My ambitious, clever, thoughtless brother.
All for the love of a tarnished crown.
* * *
I head to the stables after brunch, smelling the sweetness of autumn starting to settle in. Ben is away for a meeting somewhere, so I know there’s no chance of seeing him here. He rides most mornings now, having taken on a new stallion that needs breaking in, a large black creature with more spirit than manners. He’s been given the name Thane, the old Scottish title for a lord and it suits him, although he’s at that age which is the equivalent to a wild teenage boy who knows how attractive he is and has the arrogance to match.
I hold a sugar cube over his stable door and he eyes me as he eats it. “Never let them totally tame you.” I have no doubt he’ll ever do that.
“I hoped I’d find you down here.”
Lennox’s voice startles me.
“Where’s Elise?”
“Talking weddings with my mother. It’s quite sweet actually.”
“Just let me know what part you want me to have in it.”
He doesn’t nod or acknowledge what I’ve said, or rather what I haven’t.
“Can we go for a walk? I want to talk to you by ourselves.”
* * *
We head to the loch about a mile from the castle, where there’s a small jetty designed for fishermen, or my father, who would come here to fish when he needed to think. The skies are back to Scottish grey, the mornings and evenings having the bite of early autumn. It’s a relief after the vicious heat of autumn.
“I’m sorry I didn’t give you the head’s up about Elise and me getting engaged.” It’s the first words we’ve spoken since we left the stables.
“You don’t need to give me the head’s up, Lennox. It’s your choice.” And if he had, I’d have tried to persuade him otherwise, which he probably knows.
“It works. Elise will be right for this.”
“Len, it’s not about her being right. You’re going to be married to her, she’ll be the mother to your children and your consort. It’s more than a job she’ll be doing. She’ll have the power to make or break you.” I hear the tension in my tone.
Lennox picks up a stone and skims it across the water. When were children we’d have competitions to see who could skim it the furthest.
“She said you’d be hostile about it.”
I skim my own stone. It goes further than Lennox’s.
“She’s wanted you for years. She feels more for you than you for her. And why now? You’ve been fucking her on and off for months – even in Antigua, when you were sleeping with Genevieve too. Don’t tell me you’ve just fallen madly in love with her?” This time my stone crashes into the water.
He puts his hands on his waist and his back to the water. “No. But I could.”
“Len…”
“Leave it, Blair. Elise knows what this entails. She’s ambitious, I get that. She’s also beautiful and has the right air about her when she’s with people. She’s ideal.” He won’t look at me.
“And she’ll turn a blind eye to you sleeping with other women?”
“I won’t. I’ve promised her I won’t. You don’t want to hear about it, but she can be what I need in bed.”
“Until the novelty wears off.”
“Don’t be bitter, Blair. This gives you more freedom. Unless you’ve changed your mind and you want more involvement in the running of the country.” He turns sharply towards me.
He’s right. With Elise as his consort I can take a step back. The spotlight will revert from me to her, leaving me freer. My partner, my children, will never come under the same scrutiny as theirs. By marrying Lennox, Elise gets what she wants and I get what I’ve always craved.
