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“I wasn’t just reading last night, Papa. I was waiting for Uncle Braden to get home. He’s usually not so late, so I was worried.”
Smart as a whipandsensitive, Joseph tended to worry too much about the safety of his family. It stemmed from long separations from his father when he was just a tyke.
“You know I sometimes have to make emergency calls late at night,” Braden gently said. “There is never any need to worry.”
“I’d like to think that’s the case,” Logan said. “But where were you last night? Not Old Town again, I hope.”
Braden repressed a groan. “I was perfectly fine, in any event.”
“But you weren’t,” Joseph said with fatal candor. “I think you might have been robbed. You were very dirty, and you had a big rip in your coat. I saw it when you tried to sneak down the hall to your bedroom.”
Good God.The lad would make an excellent spy.
Logan threw his son a startled glance. Then his gaze transferred to Braden, his eyes narrowing to slits as cold as the North Sea.
“Care to explain?” he asked in a mild voice.
Braden wasn’t fooled. If he didn’t think fast, a volcanic eruption was imminent.
Fortunately, the door opened and Will came into the room, followed by a footman carrying a coffee service.
Logan transferred his ire to the butler. “Macklin, why the hell didn’t you tell me that Braden was robbed last night?”
“I wasn’t robbed,” Braden interjected.
Joseph frowned. “But you were in a . . . afracas. I heard you say that to Macklin last night, when you came in.”
Logan slammed down his coffee cup, slopping the brew onto the starched tablecloth. “And why the hell am I only hearing about this now?” He stared daggers at Braden, then at Macklin.
“It was nothing, really,” Braden said. “Very minor.”
His brother pointed a finger at him. “Now, look here, Braden. You may be—”
“I said it was nothing,” Braden firmly interrupted.
Logan swept an irate gaze around the room. Since that gaze had been known to cause grown men to whimper like babies, it wasn’t surprising that the footman, new to the household, almost dropped the coffee service. Will deftly snatched it and placed it on the sideboard.
“Can I pour you a cup of coffee, Dr. Kendrick?” he asked, unperturbed by his employer’s glare.
Braden flashed him a grateful smile. “Yes, please.”
“Macklin, this is not the end of the conversation,” Logan said. “When someone in my household gets attacked, I want to know about it.”
“Of course, sir. Can I freshen up your coffee?”
Looking massively annoyed, Logan continued to scowl at their butler before holding out his cup. “Deranged, the lot of you.”
“Do stop blustering, dearest,” Donella said as she entered the room. “It’s much too early in the day to be terrifying your family, much less the staff.”
“I’m not terrifying anyone,” Logan grumbled. “Unfortunately.”
Braden grinned at his brother. “Losing your touch?”
Donella patted her husband’s shoulder. “Of course he’s not losing his touch. Why, poor Ryan looks like he’s seen a ghost.”
Their new footman now looked mostly bewildered. Braden couldn’t blame the poor fellow.
“I apologize, Mrs. Kendrick,” Will said. “I’m still in the process of training the new staff.”
