by Merry Farmer
Lionel eyed him as though resentful that David had been the one to formally take up the charge. Then again, Lionel had been nothing but resentful of David since David had started rebuffing his advances after that horrible afternoon.
“Those men will be made to answer for their crimes,” Lionel added in the sort of tone he used when he wanted to prove he was more than just a pretty face. “Particularly Chisolm.”
David frowned. Was Lionel’s resentment of Chisolm due to the horrors the man had perpetrated on Jewel? Or was there another reason? He could ask, but he didn’t want to give Lionel the satisfaction of letting on how much he cared. He would have to pry the truth out of Lionel some other way.
“I put my trust in you, gentlemen,” Clerkenwell said, nodding at them both with a grim smile. “This investigation is in your hands now. I’m relying on you to destroy this kidnapping ring and the men behind it once and for all.”
I hope you’ve enjoyed Everett and Patrick’s story! They were a really fun couple to write. I’ve enjoyed coming up with ways for my heroes to be together in spite of society in general’s disapproval of LGBTQ people and lifestyles. Historically, it wasn’t as hard to create an excuse for two men to be living together as you might think. Especially in the world of theater. I have an extensive background in theater myself (yay Villanova University’s Theater Master’s Program, class of ’02!), and theater people have always been incredibly accepting of alternative lifestyles. Historically, actors have always had a scandalous reputation, and part of the reason why was their acceptance and inclusion of all sorts of people, even
What about David and Lionel, you ask? What are the deep, emotional currents running between them? And what secrets has Lionel been keeping from David? What things has David been keeping from Lionel, particularly where the mysterious John Dandie is concerned? How will the two of them track down Eastleigh, Castleford, and Chisolm and bring them to justice when there is so much tension between the two of them that they might destroy each other before seeing that justice is served? And will they be able to locate and rescue Lily Logan in the process? Find out all of this and more in book four of The Brotherhood, Just a Little Seduction. Keep clicking to read a bit of Chapter One!
Also, if you’re interested in learning more about Jack Craig, Lord Clerkenwell, and how he ended up married to the wild and feisty Lady Bianca Marlowe—not to mention the story of how he rose so high in the ranks of Scotland Yard so fast—be sure to check out the book It’s Only a Scandal if You’re Caught, part of my May Flowers series.
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AND NOW, GET STARTED ON JUST A LITTLE SEDUCTION…
London – June, 1890
Whenever there was a vital task to be done, David Wirth was the one who did it. It had been true from David’s earliest childhood, when his hardworking parents handed him the responsibility of keeping his younger siblings out of harm in their rough-and-tumble, working-class neighborhood. It stayed true when his father had earned enough to move them onto a quieter, middle-class square in Belgravia. It had been true all through university as David paid his own way by tutoring his higher-born classmates. And it had been true when he and John Dandie banded together after leaving university to form the law offices of Dandie & Wirth. David was always the man people could count on to make even the most impossible tasks possible. He was a man with something to prove.
That had never been truer than as he walked from table to table in the dining room of Stephen Siddel and Max Hillsboro’s newly-established orphanage in Earl’s Court, interviewing the recently rescued children who had been victims of a kidnapping ring.
“Your name is Jimmy Hollis?” he asked the frightened boy of six who sat on the lap of Annie Ross, a woman who had worked side-by-side with Stephen at the orphanage in its old location and who had relocated, along with her mother, to the new site.
The boy nodded, his eyes wide with fright.
“And you were taken off the street in Limehouse?” David asked on, making his voice as soft as he could and smiling, in spite of the seriousness of his questions.
Again, Jimmy nodded.
“Do you have a mama or papa who is looking for you?”
Jimmy shook his head.
David’s heart squeezed in his chest, and he met Annie’s eyes. “Another orphan?”
“He must be,” Annie said with a sigh. “Or, if not an orphan, his family must be bad enough that he doesn’t want to go back.”
David had heard the same story too many times in the last few days. He and Lionel had been working to reunite the rescued children with their families, but more often than not, the poor things either didn’t have any or didn’t want to go back.
A swell of determination filled David. “We’ll find a place for you, lad.” He rose, ruffling Jimmy’s already messy hair as he did. He had to prove that he was competent and capable of so much more than people assumed a boy from his background, a boy just like Jimmy, was capable of. “Mr. Siddel’s orphanage is for girls, but Sister Constance is willing to take in any boys.”
“And Lord Hillsboro has been pressing Mr. Siddel to start an orphanage for boys across the square,” Annie added.
“That’s a good idea.” David smiled and stepped away, heading to the next table and the next group of rescued children.
