“Thank you, Mama.”
With a gentle smile Caroline climbed into the carriage, now full of Darling men arguing over the best way to stack chairs, and put an end to the conversation.
Chapter 12
“Is this seat taken?”
Devlin looked up from his newspaper and gave Rake a welcoming smile. “I’m sorry you had to wait,” Rake continued, as he sat. “Dinner turned into a rather heated occasion. My brothers and nephews couldn’t stop arguing about some bloody chairs, and the subject prolonged the whole meal.”
It sounded strange to Devlin’s ears, having one’s meal disturbed and prolonged because of chairs. He had eaten his dinner alone. Bear, who usually joined him when he was at home, had been out on one of his unmentionable escapades.
“Quite a crowd here today,” Devlin said, tilting his head toward the other men in the room.
“It’s always like this when the Season starts. Every last gentleman in the ton comes here to meet old acquaintances and exchange news and gossip.”
As a servant passed their table, Devlin ordered two glasses of wine, while Rake lit a cigar and leaned farther back in the comfortable armchair. Neither of them spoke until after the servant had returned with their wine and then left them again in their dark corner.
“I think Penelope is in love with me,” Rake said in a voice whose uncharacteristic squeaks and trembles made it clear he hadn’t gotten over the shock yet.
“Is it a problem?” Devlin asked. “I thought the girl was like family to you already.”
Rake sat up. “That’s just it. She’s been around my legs for eighteen years, and not once have I thought of her as anything more than Fanny’s friend, or an annoying little sister. But these last months…”
He leaned back again and puffed on his cigar, obviously more upset about the whole thing than he should have been, if he truly thought of Penelope as merely a little sister.
Devlin hid a smile. Rake was already caught in Penelope’s sweet web and had not a clue about it. He sent a thought of sympathy to the poor girl, who had an impossible mission ahead of her. It wouldn’t be easy to make Rake give up his bachelor ways and instead settle for being a husband and a father.
The thought of becoming a husband brought him back to his own situation.
“Your family left the picnic before I had a chance to say goodbye.”
Rake snorted. “As we were among the last ones leaving, I don’t think your missed chance to drool all over Fanny was because of us. I would rather say it was because you didn’t come forward, although she stood there moping over not seeing you anywhere.”
Devlin lit up. “Did she mope?”
Rake rolled his eyes. “Oh, come on, please save me from this. Don’t make me talk about things only women find a pleasure in discussing.”
Devlin didn’t like the reprimand and would have asked more but saw it would be to no use. Rake had no intention of saying more about what his niece did or did not say or do.
“It was that awful Lord Nester who more or less pushed me inside their carriage when he learnt I had arrived in a paid hack,” Devlin admitted with a shudder. “I had to sit beside Charmaine, who ‘happened’ to bump into me at least twenty times during the short ride. There are few bends on the way from Green Park to Grosvenor Square, and yet the poor girl was thrown around the carriage. Your Penelope—”
“She is not my Penelope!”
Devlin looked patronizingly at him, and this time it was Rake’s turn to fume.
“Anyway, Penelope tried to converse with me about the weather and other neutral topics, but her old man kept probing about my fortune. He wanted to know how vast it was, and enlightened me on how good it was for me to have so much money as a safety. He even mentioned how he wished his daughters would marry someone with a large fortune, and pointed out that I wasn’t married.”
Rake laughed, as he had no problem imagining Lord Nester ranting on about money and marriage.
“The man is infamous for all his creditors. Of course he wouldn’t mind marrying off his daughters for money.”
“Poor Penelope. It must be horrible for a nice girl like her to have such an awful family. I must say this makes me feel much better for not having someone to call family. I am sure as hell not counting Delia as my closest kin.”
“I wouldn’t either.” Rake grinned wickedly. “Not after she tried to climb into your bed. I can’t believe she had the nerve, being your mother’s cousin and all.”
Devlin twirled the red liquor in the crystal glass and shook his head with a chuckle. “You should have seen her face when I told her to take her old wrinkled body and get out of there.”
“I can imagine.” Rake laughed. “Too vividly.”
“I wish she would simply disappear, and take those horrid children with her. Better to have no family at all than have to share the same roof with those three.”
“It’s hard for me to think of a life without a caring family. I can’t imagine life without mine. They might be a little too much sometimes, but they still mean everything to me.”
Devlin felt a small prick of envy.
Rake’s parents were the safe haven of his life, and Chester Park the one place in his life where Rake knew he would always be welcome. There he could be himself without any strings. For Devlin, it seemed like something out of a fairytale, too good to be true. But for Rake, it was reality.
“I can’t imagine being so close to anyone,” Devlin said, half aloud, and Rake gave him a sharp look.
“Can’t you? I thought you and I had a close friendship.”
Devlin emptied his glass and made a gesture to the servant that he wanted another.
“Of course we are. Or at least were.”
“Were?” Rake echoed, as if he didn’t believe his ears.
“Oh, come on,” Devlin drawled. “You have to admit we aren’t as close now as we were when we attended school together.”
“I don’t know whether to laugh or cry over such a ridiculous admission.” Rake shook his head, and Devlin frowned at him.
