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“Well, what was I supposed to do with the girl? Would you have preferred I slit her throat and dumped her in the Thames?”
Anger courses through me and I clench my fists at my sides before I’m tempted to land a blow on him.
“No, but let me ask you this. How did you decide Andrew’s club was an appropriate venue to off a guy the night she was working late? It’s not a coincidence, is it?”
Guilt crosses his face, and I have my answer.
“I thought so, you fucking asshole. Now, let’s go back in there, put our shit aside for now, and celebrate our wee brother’s thirtieth.”
Aidan shakes his head. “It’s not his thirtieth.”
“Isn’t it?” I could have sworn this was the year.
“No, he’s like twenty-eight.”
“Fuck. That watch was ten grand.”
“Aye, and now you’ll have to top it when he does turn thirty.”
Oh, well, it’s a good thing I love my brother. Aidan and I return to the dining room, just as Marian brings in the first course.
My oldest brother sits at the head of the table as usual. I take the seat to his right, and Eleanor sits next to me. Andrew, Libby and Sorcha sit opposite us and Jacob takes up his position beside Eleanor.
Marian and Rosalyn, her assistant, serve up a chicken liver parfait with an onion jam and little crispbreads. It looks delicious but, before we can eat, Aidan taps his glass to get our attention.
“I’d like to propose a toast, to Andrew on his birthday.”
We all raise the glasses of wine someone must have poured while Aidan and I were out of the room.
“To Andrew.”
“And,” Aidan continues, “I’d like to take a moment to welcome Eleanor to the family. You’re one of us now. May you live a long and happy life with my brother.”
There’s an implicit threat in his words. Eleanor stiffens beside me and blushes deeply when everyone toasts her.
“Are you okay?” I ask as we start eating.
“Fine.” There’s a quiver in her voice that tells me she caught the warning Aidan issued. She pops a forkful of the parfait into her mouth and swallows it down. “This is delicious.”
“Marian is the best cook,” Libby says. “You are going to love living here.”
“What?” Eleanor turns to me, eyebrows drawn down into a deep frown.
I haven’t had the chance to explain our new living arrangements to her yet. I don’t know what she expected but for the sake of security the family lives under one roof, well, two, since we also have the mansion in the countryside. We all have private accommodation here, as well as several communal spaces we share.
Jacob also has an apartment of his own in Kensington. He bought it as an investment years ago. He stays there when the family business gets too much for him, or when he’s entertaining some lassie he doesn’t want the rest of us to meet. Aidan allows it because Manus stays there with him.
“That reminds me,” Sorcha says before I can reply to Eleanor. “Your things arrived from your old place this afternoon. I hope you don’t mind, but I had Rosalyn unpack everything. She left the boxes with your photos and personal papers for you to sort through.”
“Uh, yeah, that’s fine,” Eleanor says, politeness overriding whatever outrage she feels. “Thank you.”
She doesn’t speak to me for the rest of the meal and I know she’s pissed when she can’t even raise a smile for the chocolate caterpillar cake Marian brings in for Andrew. It’s a tradition that each of us gets the same cake for every birthday. We’ve had the same one since we were kids.
Unfortunately, I’m not the only one who notices her sullenness. When Eleanor goes off with Libby and Sorcha to have coffee in the living room, without so much as a word, Aidan fixes his attention on me.
“Does your new bride have a problem?”
“Nothing I can’t handle it.”