The child kidnapping ring had been broken, thanks to the efforts of actor Everett Jewel and Officer Patrick Wrexham, not to mention the weeks of work David himself, and his business partner, Lionel Mercer, had put into tracking down the ringleaders. The work wasn’t over yet, though. Not only were there dozens of children to return to their families or to find homes for, the ringleaders—all three of them noblemen of high rank—had disappeared when the police raided Castleford Estate in Yorkshire. Enough evidence had been secured to arrest Lord Castleford, Lord Eastleigh, and Lord Chisolm for their crimes, but the men were still on the loose. Rage rolled through David’s gut every time he thought about how easily the nobs had gotten away. The same nobs who looked down on men like him simply because of where they were born. They wouldn’t get away entirely, though. Not if he had anything to say about it.
A chorus of light laughter broke the gloom of David’s thoughts, and he turned toward a table of slightly older girls at the other end of the room. Lionel sat among them, reading from a leather-bound book, a pair of spectacles balanced on his nose. His expression was as grave as a minister’s, but the girls all beamed at him as though he were a clown performing magic tricks on a stage.
A hitch formed in David’s chest as he watched Lionel. The man was dressed impeccably, as usual, in a dove grey suit with a lavender cravat. Not a hair on his head was out of place. His pale face was splashed with just enough color to make him seem lively. The way his lips moved as he read to the girls hinted at humor, even though David was too far away to hear what he was saying. The gentleness of Lionel’s face was in direct contrast to the broad lines of his shoulders and the decidedly masculine, though slender, set of his body. Lionel was an erotic blend of masculine and feminine th
at never failed to leave David breathless. Which was inconvenient in a room filled with children.
He sucked in a breath, forcing himself to stop watching Lionel and get on with his business. But the second he resumed walking to the next table, Lionel darted a covert look at him. He managed it without moving a single muscle, only his eyes, and the effect had David breaking out in prickles down his back. It was no surprise to him that Lionel was aware of him staring. Lionel always knew when David was watching him. Possibly because David was always watching him.
David cleared his throat and sank into a free chair at a table with three boys who looked to be between nine and eleven. “Hello,” he said, holding out his hand as though they were adults. “I’m Mr. David Wirth. Has Mr. Siddel explained who I am?”
“You’re the man trying to find people’s families,” the boy with ginger hair said.
“That’s correct. Can you tell me anything that might help us search?”
“Fred here cries for his mama in his sleep.” The ginger boy stuck his thumb out at the mousey boy sitting next to him.
“What’s her name, lad, and where are you from? I’m sure we can find her and reunite the two of you,” David said.
“She’s dead, sir,” Fred confessed, lowering his head. “Trampled by a horse two years ago. I got no other family.”
David let out a sympathetic breath and reached out to pat the boy’s hand. He’d been hearing the same story over and over from the remaining children. Everyone who had a family they could be reunited with had already been taken home. The ones who were left had no homes to go to.
The sensation that thought brought with it was oddly familiar, tender, aching, and emotional. David glanced across the room to Lionel, feeling it acutely in his chest. Lionel was still reading and the girls around him continued to giggle, but there was a distinct tension in the air, tension in the distance between him and Lionel, a barrier keeping them apart in spite of the pulse of emotion that throbbed between them.
David let out a breath and leaned back in his chair, rubbing a hand over his face.
“You all right, guv’nor?” the ginger boy asked.
David lowered his hands and sent the boy a lopsided smile. “I honestly have no idea.”
And he didn’t. In the last few weeks, his life had gone from business as usual to a jungle of intense and conflicting emotions, and all because of Lionel. He didn’t try to hide the way he stared at his partner and thorn in his side. He’d never hidden the way he felt about Lionel from himself. Lionel captivated him. He had almost from the moment John had hired him four years before, right before he left for Manchester and a new life. Lionel was brilliant, powerful, and beautiful. It was impossible not to want him in every way. And for a while there, David had been convinced he was on the verge of having him at last.
Until Everett Jewel had blasted into the picture, like a cannonball tearing down a wall.
No, that wasn’t fair. Jewel wasn’t interested in Lionel and hadn’t been for years. Besides which, Jewel was happy as a clam with Patrick Wrexham now. But Jewel was also under Lionel’s skin somehow, as evidenced by the very public argument they’d had at The Chameleon Club a fortnight ago. An argument that had proven to David that there was no place for him in Lionel’s heart as long as he still carried a torch for Jewel.
Nothing destroyed a man’s pride faster than being hopelessly in love with a man who loved someone else.
But there was something else, something David couldn’t put his finger on. He couldn’t shake how uncharacteristically upset Lionel had become during the argument with Jewel or some of the vague things Lionel had said. There was something Lionel wasn’t telling him, something important.
“Oy!” The ginger boy snapped his fingers at David, startling him back to attention. “You gonna stare at the girls all day or you gonna try and find my folks?”
