‘Mrs O’Herring,’ said Benjamin, the last to hug and kiss her, ‘we all wished you could have stood with us in the receiving line tonight.’
‘You noblemen,’ Mrs O’Herring sighed. ‘Stayin’ up all night to honour poor dear Richard’s memory!’ She blew her nose noisily into the hanky and burst into fresh sobs. ‘Oh, how I’ll miss him!’
‘We all will,’ William said. ‘But you know what we’re here for.’
‘Aye, I do! Ya naughty things, wantin’ to get some drink this early in the mornin’!’
‘If you don’t drink with us, we’ll do it out at the tavern,’ Henry warned.
‘And we all know where you hide your whiskey anyway,’ William added.
‘If ya weren’t so tall an’ grown up, I’d throw all three of ya over my knee to tan all your hides!’ Mrs O’Herring warned, wagging a finger. Henry felt a smile cross his face for the first time in three days. ‘Ya have no business drinkin’ and carryin’ on in a tavern — you’re lords! You’re young gentlemen!’
‘Then give us the drink here,’ Benjamin coaxed.
‘And you, little Benjamin, drinkin’?’ Mrs O’Herring said, aghast. William and Henry burst out laughing at her calling him ‘little Benjamin,’ when all three of them towered over her at six feet tall. Benjamin’s cheeks turned pink. ‘You’re supposed to be becomin’ a priest! And an Anglican one at that!’ Mrs O’Herring threw a stern glance at the other two.
‘Then it’s best for me not to do it in public, isn’t it?’ Benjamin said.
‘Oh, may the Lord bless ya and keep ya safe!’ Mrs O’Herring grumbled, crossing herself and pulling a bottle of whiskey out of the cabinet under the sink. ‘This early in the mornin’!’ Uncorking the bottle, she took a generous chug from it. ‘To Richard Windham, who was like a grandson to me!’
She handed the bottle to Henry. ‘May we live the rest of our lives in memory of Richard, and honour his memory,’ he said and took a swig.
‘Hear, hear,’ William and Benjamin said together.
‘And may we make his memory eternal in our hearts,’ Benjamin added, accepting the bottle and taking a swig.
‘And may we ever honour the Windham family name in Richard’s honour,’ William added and took a giant gulp of his own.
‘Forever at our highest,’ Henry said, quoting their family motto. ‘God save the King!’
‘Long to reign over us,’ his brothers recited.
~~*~~
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The Lord's Portrait (A Regency Romance) (The Regency Brothers in Love Book 2) Page 8