Right now, his jokes were much needed.
“Now is not the time, Northwick,” Damien said, making sure to hold Thalia in a rueful glare.
“Oh, forgive me,” Benedict drawled, “for trying to help. And here I was, thinking that the sky was falling. It might as well be, for how you are acting.”
Damien shot his friend a frustrated glare. Damien was not one to let his anger get the best of him, nor would he be baited. He was far too strategic for that, the type who always thought through a situation from a distance because choices made on emotion tended to be the wrong ones.
That’s why he was yet to decide on what was to be done about Thalia. He was angry with her. He was ashamed, and had let her know in excruciating detail. But he had not yelled, nor had he threatened. A punishment would be given, but only when he decided on which was the most fitting.
That, and he knows how impatient I am. It is the waiting that I hate, and I would not hesitate to guess that Damien takes some pleasure from the fact.
“Fine,” Damien sighed and rubbed his eyes. “Tell us then, Northwick. What is this wonderful solution that you have come up with?”
Benedict grinned with menace, and he found Thalia across the table. He was a ruggedly good-looking individual, the type that had most ladies swooning to be in his company. But Thalia wasnot most ladies, and she knew Benedict well enough to see the glint of humor twinkling behind his eyes.
Whatever he said… her brother wasn’t going to take it well.
“As I see it, what Thalia is in need of is protection.” He nodded once. “Duke Amberhall is no-doubt furious at what she did and will just as likely seek to extract vengeance at the first opportunity.”
Thalia winced, knowing the words to be true.
“Your point?” Damien asked.
“That you need to protect her!” Benedict cried. “That you need to ensure that when Amberhall comes for her, he can’t get to her. And if this protection acts as a punishment for her most wicked actions…” He winked at Thalia. “All the better.”
“What are you saying?” her brother asked.
“Is it not obvious?” Benedict looked between her and her brother. “Marry Thalia to me, and at once. In so doing, Amberhall will have no choice but to leave her be and, as I said…” He shrugged. “The revulsion your sister is surely feeling right now will be a rather fitting punishment in itself.”
Thalia’s mouth dropped open, and her stomach squirmed as she tried to fathom the suggestion she had just heard… and the likelihood of her brother accepting it.
As luck had it, a quick look at Damien confirmed that he was equally put out by this offer. Perhaps even more so than Thalia was? His lips curled back, his body stiffened, and while her brother was an expert at hiding his emotions, even he could only cover them so much.
Thankfully, it was at this moment that Benedict burst into laughter.
“The look on your face!” Benedict hooted. “Honestly, I don’t know whether I should laugh or cry.”
“Very funny,” Damien snarled.
“I do so love seeing you get upset,” Benedict continued to chuckle. “What I had not counted on was the abject terror felt at the mere hint that your sister and I should wed.” He touched his chest as if someone stabbed him. “Am I bleeding all over myself? Or does it just feel that way?”
“You are not,” Thalia said to him. She tried to narrow her eyes and sneer, but she could not keep the humor from her voice. “But I can help with that if you have a knife handy?”
“What a wife you would make,” Benedict said with a cheeky smile.
Despite their edged banter, Thalia relaxed. As she’d hoped when Benedict arrived this morning, his affable nature and tendencytoward humor worked to distill the tension that had existed in Wexford Manor for the past three days.
Thalia did not regret what she had done, nor would she ever. What she regretted, and what she was dealing with now, was the effect that her actions were having not just on her, but her family.
Damien had been the head of this household for five years now, a title inherited when their father had passed. And while neither Thalia nor Laurent nor Damien liked their father, living up to his name and reputation was still of utmost importance.
Lately, it has become more than that for Damien. I would never say it to his face, and he would recoil to think it, but he is turning more into our father with each passing day.
The full consequences of what Thalia had done were yet to be felt, and as each day rolled on, the tension built, the fear crept up, and all she wanted was to learn of her fate so that she could figure out a way to live with it… possibly even escape it.
“What of Laurent?” Benedict asked and looked around the breakfast room. “Where is he?”
“Where do you think?” Damien growled.
