Page 99 of Wicked Designs
Godric frowned. “You’re still a bastard.”
“If you think I’m ever polishing another boot of yours, you’re mistaken. I am not a bastard and you cannot treat me like one.”
“I didn’t mean that kind of bastard, you imbecile. You’re a bastard for touching my Emily!”
“Your Emily? Such devotion you must have instilled in her if the poor thing was crying her eyes out.”
Charles sighed and leaned against the mantle. “Ah, brotherly love. Reminds me of home.”
Cedric stifled a chuckle. “For you, perhaps. Didn’t you challenge your own brother, to a duel over a woman?”
“Yes, bit of rotten luck that. Mother found us counting paces in the garden. That woman can still wield a switch to make a grown man cry.”
“Well, Jonathan certainly has the St. Laurent temper, eh, Godric?”
How many times had Godric hated being an onlychild? Now he was blessed, or rather cursed, with a sibling, just like the rest of the League.
Godric and Jonathan shared murderous looks, but a sudden commotion outside scattered their attention.
“Godric!” someone yelled.
Lucien and Ashton burst into the drawing room, knocking Simkins out of the way in their haste. The pistol fell from his grasp and hit the floor, setting it off and shattering a vase not three feet from where Godric stood.
It took a moment for the panic everyone felt to subside and return to normal. If anything about today could be called normal.
“Godric!” Lucien noticed the butler and the weapon on the floor. “Why was Simkins holding a gun?”
Charles waved a hand for the newcomers to get comfortable. “My dear Lucien, it’s just like you to start a conversation at the most boring part.”
Ashton looked between Godric and Jonathan. “What? Boring?”
Godric threw a pointed look at Jonathan. “Ashton, Lucien… Meet my half-brother, Jonathan.”
Lucien looked more than a little confused. “Brother?”
Ashton checked his pocket watch. “But we’ve only been gone one day…”
Cedric crossed his arms. “Lessons in recent ancestry can wait. Now what’s happened with you two?”
Ashton said, “We were able to follow Evangeline in London. Blankenship hired her, Godric. She came here to spy on you, to make sure you did in fact have Emily.”
Hearing her name ripped Godric’s gaze from his brother to Ashton.
“What? She was Blankenship’s puppet?” Godric blinked in shock. It would explain everything. Her strange story, showing up at his home with a forged note. That crafty bastard.
Ashton nodded. “Not exactly. Say what you will of her, but I think we all know that woman is no one’s puppet. Evangeline told Blankenship that she convinced Emily to escape or else Blankenship’s men would show up and kill all of us to get to her. Emily must be stopped before she does something foolish.”
Godric choked. “Too late…”
Christ, he’d done the worst thing possible. He’d hurt her for the crime of trying to save him. He had repaid her devotion by locking her in his bedchamber yet again. If there hadn’t been a circle of hell reserved for him before, he’d just qualified for an entire realm.
The blood drained from Lucien’s face. “What do you mean?”
“She made it to Blackbriar village with the aid of my brother. We’ve only just returned.”
Ashton frowned. “And Emily?”
“Upstairs.”
