“We can talk after dinner,” the earl insisted.
“No. You and I will conduct our business while the others retreat to the dining room.”
He thought the old man might defy him. Their eyes locked and he realized that if the earl made a scene he would remove him by force if he had to.
The moment seemed to teeter on a razor’s edge until Grace broke the fraught silence. “The smells wafting from the kitchen are divine!” she said, starting to herd the other guests toward the doorway with Simon and Penelope’s help. “I am sure we are all growing hungry after so much dancing.”
At the doorway, she paused and glanced back at Lucien. He shot her another grateful look then retired with his father to the study. Once inside, he closed the door and locked it.
“Still determined to play my jailer, are you?” The earl took the chair behind the large desk where Lucien conducted the business of the estate. Another calculated maneuver—seizing the seat of power.
“What are you doing here?” Lucien demanded.
“I am an old man,” the earl said with deceptive innocence. “Is it so strange that I want to see my daughters before I die? I am their father.Yourfather.”
“You gave up your rights when you sent Cassandra and Jane away twenty years ago. You’ve done enough damage.”
“What about your own part in this little drama? Your mother and Simon may be weak enough to forgive you, and Jane…she would cry for a bee that died after it stung her. But Cassandra…ah, now, she is a different matter. She knew how to hold a grudge from the time she was born. And she resented you even before you gave her such good reason to. She would have made a formidable political ally out of Thornsby if she’d wed him as I planned. But no. Your mother had to meddle.”
“Cassandra wasn’t even fifteen yet.”
“The girl had steel in her spine for all that. You know as the others never will that ruthlessness is required if a man is to lead.”
“Which is why I’ll do whatever is necessary to keep my sisters safe.” Lucien struggled to keep from clenching his fists.“I am summoning your coach and you are leaving Everdene Hall before the others finish dining.”
“You would send your father out onto the open road in the middle of the night? How will you feel if I am killed by brigands or the coach plunges off the road?”
“You should have thought about that before you came here. I won’t have you sleeping under the same roof as Jane and Cassandra.”
“A little late for you to play the great protector, is it not?”
The old man’s verbal riposte drew blood, but damned if Lucien would let him see it. He forced his voice to remain cold, calm. “We had an agreement that I would be responsible for the Harcourt estates and you would remain at Bitterne Tower.”
“Yes, yes.” The earl waved one heavily beringed hand. “If I refused to comply, you would reveal my machinations to the ton and drown the Harcourt titles in scandal. But the title will be damaged anyway. There are rumors you have made certain comments regarding the Irish question that are most disturbing for a landlord and peer of the realm. My former allies in parliament consider you a traitor to your class. You are making dangerous enemies.”
“Are you one of them?”
“Your sister might be. It was not just my head she was imagining on that platter. The last year she was at Everdene Hall your mother even moved you to separate rooms to put an end to your fighting.”
Yes, they had squabbled. Cass had been furious that he was taking father’s side in their parents’ conflicts.
Now he knew she’d been right.
“My issue with you is that you’ve not provided an heir.”
“Simon has a son.”
“One he won’t even let me see! Simon and that wife of his are no more capable of raising a peer of the realm than they are offlying. You know full well that a future Earl of Ravenscroft must be raised from the cradle to bring honor to his name. By the time you were five years old you’d learned to respond to my directions with alacrity. Do you remember?”
God, Lucien wished he could wash himself clean of the memory. That strange, heady sensation his father had fostered in him, that Lucien was marked by fate…special in the eyes of the world…and in the eyes of his demanding father.
“Until the title is secured to my satisfaction, I will continue my interest in everything that affects the Harcourt name.” The earl’s gaze bored into his. “Marry, get your wife with child, and my interest in your sisters will wane. Until then, I will do as I see fit.”
CHAPTER 8
Of course, Lucien couldn’t sleep. The infernal night had dragged on forever. He had all but physically loaded his father back into the coach, then stood outside in the darkness, until it disappeared down the drive, outriders with lanterns leading the way.
Once the last spark of light winked out, he’d ironed the turbulent emotions from his face and returned to his guests. He’d intended to suggest the party end early, but the company was already dispersing as if the earl carried some malignant fever. Anyone who lived near Everdene Hall made excuses and fled home, while those staying the night had hastened behind closed doors.
