’re not born into the gentry. Scandals like this only reflect poorly on folk like us.”
“What the deuce were you thinking?” the earl demanded. “Causing a scandal of such immense proportions?”
“And hurting your sister so abominably,” the countess added with a glare at her husband.
Mr. Kilburn threw in, “And leading my son into making such a bloody huge mistake?”
“I made my own decisions,” Dom snarled.
“Abetted by these two overbred miscreants,” Mr. Kilburn said sourly, shooting a look at Kieran and Finn.
A moment passed, and Kieran saw that the questions weren’t rhetorical. When his parents stared at him, he blurted, “Why aren’t you asking Finn? He’s older.”
“We know better than to expect anything intelligent from him,” his father said dismissively. Though his mother almost never agreed with the earl on anything, she nodded at his disdainful comment.
Despite his parents’ wounding words, Finn looked unperturbed, but Kieran knew better than to trust the lack of emotion in his brother’s expression.
“Don’t talk about Finn like that,” Kieran said hotly, hating the way his parents spoke of and to Finn as though he were a dullard.
“Don’t deflect,” the countess replied. “What made you do such a horrendous thing as to aid Mr. Kilburn in jilting your own sister?”
“We werehelping.” Kieran waved toward his parents. “It was clear that Willa and Dom were headed down the same disastrous path as you two. We had to keep that from happening.”
His father reddened, and burning color also appeared in his mother’s cheeks.
With a wary glance toward Mr. Kilburn, the earl said, “Our marriage is none of your concern.”
Finn laughed bitterly, but said nothing, his gaze directed toward the middle distance.
“It’s clear that we’ve let you all have your own way far too often,” their father continued, “and the results were nearly disastrous. It’s time for a remedy.”
