“Let’s step back a bit,” Gray muttered to Caroline, but the hilarity of the athletes continued unabated.
Tradition dictated that the victorious crew be carried to the clubhouse for a well-deserved celebration. Luke and Philip were hoisted overhead by bare-chested rowers. The rowdy men were already exhausted from the race as they trudged higher up thebank with Luke and Philip held high. Luke made it worse by grabbing a few sweaty shirts and whirling them around. One of the men stumbled, dumping Luke on the ground and onto their father’s shell.
Gray winced, but Luke grinned as he sprang back onto his feet. “No harm done!” he assured the men, but Gray frowned at the shell.
“You’ve just cracked the hull,” he said grimly.
Some of the rowers looked remorseful, but Luke shrugged it off. “Don’t worry, it can be fixed.”
“That was Dad’s favorite boat,” Gray said in a warning tone. Didn’t Luke have respect for anything or anyone? Their father had treasured that boat as a memento of a world they’d lost during the war, but Luke had already moved on to the clubhouse, leaving the cracked shell on the riverbank.
Gray squatted down to assess the damage. Could it be made watertight again? A trained craftsman could probably repair it, but it would cost money, and Gray intended to deduct it from Luke’s allowance.
It wasn’t the money that bothered him, it was the pain of seeing his father’s boat so thoughtlessly treated. The others streamed toward the clubhouse, leaving him alone. He didn’t want to leave this boat broken and abandoned on shore, so he summoned a pair of attendants to stow it in the boathouse. Gray watched as they lifted the shell and secured it on a storage rack.
Don’t worry, Dad. I’ll get it fixed.
But it was Luke his father would want him to fix, not the boat.
Luke missed dinner that night, but Gray left a message with the butler to notify him the moment Luke arrived back at the townhouse. It was time to demand his little brother start pullinghis own weight in the family business. It was after nine o’clock when their butler, Mr. Holder, knocked on the study door.
“Your brother has returned, sir.”
Gray nodded. “Send him in, please.”
He braced himself for a difficult meeting, but Luke was smiling as he sauntered in, wolfing down a handful of strawberries. A swath of dark hair partially obstructed his eyes, and he flashed his unmistakable grin. Luke had relied on a bottomless well of daredevil charm his entire life, but Gray was immune to it, especially when Luke began juggling the berries.
“Are you drunk?” Gray asked.
“Not drunk, just happy,” Luke said as he flung himself into the chair opposite the desk and draped a leg over the arm. “You should try it sometime.”
“And why should I be happy?”
“Because the century is young and so are we. Because it was a crystal-clear day spent with good friends and healthy sport. And most importantly, because I found a shipwright who can fix Dad’s boat. I’ve bartered the use of my horse for a couple of weeks to pay for it.”
That was a surprise, and a welcome one. “I didn’t think you could make arrangements so quickly,” Gray admitted.
Luke shrugged. “I can do anything. You know that.”
“Is the deal with the shipwright why you missed dinner?”
“Philip and I went out to celebrate with the other teams. There is a magician in town who twisted his own head off in front of the crowd. I don’t know how he did it. Mirrors? I’m stumped. You should have been there.”
Gray didn’t bother to acknowledge that. “Luke, it’s time you took a more active role in the family business.”
“Not that again.”
“Yes, that again. You’ve done a decent job managing the factory since Dad died, but now that I’m back, I’ll take overmanagement of the factory and the warehouse. I need someone to go overseas and work with our suppliers.”
Luke looked appalled. “So I can contract malaria and dysentery like you?”
“If need be. I want you to go to Cuba. I’m expanding our Caribbean spices, and we need more suppliers.”
Luke straightened in his chair. “Look, I can’t be you, Gray. I’m not cut out for business. We all know what happened the first time Dad tried to get me on board.”
“That’s in the past. You can’t let one bad experience taint you for life. It’s time to start doing your fair share. You’re earning more from the company than Otis, and that’s not fair.”
“Otis again,” Luke muttered with a roll of his eyes.
