Thomas tipped his head backwards and Robert stepped closer. “Just tread carefully, brother. Rose may be on the shelf, but she can be fierce.”
“And you know this how?”
Another shrug. Robert tied the cravat with deft movements. “Are you wearing cologne?”
“New shaving soap.”
“Did you buy it in a brothel?”
Thomas gave a low growl. “Yoursisterbought it for me. She said it would win the ladies.”
Robert snorted. “Maybe the ladies in a brothel.”
“Arse. Is Michael ready?”
“Waiting downstairs. I knew it would take him longer to prepare. He should be waiting with the landau.” Robert adjusted the cravat one last time. “Let us go astonish Society with our presence.”
“That would be one word for it, yes.”
They gathered their greatcoats and hats, and found Michael stroking the nose of one of the matched set of blacks pulling the landau. His youngest brother looked better than Thomas had expected. Michael’s face remained pale and somewhat blotchy, but he stood straighter and his eyes seemed clearer than in days past. He offered the last bit of a carrot to the black, and the horse munched contentedly as Michael patted its neck, then murmured something gentle to both of the horses.
Thomas motioned with his cane for Michael to join them. “I see you’ve found your way back to the stables, making friends with the four-legged occupants.”
Michael gave a quick grin. “They’re better companions than most humans.”
Robert snorted. “At least they don’t lecture about whisky.”
As the three of them settled against the cushions of the landau, Thomas adjusted his hat. “In regards to that, howareyou doing?”
Michael shrugged one shoulder. “Not sure how to answer. I still want it. The girls too. Still not back to the way I was four years ago, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“I’m sure that’s what Mother asks,” Robert muttered.
Thomas cleared his throat and sent a warning glance at Robert. “I’m sure it’s going to take time. Any chance you will be up for a ball or musicale in the next couple of weeks? We need to get you in front of theton,if this scheme of Father’s is going to play out.”
Michael winced. “Perhaps.”
“Not every woman is Ellie Carlson.”
Michael looked as if Robert had slapped him, and twin red spots spread over his cheekbones. He turned to look out at the passing buildings. Thomas glared at Robert and the tension among them grew as frigid as the air around them.
Robert let out a long sigh. “Oh, bloody hell. It’s not like we all don’t know what the problem is. Saying the woman’s name is not going to make it any worse.”
Thomas glowered. “Do you have any idea what the word compassion means?”
Robert gave a low growl of impatience. “Do either of you have any idea how dire our situation is? We have spent years”—he gestured at Thomas—“almost a decade in your case, making ourselves pariahs to Society because we despised their outrageous rules of etiquette and the ridiculous nature of the whole marriage market that every season turns into. Now we have to crawl back to them, tails between our legs, because Father wants to make sure the line is continued, and he controls the money. I do not see why he has to—”
The base of Thomas’s cane thudded against the floor of the landau. “Because he is a duke!” His voice barely contained his anger at his brother. “Whether you like it or not, he is a high-ranking member of the aristocracy and a member of Parliament. You may not acknowledge it, but he’s a powerful man in this country. We had no choice about the family we were born into. If we’re crawling back ‘tails between our legs’ as you so delicately put it, it’s because we’ve tried to deny that reality.”
“That’syourreality. Not ours.” Robert gestured to Michael.
“Leave me out of this,” Michael muttered.
Thomas gritted his teeth. “And what if something happens to me? Or if I fail to produce an heir?”
Robert let out another long sigh of frustration. “I cannot see that happening.”
“And no one saw Grandfather dying at fifty either.”
