by Vella, Wendy
“Unfortunately, that is what will be happening from this day forth, so you had better get used to the idea.”
“No.” Alice folded her arms.
“Yes. You will like Bids, he is a wonderful man—”
“Bids, Dev’s driver?” Horror was slowly dawning on Alice. He meant every word.
“The very one.” Wolf bent to pick up Hep, and Zeus whined to receive the same attention. Her brother scooped the little dog into his arms also.
He should look ridiculous, and yet he simply looked more handsome. At that moment, she loathed him for the power he had over her. A man, and therefore he did not answer to anyone, but could make her do so.
“Bids, according to Dorrie, is a worrier. He questions their every move and tells Dev should they so much as step a toe out of line. Surely you do not wish that for me, Wolf?”
“You have brought this on yourself.”
“I will hate you if you enforce this!”
“No, you won’t. You’ll love me as you always do.”
Battling the urge to flounce away, she simply gritted out a smile.
“Of course you are the one with all the control. Therefore I must do as you say, but I shall state here and now that I think your actions exceedingly shabby, and I am hurt by them.”
“I’m sorry you feel that way, sister.” His words were spoken in a solemn tone. “But you leave me no choice.”
She didn’t speak, just walked around him to the breakfast parlor. Her sister and Rose were there when she arrived.
“Mother has extended her stay with Aunt Trinity,” Kate said, waving about the letter in her hand. “Apparently now we are under Wolf’s care, she is relinquishing the reins of responsibility.”
“Wonderful, at least someone is happy.”
“You are not happy, Alice? What has happened?” Rose asked.
“I happened.” Wolf walked in behind her. “My sister would see me in Hades.” He dropped a kiss on Rose’s cheek, then handed her Zeus.
“Ah, so you told her about Bids and Kitty Trent?”
“Who is Kitty Trent?” Alice disliked her instantly, which was unfair, but her bother had forced the feeling upon her. She felt cornered, as if her life was not her own as it once had been. How would she see Barty now? Reason with him and get him to go home? She would have to speak with Wolf, and that would embarrass Barty and Verity, who had secretly adored him from afar for years.
“Kitty is a dear friend I lived with when I arrived from Scotland. She and I shared a room, and she taught me the art of survival in London,” Rose said.
Alice liked her sister-in-law. She may be a duke’s daughter, but she did not have the heirs and graces of one, as she’d been raised away from that wealth and status.
“I’m sure she’s quite lovely, but that doesn’t mean I want her as my companion.”
“Which you would not need—”
“That will do, Wolf,” Rose said, giving her husband a gentle smile.
He subsided, which he would never have done had Alice or Kate asked him to.
“You will like Kitty, and as she is bored due to her husband being away on business, she leapt at the chance to spend time with you.”
“Rose—”
“Trust me, Alice. You will like her.”
“She’s certainly different,” Wolf said. “In fact, when Rose suggested her I wasn’t comfortable with the prospect. However, apparently now Kitty is a pillar of respectability, so she persuaded me to let her be your companion.
“I don’t need one, I have my sister.”
“Who will let you do anything you want,” Wolf added.
“He has a point,” Kate said.
Alice didn’t say anything further, simply picked up her toast and began to eat while ignoring her brother. With her other hand, she rearranged the condiments into an orderly line.
“Why has Barty not come to see you, Alice?”
“He is busy.”
She felt Wolf’s eyes on her.
“Too busy to see us, his friends, and the woman he cares for?”
Alice heard a different voice in the house. Raised and pitched above the butler’s, it carried clearly through the earplugs she wore, and whoever it belonged to was approaching the parlor they occupied.
“Someone approaches.”
“Wonderful. I should imagine it is Kitty,” Rose said.
“I don’t think so. She just cursed loudly after kicking a side table.”
“That sounds like her,” Wolf drawled. “She was raised a vicar’s daughter and curses louder than a sailor. In fact, I’m having second thoughts again about putting you and her together. You already know how to annoy me; I fear Kitty could compound that.”
The door burst open, and in walked a vision in lilac. Her hair was the color of wheat, and her eyes vivid sapphires. The clothes were demure, but seemed anything but on the voluptuous figure of Kitty Trent. Behind her came a flustered-looking Milton, Wolf’s butler.
“Mrs. Trent has arrived, Mr. Sinclair.”
“I can see that, thank you, Milton.”
“Rose!” The woman hurried to greet her friend, scooping her into her arms and hugging her close. “It has been an age!”
“Four days, Kitty, and no more, as you are very well aware.” Rose laughed and hugged her friend back.
“They are always like this,” Wolf said to Alice and Kate. “Sisters in every way but blood.”
“She is beautiful,” Kate whispered. “Such style.”
“Kitty makes all her own clothes,” Rose said, taking her seat and waving her friend into a spare one.
“Kitty, my dear, this is Kate and Alice.”
Alice was subjected to a thorough inspection.
“Well, she is a beauty, but that’s to be expected considering her beautiful brother.”
Wolf smiled, clearly used to such compliments.
