Page 53 of The Lost Lord
“I did rather deserve it,” responded Richard mildly. “The fire was an accident, I swear. I wish you to know I have stopped drinking.”
“Entirely?” asked his brother. His brows arched over those piercing blue eyes.
“Yes. While there is little I can do about my clumsiness, I am an in better control of my habits now.” Richard confessed.
“Harper did comment upon how well you look.”
“Did she, now?” asked Richard.
“Believe it or not, my wife is the one who convinced me to pursue your peerage. It appears The King finds me an interesting specimen. We have visited court on a few occasions. He claimed to want a report on my time in the Amazon, though I believe King George was more interested in the lurid details of my kidnapping.”
“Did you oblige the man?”
“Indeed, I did.” Judging from Edward’s pained expression, he hadn’t enjoyed baring his soul to his sovereign. “Royal approval has gone a substantial distance toward restoring polish and approbation to the Briarcliff title. It was worth the effort.”
It occurred to Richard that he had never asked his brother what had happened during the time he was lost in the Amazon jungle. When Edward had disappeared, Richard had been only thirteen years old. Their father had taken on a diplomatic mission accompanying Dom João, then King of Portugal, as he fled from Napoleon’s armies to Brazil under protection from British war ships. Richard had felt overshadowed by his brother, but once there, he’d felt positively abandoned in a place where he barely spoke the language, left in the care of an indifferent tutor and a brother with far more linguistic talent and curiosity. After Edward’s disappearance, he’d been left utterly alone and overcome with a mixture of feelings he’d been too young to process. At first, he been sad and frightened for his brother. As much as they had fought, Richard had idolized Edward.
Yet even in his absence, Edward had occupied even more of everyone’s attention than had been true when he was present. In the frantic search for the young heir, no one had given an ounce of thought to Richard’s feelings. He’d allowed bitterness to seep into the marrow of his bones. As the spare, Richard had always come second, but as time stretched on with no word of Edward, Richard had come to relish being the heir presumptive. But his family had never thought Richard was anything but second-best. Nothing he did could measure up to his sainted brother. Edward had always loomed large over Richard’s life, but in his absence, he had become legend.
Richard had been overjoyed when Edward returned to them with behaviors little better than an animal.See, father?Richard had tried to say through his rage and pain.I am the only one who is equal to managing the earldom.
Richard had wished his entire life for someone to look at him with the soft fondness he’d once found in Miriam’s eyes when she gazed at him. As though he were the only man in the world. “I never asked you what it was like.” Richard said slowly, feeling his way forward like a man in a long, dark passageway.
“My absence?” Edward asked mildly. Again, surprise cocked his eyebrows at a skeptical angle. Richard knew he did not deserve his brother’s trust. Yet he wanted it even more than he wanted the harsh kiss of brandy. “That is a story best told over weeks, not in an afternoon.”
Richard had hit a dead-end. “I’ve no plans to leave. Perhaps you’ll share the tale with me as you feel appropriate. In the meantime, tell me more about the splitting of the viscountcy. I can scarcely believe my brother has gone to such effort on my behalf.”
Edward gave him a significant stare. “You should know that it started with our father. He was going to tell you before you stormed out of his rooms. After you left, I let the matter languish until the King’s invitation.”
Richard blinked. He shifted in his seat. Men did not shed tears. Why, then, did his eyes burn with salt the way they did when sweat ran down his brow unloading ships in the hot sun?
“I should like to take you out to the countryside to show you the proposed estate,” Edward continued, sparing Richard a response. “However, with Harper so close to her time, that will have to wait. I would like to know whether you and Miriam have any plans to leave England. The King will not be best pleased if the recipient of his generosity returns to the country that routed us so thoroughly in 1776.” Edward favored him with a faint smile. A strange warmth spread through Richard’s chest. He shifted in his seat, searching for words to describe the feeling.
Acceptance.
Belonging.
Forgiveness.
None of them seemed quite right. Richard cherished the fleeting ember’s slow fade.
“Yes, I am home for good,” Richard confirmed.
“Does your bride know that?” Edward asked.
No. Miriam explicitly wanted to go home, the sooner the better.Damn.He had promised to take her. Yet, surely Miriam would understand the importance of receiving a viscountcy.
Richard opened his mouth as if to confide in his brother, but the thoughts he spoke were not the ones from his heart. “I will require some lenience to travel for business. Miriam’s father is a partner with me in a shipping-based business venture.”
“Are you now? You have changed.” Edward responded slowly as he examined
“In what way?” Richard asked. Tension made the hairs on the back of his neck rise.
“You? Dirty your hands with business?” Edward scoffed.
Richard rubbed his calloused palms and thought of the hours he’d labored in Howard’s warehouse. “You don’t know the half of it. Can you believe I’ve worked on the docks?”
“No. You?” Edward laughed in his thick, weird rumble from damaged vocal cords.
