Zach, who had been reading the paper while partaking in a long breakfast, looked to the doorway. Gabe, the eldest Deville stood there.
“I have no appointments today, so I’m indulging in slovenly behavior. What has you here?”
“Mary is visiting. She and Dimity are discussing fashion.” Gabe wandered in, as usual dressed immaculately, and took a seat at the table.
Zach snorted. “You cannot be serious. Mary has no notion of such things.”
“She has no say in what she wears, brother. It is her mother who dictates that,” Gabe said in that tone which he used to rebuke his brothers, but they rarely heeded.
Of course, she dressed as a fashion disaster because of her mother. If Zach was more rational when it came to Mary Blake, he would have understood that. The problem was the woman scrambled his thoughts when she was near.
A vision of Mary as he’d seen her a few nights ago filled his head. She’d looked vulnerable sitting alone watching those dancing at the Neilson Ball. The ache in his chest had been confusing. He usually only felt irritation around that woman.
“Do you like living here, Zach?”
“Very much, thank you, Gabe,” he said eager to speak of something other than Mary.
The Earl of Raine’s town house, that had been lived in by the previous earls, had been the home the Deville brothers resided in until they each began to wed. This house Zach now shared with the household staff had been Gabe and his wife Dimity’s. They had moved here rather than unsettling the entire household. But now, Nathan, Michael, and their cousin Forrest all had their own homes, and it was time for Gabe to return to his birthright. Zach, as the last unwed brother, had no wish to stay there and rattle about in a place with numerous bedrooms and parlors.
“It’s cozy,” Gabe said.
“It’s not a cottage, brother,” Zach drawled. “There are still enough rooms for a family of six to live. I would have been happy just leasing a room somewhere.”
“I wouldn’t have been.”
Zach grunted something before shoveling in a mouthful of ham. The eldest Deville was extremely protective of his family.
“What’s wrong, Zach?”
His brother poured himself tea with a grimace. Gabe liked coffee. The thick black sludge made Zach shudder. The most aristocratic of all of them, the Earl of Raine was tall, broad-shouldered, and always impeccably dressed. His hair was dark and streaked with silver. Dark eyes and strong features, he was the epitome of a nobleman.
“Your necktie is crooked,” Zach said because he was the youngest, and annoying his brothers was a habit he’d never broken.
“Don’t deflect. What’s wrong?”
“Why does something have to be wrong?” Zach forked up potatoes.
He loved this room the most in his new home because the morning sun came in the window directly behind his seat. The walls were cream with the lower half in dark wood paneling. There was also a rather fine hunting scene on the wall.
“Zach!”
“What?”
He was subjected to a steady look that he had been the recipient of many times.
“You are not yourself.”
Zach glanced down at his dressing gown and noted he had a crust tucked in the lapel. Picking it up, he placed it in his mouth.
“I’m fairly sure I’m not anyone else.”
“You are unhappy. I have not seen you laugh in days, and not once have you tried to incite me to yell at you. Plus, you haven’t visited your family as often as you used to.”
It was true, he wasn’t happy, but Zach had thought he’d done an excellent job of hiding that. Clearly he’d been deluding himself.
“I have too laughed. Why, just yesterday I visited Morales bookstore and Miss Truncheon was there. She read me a passage from the latest Captain Broadbent and Lady Nauticus novel. It was hilarious,” Zach lied. His laughter had been forced and unnatural. Still, it qualified.
The dark eyes held steady on his, and a haughty brow rose.