David burst into a smile in spite of himself. “You’re a cheeky one, aren’t you?” He sat straighter, sending Lionel one last look before focusing on the boy. “What’s your name and where are you from?”
“Mick Lang,” the ginger boy said. “And I’m from Poplar.”
“Alright, Mick.” David nodded, charmed by the scamp. “Who are your parents and where can we find them?”
“My dad’s Prime Minister Gladstone and mum’s the washerwoman,” Mick said, then burst into laughter. The two other boys laughed raucously with him.
David smirked, figuring Mick was just as much of an orphan as every other child in the room, but one with a wicked sense of humor. “Well then, Mr. Gladstone,” he laughed. “We’ll see what we can do about getting you settled.”
He leaned in, ready to ask more questions, but a commotion in the doorway snagged everyone’s attention. As Jack Craig, Lord Clerkenwell, Assistant Commissioner of Scotland Yard, strode into the orphanage’s dining room, every adult who knew who he was rose in respect, David along with them. The urge to prove himself to someone he admired flared so potently in David that he almost laughed at himself. Lionel stood as well, passing the book he’d been reading to one of the girls and stepping away from his table.
“Excuse me, lads,” David murmured, doing the same.
By the time David reached the dining room doorway, Stephen and Max had also left their work with the orphans to converge on Lord Clerkenwell, along with Lionel.
“It’s an honor to welcome you to our establishment, my lord,” Stephen greeted the man with a firm handshake.
“Mr. Siddel.” Lord Clerkenwell nodded and smiled as he shook Stephen’s hand, then moved on to Max, and then David. “Gentlemen. I’ve come to see how much progress you’ve made in settling the children.”
When Lord Clerkenwell reached for Lionel’s hand, rather than offering his, Lionel bowed. “They are perfect darlings, as you can see,” Lionel said with a smile over his shoulder for the girls, who continued to beam at him and giggle.
Lord Clerkenwell chuckled, then turned to Stephen. “I take it the ones who remain are in need of new homes?”
“Correct, my lord.” Stephen nodded. “But we’re doing our best to accommodate them.”
“Good,” Lord Clerkenwell said. “And in the meantime, we can move on to the more pressing matter of tracking down the men responsible for their sad state and bringing them to justice.”
“As I mentioned the other day, my lord, Lionel and I are at your disposal and would relish the chance to hunt the men down,” David said, bristling with the energy to show Lord Clerkenwell what he could accomplish.
Lionel glared sideways at him. “You’re speaking for me now, are you?”
David flinched, gut filling with indignation. “I’m speaking on behalf of Dandie & Wirth.”
“Oh, of course.” Lionel rolled his eyes dramatically. “Because you always speak on behalf of Dandie & Wirth.”
David turned more fully toward him, crossing his arms. “What in blazes is that supposed to mean?”
“Only that you seem to have elected yourself spokesman for the both of us without consulting me first.” Lionel’s back was ramrod straight, and his usual aura of calm power crackled with irritation.
David gaped at him. “What has gotten into you these last few weeks?” he asked, too startled by the bitterness of Lionel’s attitude to remember that any argument they fell into would be public.
“Nothing,” Lionel said in a hoarse and haunted voice. “Nothing has gotten into me in quite some time, as you well know.”
David snapped his lips shut, clenching his jaw, no idea whether Lionel was trying to make a joke about his self-imposed celibacy or drive home the point that they were not lovers, in spite of knowing how David felt about the possibility. Beyond that, the feeling that Lionel was holding something back from him twisted David’s gut. He’d never kept secrets before. As badly as David wanted to prove to Lord Clerkenwell that he was competent, he wanted to prove to Lionel that he adored him and could be trusted with his heart even more.
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About the Author
I hope you have enjoyed Just a Little Danger. If you’d like to be the first to learn about when new books in the series come out and more, please sign up for my newsletter here: http://eepurl.com/cbaVMH And remember, Read it, Review it, Share it! For a complete list of works by Merry Farmer with links, please visit http://wp.me/P5ttjb-14F.
Merry Farmer is an award-winning novelist who lives in suburban Philadelphia with her cats, Torpedo, her grumpy old man, and Justine, her hyperactive new baby. She has been writing since she was ten years old and realized one day that she didn't have to wait for the teacher to assign a creative writing project to write something. It was the best day of her life. She then went on to earn not one but two degrees in History so that she would always have something to write about. Her books have reached the Top 100 at Amazon, iBooks, and Barnes & Noble, and have been named finalists in the prestigious RONE and Rom Com Reader’s Crown awards.
Acknowledgments
I owe a huge debt of gratitude to my awesome beta-readers, Caroline Lee and Jolene Stewart, for their suggestions and advice. And double thanks to Julie Tague, for being a truly excellent editor and assistant!
Click here for a complete list of other works by Merry Farmer.