“It’s not ridiculous. We haven’t seen each other at all over the last couple of years, and consistency is what keeps a good friendship going. Not absence.”
It wasn’t hard to see how pathetic Rake found his admission, but Devlin didn’t care. “We have both been through things in our lives that have molded us into what we are today,” he continued, as Rake stayed silent, brooding. “And since our roads have been very different, I would say you and I are different men now than we were five years ago.”
“Maybe,” Rake replied, but Devlin could tell he didn’t agree at all with his harsh words. No surprise there. Rake had always been the softer of the two.
“You must recognize the truth in my words, don’t you?”
“Maybe,” Rake repeated, still not admitting to anything. “Yesterday I told some of my relatives how I trusted you around Fanny, but now I think I can’t. Or can I?”
“You know you can.”
“Can I? You’ve just spent the last couple of minutes trying to convince me you are not the man I once knew. So how can you at the same time expect me to trust you around my beloved niece?”
Devlin leaned forward and looked deep into Rake’s gray eyes in an effort to show him what was inside his heart.
“War changes a man, and I am not the same man I was five years ago. However, some things never change, and you know how highly I honor and respect you, as I always have.”
“Five years ago, I would have thrown myself down from the Tower if you asked me to, as I knew you wouldn’t ask if you didn’t have a really good reason. Until today I thought I still would have. But now suddenly I feel differently. I’m not really sure of who you are anymore. As you put it, war changes a man, and both Jamie and my cousin Lee are living examples of how war can cripple a man, mentally or physically.”
The mention of Rake’s relatives who had joined the Napoleonic wars cut through Devlin’s erratic thoughts. His heart
filled with compassion over the poor men who too had seen the horrors of war and survived.
“Now there’s the Devlin I know and trust,” Rake said, and Devlin frowned at him.
“Excuse me?”
“And maybe that’s what’s bothering me.”
Devlin had a hard time following Rake’s thoughts.
“Now what?”
“Hmm,” Rake said, frowning, not answering Devlin. “You haven’t changed. Not really. You still are the same person, maybe, only older and more levelheaded. With Jamie and Lee fresh in mind, you seem quite undisturbed for a man who has seen the ghastliness of war.”
“How are they?” Devlin questioned softly, ignoring Rake’s ranting for the time being.
“Not so good. Neither had any bodily harm, which is a relief. But our beloved Lee, the happy and somewhat naïve young man, has turned into a quiet, brooding fellow. He doesn’t talk about what he has seen or gone through, and it puts us all in an impossible position. We all want to help, but no one is able to because we don’t know what the problem is. He doesn’t even talk to Jamie, who went with him and therefore is well aware of all the horrors our soldiers fighting Napoleon Bonaparte had to live through.”
“Please tell them both they can talk to me anytime they want to,” Devlin begged. “I have been to the continent and have seen many things, too. I might be able to understand in a way no one of you, their family, can.”
“So how was the continent for you?” Rake resumed his earlier probing, and Devlin couldn’t stop a grin. Rake would have made an excellent spy. “It can’t have been easier for you than for my brother and cousin.”
“It wasn’t so bad.”
“Wasn’t it?” Rake was aghast over Devlin’s unusual indifference. “Every other man I have spoken with, including Jamie, has admitted the same thing—it was hell on earth.”
Devlin shrugged. “The food was good.”
“You must be kidding me!”
Devlin put his wine glass down and gave Rake a hard stare. “If you don’t believe my answers, why do you insist on asking me about it?”
Rake was silent for a moment, his eyes never leaving Devlin’s face. “I want to get to know you again. As you so nicely put it, you were my friend before you left, and now it feels like I don’t know who you are anymore.”
“I am the same man.”
“You can’t be, not after enduring something as awful as war.”
Devlin nodded. “One would think so.”
“So why aren’t you?”
“I haven’t been with the army during my time in France, but I have been working for the government.”
Rake leaned back, his eyes suddenly filled with understanding.
“Were you one of Basil’s Boys?” he asked, surprising Devlin with his insight.
“You know about Lord Saxton?”
“Of course I do. My cousin Drake, Lee’s younger brother, is working for him in spite of his youth.”
This surprised Devlin. It wasn’t common for anyone to know when a family member worked secretly for the ministry.
“You know about Drake?”
Rake laughed. “Of course I do. So does Fanny.”
This news upset Devlin. “Bloody hell! You have told Fanny? What if someone grabs her for information, just because she’s Drake’s cousin?”
Now it was Rake’s turn to shrug indifferently.
“Drake needed someone more than me who could excuse him at home. Fanny was the excellent choice. They have always been such good friends, being almost of an age, you know.”
“I don’t like it,” Devlin muttered sourly.
“Well, it’s out of your hands,” Rake said with great satisfaction.
Devlin frowned at his friend but held his tongue. This was not the place to discuss his, or Drake’s, secret work with the ministry.
Rake grinned back, all his earlier resistance dissipated. “This is excellent news, indeed. As I am aware of how Lord Saxton chooses his spies, I also know there is nothing wrong with you. If there had been anything out of the ordinary with you and your life, Basil would never have invited you to join his Boys.”