“Both of you are beautiful,” Kitty added, moving on to Kate.
“As are you,” Kate said, getting to her feet. “But I now must leave you as I am due to help Mr. Linus with lessons today.”
“Those Sinclairs have a thirst for knowledge,” Rose said. “The twins are fifteen and still insist on studying each day with Warwick and Samantha.”
“It is wonderful,” Kate said. “I wish I had a teacher like Mr. Linus.”
“And now you do,” Wolf added. “As you are there most days.”
The color that filled her sister’s cheeks was interesting. Alice wondered what had prompted that reaction.
“Yes, well, I must be off.” Kate raised a hand and was gone.
“And is she to be accompanied by a companion and a driver?”
“She is walking with her maid along this street, and has, as yet, caused me no anxiety. I foresee no trouble in her immediate future. I have no doubt that will change over time,” Wolf said.
“Don’t be stuffy, Wolf,” Kitty said, and Alice wondered if in fact she had misjudged the woman. Anyone who would take her brother to task in such a manner could not be all bad, surely?
Chapter Ten
“Hello. You look peaky.”
“How does one look peaky?” Nicholas opened the door for Lilly, who had Meredith in her arms, and helped her into his carriage.
“It’s the eyes. Yours have smudges beneath, and your face is lined.”
“Charming.” Nicholas joined her, closing the door behind him.
“Are you not sleeping?”
Lilly and he were going to inspect another property to purchase for the children. Both houses were full most days, and they needed another now.
“Yes, I am sleeping.”
“You don’t look like you are sleeping,” Lilly said with that persistence younger sisters tended to have. “I’ll have Essie make something for you.”
“Hello, Merry, come to Uncle as Mummy is in one of those bossy moods.”
He took the little bundle of sweetness as she held out her arms to him and cuddled her close.
“I am no
t in one of those moods, I am concerned for you. It is clear something is not right.”
“I am well, Lilly, relax. Now, tell me how Mathew’s fencing lesson with Cam went yesterday. Has he my prowess?”
The diversion worked, and Lilly talked about her favorite subject, her children and Dev, for the next fifteen minutes.
“Cam said he even scored a point off him.”
“Did you believe him?”
“Of course not, but Mathew did, and that is all that matters. Warwick has also been practicing with him. He is so like Dev.”
And off she went again. Lilly loved her family, but she did not play favorites. She loved the twins and Warwick equally.
Beautiful in a long ivory jacket and matching bonnet, his sister looked as she always did, happy and content.
Meredith started rearranging his necktie.
“I spent some time on that this morning, brat.”
“Well, tell her to stop then.”
“Stop,” he drawled.
“She is spoiled by everyone, but you are the worst.”
“I love her,” he said, and it was that simple.
“I know you do, and she loves you back... as do we all.”
Why today those words made something catch in the back of his throat, he had no idea, but he looked out the window until it had cleared.
“Nicholas.”
“Lilly.”
“Nicholas, I wonder if you have had more visions and this is why you are tired?”
“Peaky, you mean?” he teased her.
“Yes, that. Have you?”
“A few, but I am also tired as I had a late night.”
“What were they about, these visions?”
Nicholas ran a hand slowly down Meredith’s head, enjoying the feel of her soft curls.
“Lately, they are about the child who is missing.”
“Are they more regular at the moment?”
Nicholas nodded. Last night Alice had come to him with her hair flowing around her shoulders, in a white dress, looking like a bloody angel. She’d demanded he do something about the child.
“You believe it for the truth now, don’t you?”
“I don’t know—”
“Yes, you do, but the practical side to your nature demands solid proof.”
“You know me so well.”
“I do. We may have been estranged for a few years, Nicholas, but I knew you well before then, and since.”
He studied her face and saw nothing but love for him, and it humbled him.
“You’re not going to apologize again, are you? That’s getting tiring, and frankly boring, Nicholas. Now, I need you to listen to me.”
He nodded.
“You are the very best of brothers to me and a wonderful uncle to my children. I know that you love me, as do they. I watch you with our families and know they respect and care for you also. Why can you not see what you’ve become when we can?”
“Had I known today was going to be so uncomfortable, Merry, I would have just brought you along.”
Lilly grabbed his hand and shook it hard.
“Nicholas. See the man you have become, please.”
“I will try,” he said solemnly.
But it is not easy.
“Excellent, that is all I can ask for. Now I want to discuss that horrid Lady Ratchet.”
“What? Why?”
“Because she is boasting that you are one of her conquests.”
Nicholas literally choked on air.
“Lilly! You cannot speak like that in front of the child.”
“She doesn’t understand,” his sister said with the ruthless determination to stay on task that he knew so well. “That woman is a poisonous harpy, Nicholas. You will not do that,” she waved a hand about, “with her again.”
“I cannot believe we are having this conversation.”
“I have been thinking this over, and I discussed it with Eden and Rose the other day, and they agree.”
“I hardly dare to ask.”
“It is time for you to find a wife.”
