“Anyone who spends even a wee bit of time around you requires a thick skin, Cavendish.”
“It seems your friend knows you well.”
I froze at the voice. Glancing to our left, I was startled to find Sebastian with Aria. For a moment, I was so shocked to see him after four years, I didn’t speak. He looked the same, if a little older. He’d inherited my father’s looks while I took after our mother. He was dark while I was fairer. Black eyes, so like our father’s, glared back at me. There was no sign of the boy I’d once hero-worshipped.
That snapped me out of my stupor. “What are you doing here?” My accusing glare went to Aria because she’d obviously let him in.
Aria’s brows drew together. “Your brother claims there’s a family emergency.”
Glowering at Sebastian, I wanted to rail at him. I wanted to physically throw him out of the castle. However, I didn’t want anyone to know anything about me or him or our family. Smoothing my expression, I stood slowly. “Let’s talk in my room.”
I gave North a nod and my friend stared at me in concern. With another nod to Aria, I marched out of the lounge, sensing my brother behind me.
“Theo—”
“Don’t speak until we get to my room.”
Tense, chilly silence fell between us. I wanted to sneak glances at him, but I forced myself to keep my gaze straight ahead and used the time to compose myself. There was no way I could let him see how angered I was by his arrival.
As soon as we walked into my room, I strode across it to sit casually in an armchair. Crossing my legs, I gestured lazily to him. “Well, you’ve obviously come with a purpose.”
Sebastian grimaced as he straightened his tie. Since he graduated university, I’d never seen my brother in anything but a three-piece suit. A gold wedding band glinted on his ring finger before his left arm fell back to his side. Of course. I’d almost forgotten he’d married two years ago. According to the papers, she was the daughter of a colleague. Ten years Sebastian’s junior. Very pretty too. He’d probably married her because she came from a suitable background and was young enough to give him children. I doubted it was love.
And North and Aria might think love is real, but in a few years, they’d realize they were wrong.
“I need you to come back to London to see Father.”
It felt like a hand fisting around my throat.
Sebastian took my silence for indifference. Fury flushed his cheeks and he took a step forward. “It is time to put the past behind us, Theo. Father needs us. My wife is pregnant, work is demanding, and as much as I hate being here to ask this of you … I can’t do everything alone.”
For a moment, I saw the boy and not the man, and a niggle of guilt worked its way past my guard. I forced another memory to the forefront of my mind. Of him shoving my feelings aside. Of him protecting Father over me. It took me a minute, but I worked off the invisible fist around my throat. I was grateful how unaffected I sounded as I remarked, “Congratulations on planting your seed. Let’s hope it’s a boy.” The Cavendish viscountcy was still one of the peerages that could only be inherited by a male heir.
Sebastian’s face tightened with distaste. “Sometimes I cannot believe the man before me is the same person as my little brother.”
“Funny, I was just thinking the same about you.”
He had the audacity to wince. “Theo … I know I’ve made mistakes with you?—”
“Let’s not go over old news. I don’t care about it anymore.”
“If that were true, you’d forgive Father. You’d forgive me.”
“Why forgive when I can just forget?”
“You are a swine,” Sebastian spat. “And I hate that I’ve had to leave my pregnant wife back in London to chase after you like you’re an errant child.”
“Then go home to your poor wife.”
“Unfortunately, I promised Father I would bring you back.”
“You’ll have to break that promise, Sebastian. Because I’d rather have every inch of my body pierced with acupuncture needles dipped in the juice of Carolina Reaper peppers whilelying in a bare white room withGrease’s “Summer Lovin’” pumping continuously through the stereo than go back to London with you.”
My brother gave a long-suffering sigh. “I can see you’re in a mood this evening, so I will return in the morning. I’m staying at the Gloaming in the village, and I’m not leaving until you come home with me.”
A few minutes later, Sebastian was gone and my heart rate still hadn’t slowed.
My fingers drummed the armrest as I took another few minutes to gather my thoughts. Then I practically jumped out of the chair and marched from the room.
