“Really.”Tommy ruffled Rollo’s hair.“We’reverygood friends.And, lest I forget, your papa sends his love.We dined together only last week.”Turning to Rollo’s lover, he offered the smallest of bows.“Lord Lyndon.Good afternoon.”
Fitz inclined his head the minutest fraction.
“Of course.You are acquainted with each other through Squire’s,” said Rollo happily, referencing the most exclusive of Tommy’s gaming hells.
“Alas, only the rear steps of Squire’s,” said Fitz in icy tones.“And more specifically, the stone cobbles at the bottom.”
Rollo’s eyes widened.
“His man once threw me out.”
“Oh.My goodness.”This meeting wasn’t going according to plan at all.Rollo retreated to Fitz’s side.Where he belonged.Whatever wrongs Fitz had committed.
Tommy took up a similar stance next tohisman, eyeing them both curiously.Rollo had a dreadful feeling this whole venture might turn out to be a terrible mistake.
“Fitz has been so looking forward to showing off his charitable works,” he said earnestly.“Haven’t you, Fitz?”
Rollo’s lover emitted a pained noise.Rollo elbowed him.
“Haven’t you, Fitz?”he repeated.
“I’m very much looking forward to seeing them,” offered the duke in his usual soft tone.His worried eyes reached his brother’s.“Lyndon.It’s been far too long.You appear well.”
“I…thank you.As do you.”
The moment grew in awkwardness.Fitz’s suffering was almost palpable, the duke’s not much better.No wonder they’d let discontent simmer between them for so long.If Rollo and Willoughby had been parted for nigh on two years, they’d have run at each other like charging bulls whatever the root of their separation.
The comparison hit Rollo with a sudden pang of longing, a craving to bask in the warm, open happiness of his own relations.This type of warring family quite flummoxed him, and for once, he’d run out of ideas.
Fortunately, the duke found his tongue.
“I have some estate matters I would like to discuss with my brother,” he said.“Alone, if I may.”
Ashington didn’t much care for wielding ducal authority, as Rollo well knew, but something in his voice made his meaning quite clear.
“Then I shall take Rollo to the public ale house on the corner,” declared Tommy.“And leave you both to it.”
*
THE ALE SATbadly in Rollo’s belly, for all it was decently brewed and supped in excellent company.And even though he’d visited very few public houses and felt decidedly out of place, that wasn’t the reason either.
“You’re one of the many people Fitz has wronged, aren’t you?”he said to Tommy sadly.“He said there was a list, but I expected it to be composed of ruffians and chaps I’d never like very much anyhow.Not…someone like you.”
“I am,” Tommy confirmed.“He nobbled several horses, including a prize thoroughbred belonging to his own twin, and then placed heavy bets against them.”He threw Rollo a wry smile.“My betting stands lost out.Not huge sums, compared to some, but sufficient to notice.”
“Is that why you kicked him out of Squire’s?”
“No.”Tommy shook his head.“Though I would have done if I’d known at the time.”He leaned forward, lowering his voice.“I booted him down the back steps because he was on the cusp of revealing his brother’s preference for men in front of twenty distinguished members of theton.”
Tommy drained his mug.“I daresay some men in Benedict’s lofty position wouldn’t care.Except Benedict prefers his nature to remain private.Thus, for as long as there is breath in my body, and likely your father’s, too, it will remain so.”He shook his head as if remembering.”I doubt Lord Lyndon will attempt to besmirch him again.”
“You can rest assured he won’t.”
Rollo had nothing much to say after that, so he took a few pulls of his own ale and stared at the worn tabletop.Fitz might not express his regret eloquently, but one only had to spend some time in his company, as Rollo had done, to know how much he wished he could turn back the clock.
“Fitz,” observed Tommy.“That’s…awfully familiar.”
Rollo shrugged.Willoughby was privy to all, of course, but like his ducal twin, Fitz’s private matters were his own to share as he chose.And as much as Rollo adored Tommy, given their past, he was probably one of the last people Fitz would select.“We have been thrown together,” he said neutrally.“I wasn’t especially happy at Goule when I first arrived.But I have since grown fond of him.”