“I still don’t like you two telling Fanny, though. Even if it’s not in my hands,” Devlin muttered as the servant came and fetched their empty glasses. He served them two large brandies instead.
Rake, who would have preferred to talk about Devlin and his escapades in the line of duty, gave in and held back his questions for another time.
“Are you going to make sure it is in your hands?”
“I don’t know,” Devlin admitted honestly. “I only met Fanny last night, and even though the attraction is outstanding I won’t ask her to marry me before I spend some time with her and come to know her a little better.”
“It sounds like a good plan.”
“So can I?”
“Can you what?”
“Court her?”
Rake laughed. “Of course you can. It’s not my decision to make, after all.”
“But your opinion matters to me,” Devlin said. “And if you are against it, I will back down.”
Rake smiled, satisfied with Devlin’s show of respect.
“You go ahead. I would be honored to call you family.”
The special moment was interrupted when Jamie and Sin joined them at their table and started to chat about the horse race they’d attended a few days before. They kept bantering in a friendly manner about which horse was the better one, and soon more of their friends came over to talk, and the evening got better and better.
Devlin looked at Rake, who was telling some outrageous story about a one-armed whore, drawing hoots of laughter from the crowd. Lord, it felt good being back, especially as he had no obligation to his father anymore.
Now he could just concentrate on his own happiness, and he would begin tomorrow by paying Fanny a visit, and maybe catch a kiss or two.
Chapter 13
Of course they waited for her.
Fanny had stayed in her room until she almost missed breakfast, silently wishing for her family to be long gone before she went down to the family breakfast room.
But no.
As if they knew her scheme, they were all there, eating and chatting about nothing and everything. She gave a resigned sigh and sat down in the empty chair between Uncle Harry and her cousin Drake.
A footman brought her a large cup of tea, and she put her hands around the hot cup, enjoying the warmth that spread from her hands to the rest of her body.
Her parents sat side by side at one end of the table, reading together in the social section of the day’s newspaper. Her Aunt Diana sat beside them, arguing with her eldest son, Lee, while her husband read the political part of the newspaper and now and then read something aloud to anyone who happened to listen.
Drake was dressed in apple-green clothing—the essence of fashion, as he was telling Uncle Ward on the other side of the table, completely ignoring his unwilling listener’s disinterest in the subject. Uncle Liam was in a heated discussion with his brothers Rake and Jamie over how one got rid of leeches, much to Fanny’s chagrin.
Her brothers were still arguing over the best way to stack chairs, which didn’t surprise her in the least, knowing how stubborn they both were. She made a little wager with herself that they would continue at least until next Saturday, seven days away, before they found something else to dissect.
She loved all twelve of these people so much, even her petty-minded Aunt Diana, and she knew they all adored her right back. She was surrounded with love, and yet somehow she suddenly felt as if there was a small piece missing. Like there was one more chair needing to be occupied for her to be complete.
The thought disturbed her a little, because she could easily guess from whence it originated.
It amazed her how important Devlin had become to her in the last two days. Now all she wanted was to get to know him, the real him. What were his dreams, his plans for life? Where had he been, and how had it made
him into the unbelievably charismatic person he was today? And, more importantly, what were his thoughts about stacking chairs...
“Fanny dear, did you see all the beautiful flowers that were delivered to you?” Aunt Diana asked, interrupting her thoughts.
“N-no,” she stuttered. She had been daydreaming about Devlin as she passed the foyer and hadn’t noticed anything out of the ordinary.
“How could you miss them? They were all over the hallway—I hardly found my way here!”
“Oh, come on, Sebastian, they were not everywhere,” Sin mocked, and gave Fanny a what-an-ass look, which only garnered him a bread roll in the head, thrown by his devoted brother.
“They were too,” Sebastian growled, while his brother rubbed the side of his head. “I felt like an adventurer exploring an unknown jungle when I came down for breakfast. You, sister dear, must have crushed a lot of hearts yesterday when you kept ignoring all your beaus for your one and only.”
“I did not,” Fanny gasped.
“Did too.”
“Did not!”
“Children, children,” Caroline called out with despair. “Please behave. We are trying to enjoy our breakfast.”
Sebastian gave Fanny a superior grin, and she almost growled at him for being such a tease. This was the bad side of having siblings who were close to you: they knew exactly what buttons to push.
Caroline seemed to feel she had to excuse her youngest son, and she turned to her daughter with a shining smile. “There isn’t a jungle, Fanny, but it’s quite a lot of flowers. There were also a stack of calling cards left for us, including some invitations to some especially pleasant assemblies, suitable for a young lady. Tonight we are going to dine with my parents, as you well know, but tomorrow we are invited to a small party where there will be mostly other debutantes and their families, which is an agreeable way to meet new friends.”
“Or a subtle way to be able to view your competition,” Sebastian inserted, bringing him a harsh glare from his loving mother.
“Oh, come on, Mother,” he admonished with a laugh. “You should be the first to admit how the social season is nothing more than a matrimonial market.”
A Family Affair Page 10