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Chapter One
Hugh
I tilt my chair back and stare up at the tiles on the ceiling of my office, wondering how I managed to cock my life up so thoroughly. I used to love my life, but now I need to hide in my office to avoid causing any further damage—not just to me, but to my family. It all started when I flew to Scotland to help my best mate, Callum MacTaggart, get through a rough patch. Then I met the woman of my dreams and promptly lost her—to my best friend. Ever since, I've been a bit…off my game.
My desk phone rings.
I snatch it up. "Yes, Trudy?"
"Your mother is on line one," my executive assistant says. "Lady Sommerleigh is quite insistent. Should I tell her you're indisposed again?"
"No. Put her through."
After a pause, I hear my mother's voice. "Hugh, how are you this morning?"
"Fine, Mum. Did you ring me to ask what I ate for breakfast?"
"No, dear."
She sighs with the sort of motherly exasperation that means she's about to order me to get my chin up and act like a viscount. However we viscounts are meant to behave. But she doesn't chastise me. Yet.
"Listen to me, Hugh. What I'm about to say are the most important words I have ever spoken to you." She pauses, and just when I think we've gotten disconnected, she speaks again. "You have made a bloody mess of your life. It's time to get your chin up, stiffen your upper lip, and stop behaving like a chancer."
I glance around the office, looking for a hidden camera. She must be pulling a prank on me. The Viscountess Sommerleigh never speaks to anyone the way she just spoke to me. But of course, there are no cameras. She is not joking. "Mum, what are you on about?"
"You haven't been yourself lately. I don't approve of your behavior, but you are a grown man who can make his own decisions about his life."
"Thank you. Are we done now?"
"No." She speaks the word so sharply that I instinctively snap up straight in my chair. "Ruining your own life is bad enough. But you have brought shame to the Sommerleigh title and to your family. That I cannot stand for."
Now I'm squirming in my chair. Though I wish I could deny what she just said, I can't. It's all true. She had told me the same thing on more than one occasion recently, in person, but I don't enjoy hearing it again. "I'm sorry, Mum. I never meant for any of that to happen, but there are circumstances—"
"Shut up, Hugh. I am not finished."
I freeze. Pretty sure my jaw drops. I sit here like a statue while I wait for my mother to share the rest. Considering how she's scolded me so far, I'm fairly certain I don't want to hear more. But I deserve whatever she's about to tell me.
"You need help," Mum says. "I'm doing this for your own good. Please remember that, and remember who you are—the Viscount Sommerleigh, successor to a title that was once revered."
"I know. I'm sorry for embarrassing you, honestly. I won't do it again."
"Oh, Hugh, it's too late for apologies to matter."
What can I say to that? Nothing. My father had been a true aristocrat, a gentleman of the first order, the sort who never said the wrong thing or did the wrong thing. I have dishonored his memory, but not on purpose.
"I'm sending you a gift," Mum says. "Obedience is required."
Obedience? To a gift? My behavior must have driven my mother insane because she seems to be spouting nonsense—or as the Scots would say, her bum's oot the windae. "I don't understand. What sort of gift is it?"
"You'll see. Goodbye, dear."
My mother hangs up on me.
I slump in my chair. What just happened? I'm receiving a gift. Can't imagine why Mum would reward me for shaming the family and the Sommerleigh title.
My desk phone rings again. "What now, Trudy?"
She clears her throat. "Well, um, there's a woman here to see you. She says your mother sent her."
