“Luke, come in. Shall I ring for tea?”
“No, thank you. I’d like to speak to you about a project I’ve been working on.” He gestured at the desk. “That is, if you have time.”
The Earl frowned.
Luke couldn’t tell if his father was irritated at the interruption.
But all he said was, “Yes, I have time.” He gestured to the guest chairs.
Luke took one facing the desk and leaned forward.
“What is this project, then?”
The tongue-in-cheek name now seemed frivolous, so he started with the concept. “I wish to set up a home for men struggling with dependencies. I plan to start with drink and dice, but I hope to expand it to more later, and/or to women.”
“I see.” The Earl sat back and steepled his fingers, elbows on the arms of his chair. His evaluation pose.
Luke stiffened. That pose usually preceded condemnation of his actions, or at the very least some probing questions that led to condemnation.
“Does this have anything to do with your decision not to imbibe?”
He gulped. It was time to be his own man and stop worrying about his father’s reactions. “Yes.”
The Earl nodded, mulling this over. He said, “It seems a worthy cause. You can put that Oxford education to good use, eh?”
Blast. Luke once again heard Belle’s voice in his head speaking about honesty and integrity. Apparently, they were going to cover a lot of ground in this conversation. “About that, sir.”
His father’s brows rose.
Luke clenched his hands against the chair’s arms, searching for his bravery. Lifting his chin, he said, “I did not finish my studies, I’m afraid. I was in London most of the past year.”
The brows drew down and together into the scowl Luke had expected. “Where did the funds I sent go?”
“I, um, used them to live off in London...?” His voice ticked up into a question without intending to.
“Doing what, exactly?”
Luke squared his shoulders, telling himself to get it over with. If he needed to travel back to London, he might as well know that now.
“Dice and cards. And whisky.”
“I see.” The Earl heaved a heavy sigh.
Luke’s muscles tightened with the desire to bolt in the face of yet another angry lecture.
But his father surprised him, saying, “I begin to understand your motivation for this new enterprise more. Are you certain that having people struggle around you is best—I suppose I should first ask, has all that come to an end, I hope?”
There it was. Condemnation in the form of a question. Luke sighed. “Yes. As for the home, the idea is that there would be no such temptations for the duration of their stay, for a month or so. After that, there would be regular check-ins.”
“Hmm.”
Luke braced himself, unable to see past the stern countenance to what The Earl might be thinking.
“Why, Luke?”
“Why help others? Because—”
“No. Why did you leave Oxford without finishing your degree? And why not tell me? And for heaven’s sake, why would you waste a year on gaming and drink?”