“Am I to be involved in the choice?”
“We have been discussing prospects,” Lilly added as if he had not spoken, “and think Miss Lindfox would be an excellent prospect, and Miss Briar.”
He made a choking sound that had Meredith patting his chest.
“Thank you, sweetie.”
“There is also Miss Rattle, but to be honest, she is a bit insipid.”
“Lilly.”
“Also, Miss Bromley. Her father is a crashing windbag, but you will not be living with him.”
“Lilly,” Nicholas said a bit louder.
“What?”
“No.”
“No to Miss Bromley? Oh, very well, I guess the father would be annoying when he came to visit.”
“No to all of them, and no to you and those other meddling women in the family helping find me a wife.”
“You need a wife, Nicholas.”
“No, I don’t, and if and when I do, I shall see to the task myself.”
“But it should not be a task, Nicholas.”
“Forgive me, that was the wrong word to use. Perhaps I am slightly off-balance.” He laced his words heavily with sarcasm.
“I want only what is best for you.”
“I understand that, but a wife is not what I need at the moment.”
“Dev said that.” Lilly frowned.
“A man of great sense, that husband of yours.”
“Cam said you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink.”
“While I am not sure I wish to be likened to a horse, I like his meaning. I cannot believe you discussed this with them.”
“I love you and want only happiness for you, Nicholas.”
“Which I have with you and the family. Now, enough, Lilly; when I want a wife, I shall discuss prospects with you, but for now, I beg of you, do not raise the subject again.”
She huffed. “Oh, very well, if you insist.”
Nicholas knew it would only be a temporary reprieve. Lilly had clearly decided it was time for him to wed. He had no doubt eligible women would be fired into his path regularly from now on.
“Alice needs a husband also.”
If he’d been uncomfortable before, that just made things twice as bad. Alice Sinclair, with her intelligent green eyes and lovely smile. The woman was spending far too much time in his thoughts at the moment. And his visions, he added silently.
“I thought she had the sainted Barty lined up to wed one day?”
“Wolf said he’s a bit of a slow top, but for all that a good man. But we think she could do a great deal better.”
“We?”
“Rose, Emily, Eden, and Essie.”
“Do you form your coven weekly to discuss which family member needs your interventions next?”
“Alice has a sharp intellect and lively wit,” Lilly continued not, at all put out by his reference to her and the others being witches. “I think she needs a man who will challenge her.”
I would challenge her.
Where the hell had that come from?
“She’d actually make you the perfect wife, Nicholas.”
As luck would have it, he had his face in his niece’s neck making disgusting noises, so Lilly could not see the horror on it.
“But, as I doubt that is likely, with all the family connections and other things, we won’t pursue that.”
“Other things?”
“Eden thought you did not seem very taken with each other when you first met. Her words were that you were like two bristling cats circling each other.”
They hadn’t been earlier that day. In fact, they’d been closer than he’d even felt with a woman before.
“I was polite” was all he could come up with as he scrambled to not show what was going on inside his head.
“You’re always polite. But you had that tight look about your eyes you get when you are tolerating someone.”
> “Since when have I got this tight look?”
The day was full of revelations and it was only 11:00 a.m. It did not bode well for what was to come, surely?
“Since always.”
“I’m sure, like me, Alice will decide when and whom she wishes to marry. Stop meddling, Lilly.”
“I never meddle.”
He scoffed... loudly. Meredith thought it hilarious and started giggling, so he did it again.
“Merry, my love, let this be a lesson to you. When you are happily married and content, women get bored, so they meddle in other people’s lives. That is good for no one, especially not the recipient of said meddling.”
“It is called love, Meredith. It’s what you do for family,” Lilly added piously.
“And now as we are here, this entire ridiculous conversation can cease.” Nicholas was relived as the carriage rolled to a halt. It had been one of the most uncomfortable journeys he’d endured for some time.
“Very well, we will speak no more on the matter now, but I want your word you will not take that heinous Lady Ratchet to your bed again.”
“Lord have mercy, I promise, all right?”
“Wonderful.” Lilly patted his cheek as she left the carriage. “Such a good brother I have.”
Nicholas followed feeling like he’d been in a fight with a swarm of butterflies.
The house was narrow, squashed between two similar ones. It was close to Fleet Street, where Cam’s newspaper The Trumpeter was located.
One Mr. Smith showed them through the property. Two stories, it had two long, narrow rooms upstairs that would house beds. Downstairs would be for the kitchen and living space, where they could put in some chairs and sofas.
Nicholas liked to have a place for the children to just sit together. He would fill it with blankets, and stock the fire with wood, and the small shed at the rear of the property.
“Mr. and Mrs. Davey would be more than happy to help run this, but I think we need another to come in daily also. If they wished to live on the property, they could have that small room at the rear down here,” Lilly said, waving in that direction.
“I agree. But finding someone is the problem. I won’t have anyone taking advantage of these children.”
“I know. We shall think on it, Nicholas.”
They told Mr. Smith they would take the lease, then decided to go and visit Cam.