Kissing Letty was probably the highest on that list. But, on the rare chance that he managednotto do that, he was definitely going to end up breaking things.
Since neither of those options was particularly desirable, he went to Hugh’s club.
His feet had carried him more than halfway there before he wondered when, exactly, he had become someone who turned to his family for company. Hugh was the least objectionable of the group, and he had proven useful lately. But still. Who had Ezra become? Hugh was still aLightholder.
Despite these—very reasonable, he reminded himself—misgivings, as soon as Ezra arrived at the club, he asked whether his cousin was present and was almost relieved to get an affirmative answer. One of the well-dressed footmen who linedthe club showed him to a private upstairs parlor, where he found Hugh alone, sipping a drink and reading a book.
“What are you doing here?” Hugh asked, casting aside the book immediately in a way that was a contrast to his unwelcoming words.
“What areyoudoing here?” Ezra countered, oddly soothed by Hugh’s peevishness. “Didn’t you get someone else to run this place so that you didn’t have to be here all the time?”
“I still come by from time to time,” Hugh said gruffly when Ezra just arched an eyebrow at him.
“Which I take to mean that your wife is otherwise occupied this evening?” Ezra ventured, helping himself to a glass of scotch from Hugh’s well-stocked shelf.
When he turned back, Hugh was scowling even harder.
“She might be,” he admitted. “She and Kitty are up to something. I don’t know. I very specifically did not ask.”
Ezra tried not to twitch at the mention of his cousin, Catherine. That was the thing about the damned Lightholders: if you let yourself get pulled in by one, the next thing you knew, theyallhad their hooks in you.
He would just make sure that he was the exception to the rule. He could do that. He would just make sure this whole thing stopped with Hugh and Persephone.
“You do realize that if Persephone is out with Catherine, you could do everything that you’re doing right now from the comfort of your own home, right?” Ezra probed, just to be contrary.
Hugh snorted. “That just goes to show whatyouknow. Do you have any idea how many children live in my house?”
Ezra did not, actually. There were the triplet nieces that Hugh and Persephone had taken in, and then they had…three children? Two? Four? Goodness, he really had not kept up.
“Six?” he ventured.
Hugh threw up his hands in a gesture of surrender, nearly spilling his drink.
“Who can say for certain?” Hugh asked. “The fact that it’s enough to lose count should tell you something, though.”
That was fair enough, Ezra decided. He could barely keep up with the one little girl who lived with him, and he suspected that Iris was probably more well-behaved than most children her age. Or maybe he was just partial to her.
“Besides,” Hugh said. “I like coming here sometimes. It’s where I met Persephone, you know.”
His gaze drifted over to a nearby chaise, a dreamy sort of smile on his face. Ezra wasn’t sure what was going on behind his cousin’s eyes, but he made a mental note to never,eversit on that chaise.
“Your wife is a marvel,” Ezra observed dryly. “You do not expect to find a woman of her quality in a place like this.”
“It’s a bloody nice club,” Hugh grumbled.
Ezra talked over him. “Of course, she would have to be, to put up with those innumerable children you mentioned. And, more to the point, to put up withyou.”
“You can insult me, or you can drink my liquor,” Hugh retorted. “You cannot do both.”
In response, Ezra took a long sip from his drink. Hugh copied him.
“Is your recent young acquisition causing you to flee from your own house?” Hugh asked, lounging in his seat. “Don’t think I haven’t noticed that you have been trying to distract me.”
Damn, Ezra was losing his touch. Or maybe dealing with all those children had forced Hugh to grow cannier.
“No, Iris is marvelous,” Ezra said.
Hugh grinned wolfishly. “Oh, I see.”
