Page 52 of Brigand

“Excellent. She will stay with you. I will take a house inLondon nearby. I assume you have an adequate chaperone?” Even he—with his pooreducation of manners and standards of the haute ton—knew that was anecessity.

Edward nodded, a resigned expression on his face. “My aunt.She’s a battle-ax. And the boys will be there as well.”

“The boys?”

“Violet’s brothers. They all live with me.”

Ewan blinked. He knew she had two brothers—Ned and Malcolm.Were there more? “How many are there?”

“Six.” Edward winced when he said it.

“Six?” Old Horace had been a busy bugger since Ewan had leftBrowning.

“It’s quite a full house.”

“That will be fine then. We shall arrive next month.”

Edward nodded. “And the money I owe you?”

Ewan leaned forward, intensity thrumming from him. “If youdo this for my sister, I will call us even.” The both stood, then, and shookhands.

A bustle at the top of the stairs captured their attention.Ewan swung around to see both Violet and Kaitlin rushing down. Violet waswearing Kaitlin’s dress and Kaitlin was wrapped in a blanket and—good God!—wasshe wearing his shirt? It hit her at her knees. Her legs were bare.

Annoyance roiled. How the fuck had they gotten out? “Whatthe hell?” he snapped. “I thought I locked you in the tower.”

Edward spun on him. A growl emanated from the depth of hisbeing. Without warning, he planted his fist squarely in Ewan’s face.

And everything went black.

When he came to, they were gone.

All of them.

A chasm opened up in his soul.

Chapter Fourteen

Violet stared at her reflection in the mirror and sigheddesultorily as Mary coiled her hair on top her head. Honestly, why she had togo to all this trouble for dinner with her family was beyond her. She wantednothing more than to curl up in her bed—where she’d been when Mary arrived—andresume her gloom.

Not that she enjoyed melancholy. It just seemed all she hadenergy for anymore. Since she’d returned from Scotland, she was exhaustedbeyond words. And whenever she thought of Ewan, she burst into tears. Not thatshe thought of him. She did not.

Not if she could help it.

Kaitlin, who had always been able to coax her from a darkmood, had been no help whatsoever. She and Edward—who had astonishingly beenmarried in a quick ceremony before they left Dundee—had been sequestered in theducal apartments; but for the odd meal, they hadn’t been seen in weeks.

Even Violet’s joy at being in the bosom of her family hadpalled quickly. It was as though there was a great gaping hole in her heart andnothing could soothe it.

And this—this trial of preparing for hours for a dinner thatwould not last half as long—seemed absurd. She longed for a simple plate in herrooms, a bottle of wine and a loaf of bread. A conversation with a large,laughing man whose eyes crinkled when he smiled—

Bother. There she went again.

She was not thinking of him.

She wasn’t.

“All finished, miss.”

Violet scanned her reflection. All she noticed were the darkcircles beneath her eyes and the pallid complexion. She looked like a fishwife.No wonder he hadn’t wanted to keep her.